The Spanish Church recognizes more than 1,000 religious accused of sexual abuse

BarcelonaThe Catholic Church has more than 1,000 alleged sexual abuse offenders. This has been acknowledged by the Secretary General and spokesperson for the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), Francisco César García Magán. In a press conference this Friday, the spokesperson for the Spanish Church admitted that they have 1,131 complaints collected over the last five years and a thousand alleged offenders. This is the first time the institution has acknowledged figures of this magnitude.

These figures have been made public after the 129th plenary assembly of the CEE, during which it was reported that in 2025, 93 new complaints for sexual abuse were received by the 262 child protection offices created by both dioceses and congregations. To try to curb this scourge and prevent new cases, last year the CEE carried out several training programs to prevent abuse and protect minors linked to the ecclesiastical institution. More than 465,000 people took these courses, including 7,712 priests and religious and 1,388 seminarians.

This recognition comes after the Spanish government, the Episcopal Conference, and the Spanish Conference of Religious signed the protocol a few weeks ago to compensate victims of sexual abuse and pedophilia, a system to recognize and repair individuals for whom it is no longer possible to pursue legal action. However, the agreement did not include any indicative compensation figure.

The data admitted by García Magán comes after the newspaper El País delivered to the CEE and the Vatican a new dossier –the sixth– with more documented cases of abuses committed by people linked to the Spanish Church. According to the Prisa newspaper, which collects complaints documented by the entire state press, there are more than 3,084 victims and 1,613 accused. Following this report, when asked about these figures, García Magán revealed the thousand aggressors that the CEE is aware of.

Three years ago, the Ombudsman made an estimate of the total number of victims there could be. In this case, the report promoted by Ángel Gabilondo spoke of 440,000 victims in the religious sphere and 234,000 people who would have suffered abuse directly from priests and religious. A few months later, the Episcopal Conference itself made public the report commissioned to the law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo, which spoke of 1,383 complaints and 2,056 victims. Although the same lawyers who conducted the study warned that the real number of victims must be much higher, the Church maintained that the number of complaints was lower.

During his speech, the spokesperson for the EOC rejected the concept of "national priority"

Rejection of Vox's "national priority"

During his speech, the spokesperson for the CEE rejected the concept of "national priority"that Vox has put on the table in its investiture agreements in Extremadura and Aragon. A formula for Spanish citizens to have priority in accessing social aid and, at the same time, the suppression of subsidies for NGOs working with immigrants. "The Church does not operate in the realm of slogans, neither this one nor any other," affirmed García Magán, who wanted to defend that the Church "is much broader" and "even more so" when there are formations that want to "annul, exclude or eliminate the other".