The Catholic bishops' Conference in Spain has released its first public study on the topic, in which it claims to have uncovered evidence of 728 sexual offenders inside the church since 1945 based on the accounts of 927 victims.
Based on the report released Thursday, June 1, church officials said that a majority (over 60%) of the perpetrators were dead, and 83% of the victims were male. More than half of the abusers are reportedly priests, and the rest were various clergy members.
The church said 75% of the reported incidents happened before 1990.
Testimony Gathering Is Underway, and Count Will Be Updated Often
The conference said that testimony gathering was ongoing and that the count would be revised on a regular basis, as reported by ABC News. The information was gathered from over 200 church-run juvenile protection agencies in different parts of Spain in 2019.
Most of the abuse, according to the bishops' report, took place in religious institutions, including schools, seminaries, and parish buildings.
Since the church study only addressed incidents registered since 2019, El País concluded that the true statistics of abuses inside the church were likely significantly higher. Allegedly, the number of incidents the church was aware of before that year was not included.
The number of victims is expected to be in the thousands, according to a legal company in Madrid that is undertaking a parallel probe requested by the Spanish Episcopal Conference. The company has not yet released its findings.
Was the Spanish Church Reluctant to Examine and Report Sexual Abuse Charges?
In a report by The Washington Post, there has been a reluctance on the part of the Spanish church to investigate and disclose sexual abuse accusations until relatively recently. The state prosecutor in Spain has already filed a formal complaint against the bishops for concealing information. This was refuted by the bishops.
"Members of this church have hurt other members of the church or society. We feel pain and shame," César Garca Magán, secretary general of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, said during the presentation.
However, he argued that this would be for nothing if it did not lead to changes in how children were safeguarded and perpetrators were banished to the background. He said that the church would be open about its findings and use the lessons it had learned to ensure that "sexual abuses do not occur again in the heart of the church."
After El País reported claims of abuse involving more than 1,200 victims, Spain's parliament agreed in 2022 to launch the first formal inquiry conducted by the country's ombudsman investigating priest and church official sexual abuse.
The independent committee headed by the ombudsman has already heard from 445 victims, but their investigation is ongoing.
