Bishops’ Conference Receives Final Report on Church Sexual Abuse

The Portuguese Episcopal Conference (CEP) received this Sunday the final report from the independent commission that last year investigated cases of child sexual abuse in Portugal’s Catholic Church.

“The delivery took place this afternoon at the premises of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference and was attended by the entire working group of the independent commission,” CEP, a body that brings together all the bishops of the dioceses of Portugal, said in a statement.

As it progressed, the final document of the Independent Commission for the Study of Child Sexual Abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church was handed over to the Chairman of the CEP, which included President D. José Ornelas and Vice President D. Virgilio Antunes and Secretary, Father Manuel Barbosa.

After being delivered to the CEP, the final report of the commission, coordinated by child psychiatrist Pedro Strecht and which began collecting evidence on January 11 last year, will be presented on Monday morning in Lisbon.

An extraordinary plenary session of the Bishops’ Conference has already been convened for March 3 to review the document.

Upon receiving the digital document, D. José Ornelas, Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, assured that the CEP would “read it with great care”, adding that the March assembly would serve to “take this data, think about its meaning and decide on the best next steps, to pay tribute” to the suffering of the victims.

“This common work, with the independence of roles and the competence of a common path, will certainly be connected with the history of all of us as a legacy for continuing the path we have begun,” he stressed.

D. José Ornelas also recalled that the CEP unanimously decided “to entrust this work” to an independent commission in order to “learn the reality of abuses in the church and their evolution in recent decades.”

The Bishop also said it was “clear from the outset” that this investigation needed to “focus all its attention” on the victims of abuse and the “drama they endured”.

“We have received your report with deep emotion and gratitude,” the CEP president emphasized, highlighting the commission’s “complete independence” and the fact that it met the deadlines set for this process.

Unwilling to advance definitive figures until a final report is submitted, the commission said in its previous public balance sheet in October that it had already registered 424 confirmed testimonies, including cases of abuse since 1950 and victims ranging in age from 15 to 88. years.

The members of the commission clarified from the very beginning that they were not talking about initiating a criminal case, but mentioned that denunciations of crimes that had not yet expired would be sent to court, which was confirmed by sending 17 complaints to the public ministry by June.

However, in October the Prosecutor General’s Office suggested that of the 10 investigations launched, more than half (six) were already on file.

Cases of sexual violence revealed during 2022 shocked the church and Portuguese society itself, similar to what happened with similar initiatives in other countries.