This Wednesday, the Bishop of Vila Real expressed deep sadness and shame at the reality shown in the report of the Independent Commission for the Study of Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, and stated his request for forgiveness for the victims.
The position of Antonio Augusto Azevedo was made public in a communiqué published this Wednesday and after another meeting of the Council of Elders of the Diocese of Vila Real.
Referring to a report released Monday by the Independent Commission on Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, the Bishop of Vila Real said he was “deeply saddened and ashamed of the reality that has been revealed.”
António Augusto Azevedo stated his “petition for the forgiveness of the victims” and the “need for the Church to strive to accompany all those affected by this humiliation”.
He added that this is “a time of cleansing, when the Church will find ways to renew itself.”
The Council of Elders also expressed “its pain to all the victims of sexual abuse in the church and in particular in this diocese of Vila Real.”
The counselors advocated “the need to find all preventive means so that new cases do not recur, so that church spaces are safer, hospitable and fraternal spaces, namely in relation to the youngest and most vulnerable.”
The report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Violence in the Church obtained 512 corroborated testimonies, extrapolating the existence of at least 4,815 victims, with 25 cases sent to the Department of Public Administration.
The data showed that 97% of the abusers were men and in 77% of the cases priests, in addition to the fact that in 47% of the cases the abuser was a member of the child’s close relationship.
The study shows that there were nine cases that occurred in the Vila Real area.
The district of Lisbon has the largest number of cases (120 cases), followed by the districts of Porto (64 cases) and Braga (55 cases), Santarém (26 cases), Aveiro (24 cases), Leiria (21 cases), Coimbra. (19 cases), Setúbal (18 cases), Viana do Castelo (15 cases), Viseu and the Autonomous Region of Madeira (14 cases), Bragança (13 cases), Évora and Guarda (12 cases) and Castelo Branco (11 cases) ).
In other parts of the country, less than 10 cases.
The central theme of the Council of the Elders of the Diocese of Vila Real, held this Wednesday, was a reflection on the formation of the laity, the existing reality, the needs felt, the current and necessary means of articulating education in various church structures. : parishes, archpriests and dioceses.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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