The President of the Republic proposes to create a state commission to investigate abuses in the Church

The President of the Republic proposed this Friday the creation of an independent commission under state control to investigate sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, the Corazan Silenciado Association announced after an audience with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

According to one of the association’s representatives, António Grosso, the President of the Republic also stated that “the issue of compensation is the responsibility of the state, while recognizing that the church must also deal with this issue.”

Leaving an audience with the head of state, which took place in the late afternoon at the Belém Palace in Lisbon, Cristina Amaral and António Grosso, victims of abuse by the Catholic Church and representatives of an association of victims, said that the proposal Model for the appointment of a public defender for the investigation at the state level, without intervention and the participation of the church, applied in Spain, came from Marcelo Rebelo de Souza.

“The President’s proposal was very clear: we are not going to order the Church to investigate the Church, that’s essentially what he told us. The existing commissions are sponsored and have the Church as their initiative, and what we came here to offer was exactly that, but fortunately the president was very sympathetic to our cause and the first words were his,” said Cristina Amaral.

“Here there is a responsibility of the state. We came up with this idea, but the president was the first to propose it,” he added.

The justification for the State’s responsibility in this matter, António Grosso explained, citing the understanding of the Head of State, stems from political responsibility in the face of the constitutional duty to protect children.

The spokesman said he had also received a guarantee from Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa that in the next legislature he would raise awareness of the government and the Assembly of the Republic on this issue.

Regarding the Catholic Church, namely the Portuguese Episcopal Conference (CEP), with which the Associação Coração Silenciado meets on Sunday, António Grosso and Cristina Amaral say they want to raise awareness of the duty to take on identical responsibilities, recognizing their “collective responsibility.” as an institution for providing material compensation.”

Leaving aside criticism of the Catholic Church, António Grosso accused the organization of being “in a state of charity” by “paying for pills and consultations”, which the official rejects as a solution, demanding a “tougher attitude”.

“The Catholic Church did little to help the victims. It took a lot of persistent effort to finally accept us, and it will not happen until Sunday, but the Church must open its wallets and the state must take responsibility for the constitutional protection of children and youth, which has not been the case in recent decades,” he said.

“A stronger position is needed for the Church to come forward and propose a compensation plan that does not require much creativity: compensation paid by the Catholic Church has already been implemented in many parts of the world. thousands of people who will need financial compensation because there is no other way,” he further said.

Antonio Grosso recalled the “brilliant role” of the independent commission, led by pediatric psychiatrist Pedro Strecht, which about a year ago presented a report containing 512 confirmed testimonies of children and young people abused by the church since 1950.

“There are 512 testimonies of vile, heinous and immoral crimes – and in religious terms, mortal sins – against children and young people over the past decades. However, these testimonies were of no use to the church or to the state,” he said, later joking about the lack of physical evidence: “In 1950, 1960, 1970, we forgot to take a cell phone with us into the confessional to take a video.” .

António Grosso argued that “testimony” should have consequences, criticizing the church for hiding from prescribed crimes, clerics who have since died, or for having to evaluate each case in order to delay accepting responsibility.

“For us this is not the case, there is only one case, the institution is called the Portuguese Catholic Church. The crime was committed not only by those who committed it, but also by those who concealed it,” he said.

In addition to raising awareness and presenting ideas, at Sunday’s meeting with the CEP the association also intends to demand the abolition of regulations for these crimes in canon law, something they also want to do in civil law, considering the existence of deadlines to be “absurd.” “When it is known that it can take four to five decades for a victim of sexual assault to be able to talk about what they have suffered.

“Pain is not prescribed,” said Antonio Grosso.