On Monday, the PKP said the Catholic Church could take “preventive and administrative measures” that would “eliminate alleged rapists” from public life before “judicial and canonical findings.”
In a note sent to the press, the party believes that “in view of the magnitude of the problem and existing expectations, the known conclusions of the Bishops’ Conference on the work of the Independent Commission do not correspond to the seriousness of the situation.”
“As many Catholics and even priests have stated, while respecting its independence, the Catholic Church, in its functioning, can take preventive and administrative measures that, before a judicial and canonical conclusion, allow the alleged rapists to be removed from public places. life and the inevitable social anxiety it will cause,” they argue.
This, they note, “regardless of the judicial decisions that the situation imposes.”
The Catholic Church’s Independent Commission for the Study of Child Sexual Abuse verified 512 testimonies, extrapolating to at least 4,815 victims. Twenty-five cases were sent to the State Department, which opened 15 investigations, nine of which were closed.
These testimonies refer to cases that took place between 1950 and 2022, the period covered by the commission’s work.
The Commission transmitted to the Portuguese Episcopal Conference a list of alleged rapists, some of whom are active, who sent a decision to dismiss priests suspected of abuse in the diocese and rejected an award of compensation to the victims.
On Sunday, Cardinal Patriarch Manuel Clemente of Lisbon lifted the suspension of alleged priests who abused minors without “proven facts to be refuted” and a canonical process conducted by the Holy See.
Psychiatrist Daniel Sampaio this Monday denied that the church had received a list with the names of abusive priests, without further information on reported cases, calling the bishops’ stance “postponing the issue.”
“It’s not true that this is just a list of names,” said a member of the Independent Commission for the Study of Child Sexual Abuse at the Portuguese Catholic Church, elaborating: “The list was obtained from victims’ complaints in which victim X says she was abused by a priest Y, and an investigation by the Historical Investigation Unit with Archives. And the list that was delivered is the result of a combination of the two,” he said in statements to Luce.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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