MADRID (SPAIN)
YouTube [San Bruno CA]
July 9, 2024
By AP Video
1. Leader of the Spanish Episcopal Conference Luis Arguello and Head of Spanish Clergy Jesús Díaz Sariego entering news conference
2. Arguello at the beginning of news conference
3. News conference
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Luis Arguello, leader of the Spanish Episcopal Conference: “When we refer to the recognition, to attention to victims, to prevention, to training and raising awareness, to informing and researching, although we still have a long way to go, we have already come a long way and shared a lot of work.”
5. News conference
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jesús Díaz Sariego, Head of Spanish Clergy: “To the extent that we have been listening to the victims, we have also been sensitized to the harm that some of our members, some members of the Church over the years, over time, have done to children, to girls, to minors. And this attentive listening to the victims has also changed our way of proceeding. From them we have been learning how to respond to their needs and from them we have also been learning, therefore, to try to prevent, as far as we can, abuse from taking place in Church spaces.”
7. News conference
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jesús Díaz Sariego, Head of Spanish Clergy: “And we want to put special emphasis on moral reparation. There is always a judicial reparation, but for those cases that have prescribed for ordinary and canonical law, and it is not possible to reopen them due to the statute of limitations, or because the aggressor has died, we believe that the Church has the moral duty to these people. And this is what we want to tackle in a special way at the moment in order to continue working in the present and in the future within all this reality of abuse”.
9. End of news conference
STORYLINE: Spain’s Catholic bishops approved Tuesday a plan to compensate the victims of sexual abuse inside the Church whose alleged aggressors have died or whose possible crimes have prescribed.
Spain’s government and victims’ associations consider the initiative lacking in real guarantees.
The Spanish Episcopal Conference did not provide an estimate on how many victims it could help. But last year the conference said it had found evidence of 728 sexual abusers within the church since 1945 as part of its first public report after years of rejecting a comprehensive approach to investigating sexual abuse. It said that 75% of the cases had occurred before 1990 and more than 60% of the offenders were dead.
Spain’s public Ombudsman office has conducted a survey that would indicate that the total number of victims, including minors, could be much, much higher.
The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Luis Arguello, said Tuesday in a press conference in Madrid that “although we still have a long way to go, we have already come a long way and shared a lot of work.”
The move by the clergy leadership comes after Spain’s government approved a plan last year to force the church to pay economic compensation to the victims of abuse. The church’s plan includes a plank for the “material reparation” of the victims, which can include financial compensation, and payment of medical or therapeutic services.
The church pledged to carry out the “economic, spiritual and psychological” reparation to the victims. The plan also includes the commitment for the Church to determine the truth of an alleged case of sexual abuse even when the supposed perpetrator has died.