In a startling revelation, Spain’s National Ombudsman, Angel Gabilondo, has unveiled the findings of an 18-month independent investigation into the Roman Catholic Church. The investigation has brought to light 487 cases of sexual abuse within the Church, marking a grim chapter in its history. This comprehensive inquiry, initiated by the Spanish Parliament in March 2022, focused on allegations of sexual abuse involving minors in the Catholic Church.
The culmination of this investigation is an extensive 800-page report that was submitted to the lower house of the Spanish Parliament. It shines a harsh light on the magnitude of the issue and its deep-rooted history.
The report, released to the public, shockingly reveals that since 1940, more than 200,000 minors have suffered sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church. Even more disturbingly, 0.6% of the over 8,000 adults surveyed confessed to having experienced sexual abuse during their childhood, perpetrated by members of the clergy. This distressing statistic suggests that a staggering two hundred thousand individuals have been victimized since 1940.
Despite the church’s assertion that they had identified 927 cases of sexual abuse through their complaint process, the investigative team unearthed additional cases in their exhaustive report. This is not the first time that such a distressing revelation has emerged; in 2018, the Spanish newspaper El Pais conducted its own inquiry, revealing 2,206 cases of sexual abuse and implicating 1,036 individuals since 1927.
These heart-wrenching revelations are not isolated to Spain. Similar cases have surfaced in America, Europe, Chile, and Australia. In 2021, an independent commission in France reported that 216,000 children had suffered sexual abuse since 1950. This survey is a landmark moment, as it is the first time that such a high number of sexual abuse victims have been identified in Spain.
