Abuses in the Catholic Church: CEE approves the reparation plan for victims in Spain

The Catholic Church in Spain has approved the comprehensive reparation plan for victims of abuse, focused on cases that have prescribed or in which the perpetrator has died and whose application will not be mandatory, but rather the dioceses and religious entities will decide if they wish to implement them. .

The Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) held an extraordinary Plenary Assembly on the morning of this Tuesday, July 9, called last week by its Permanent Commission, to address the Comprehensive Reparation Plan for Victims of Sexual Abuse of minors and vulnerable people equal in law (PRIVA).

The session held this morning was chaired by the president of the EEC, Mons. Luis Argüello, and 67 bishops participated. Likewise, it was attended by Father Jesús Díaz Sariego, president of the Spanish Conference of Religious (CONFER), and its general secretary, Brother Jesús Miguel Zamora.

The plan is not mandatory

After the dialogues, the reparation plan has been put to a vote and the lines that guide the Church’s action in relation to abuses have been determined, as well as the guiding criteria of PRIVA. The three documents have been approved by the bishops without any vote against.

At the press conference after the assembly, Mons. Luis Argüello, also Archbishop of Valladolid, highlighted that “the Episcopal Conference does not have the legal capacity to force the dioceses to implement this plan.”

He stressed that he is not “the head of the bishops” and that the application of the plan “is a moral obligation.” Likewise, this plan will not only serve the victims of priests and religious, but also the victims of lay people linked to the Church.

A body will coordinate its execution

For its implementation, an Advisory Commission will be established whose objective will be to evaluate each case individually to analyze the damage caused to the victims and define the means of reparation for the entities that must carry them out.

This commission will be made up of ten people: four experts from the forensic medical field, four from the legal field, a representative from the EEC and another from CONFER. The commission may summon a representative of the victims or of the associations that work with victims.

The plan for care and reparation for victims has five axes: the victim at the center of the Church’s reflection and action; the search for truth and justice; coordinated action regarding the treatment of sexual abuse; assume the repair channels; and avoid all revictimization.

Regarding reparation for victims, it establishes that it can be “economic in the form of compensation based on a sentence; economic in kind, in the form of the provision of medical or therapeutic services; and economically in a monetary form recognized and voluntarily assumed by the Church.”

Guidance lines in relation to abuses

The Spanish bishops have also approved the five lines that indicate the principles that should guide the work of the Church in relation to abuse.

These lines are: recognize and repair; care for victims and/or survivors; prevent sexual abuse; train and raise awareness; inform and investigate.

Response to the Government of Spain

After the Minister of the Presidency of the Government of Spain, Félix Bolaños, expressed his intention to intervene in the reparation plan and supervise compensation to victims of abuse, the president of the Spanish Episcopate has declared that they have acted “unilaterally, of his own motion and on his own initiative.”

Along these lines, he has indicated that the Government must “respect the rules of the game” since “an Institution has the right and duty to organize itself.”