Jesuits acknowledge 145 complaints of abuse, most of them involving minors and in schools

The Society of Jesus in Catalonia (Spain) has published a report in which it recognizes 145 individualized complaints that point to 44 aggressors since 1948. The majority were minors when the events were perpetrated.

Of the total of 44 people reported, 29 belonged to the Jesuits at the time of the events (4 are already ex-religious) and 15 were lay people. Except two from the first group and one from the second, all the perpetrators are accused of child abuse.

Of the 145 complaints, 54 have been anonymous and of the rest we know “some information that identifies them, be it name, surname or just initials.” The majority of the identified victims (81) have reported events that occurred in Jesuit schools and another 10 in other areas.

The Society of Jesus report states that among the 145 victims there are 64 men and 76 women (plus 5 cases without identifying the sex), of which 137 were minors at the time the events were perpetrated.

According to the legal assessment carried out, the majority of cases are statute-barred or without the possibility of recourse to ordinary justice due to the death of the perpetrator.

Most of the cases of abuse occurred in two schools

The majority of cases (118) occurred in two leading Jesuit educational institutions in Barcelona. The report highlights that 72% of the Jesuits reported have committed abuse in the schools of San Ignacio and Sagrado Corazón, while 81% of the victims belonged to these schools.

The Jesuits of Catalonia point out that this concentration of cases is due to the fact that they are schools that have “a greater number of students over the years and also where a greater number of Jesuits have worked.” Furthermore, in each of these centers there has been a perpetrator who alone accumulates a large number of cases.

The abusers “were people with charisma, personality and authority”

The report adds that the victims have revealed, through interviews, “a chain of silences at many levels,” sometimes due to the victim’s shame, because the parents did not believe their children or because the families “did not believe it.” “They denounced the school so as not to harm their children’s academic career.”

On the other hand, it is stated that this silence was also a consequence of the fact that “the perpetrators were people with charisma, personality and authority who enjoyed a ‘reverential fear’” and that the institutions were not “in a position to take care and protect” who were part of them.

A study on abuse supervised by specialists

The study has had the collaboration of the Roca Junyent law firm, mediation experts outside the Society of Jesus and academic specialists who have validated the 43 interviews carried out (25 with victims, 11 with witnesses and 7 with perpetrators).

The cases have been compiled through multiple sources such as emails, testimonies of Jesuits, previous reports made in the Company, disciplinary labor documents and news that appeared in the media, among others.

As detailed, “all cases that occurred in institutions of the Society of Jesus in Catalonia have been studied, regardless of whether the abuses were committed by Jesuit religious or lay people.”

Commitments of the Jesuits in Catalonia

As a result of the report, those responsible for the Society of Jesus in Catalonia have assumed a series of commitments, among which is the publication of the names of 14 Jesuits involved in cases in which “there has been an ordinary or canonical judicial process or in which there is enough evidence to think that there may have been more victims.”

In addition, the Jesuits are going to send “imminently” to the Prosecutor’s Office six cases that the law firm considers may constitute a crime and that would not be statute-barred. This will be the procedure to follow from now on with old cases, which already applies to possible cases of the present.

The Society of Jesus will also have the help of the Betania Association whose advice “will focus on comprehensive care for victims, economic reparation and restorative justice processes.” In addition, the economic reparations system will be reviewed.

Regarding the living Jesuit perpetrators, canonical processes will be promoted in cases where a path through secular justice is not possible, which “allow restrictive measures and deprivation of freedom of movement to be imposed,” in addition to implying the follow-up of psychological and psychiatric treatments.

In addition, “from now on, the company will also promote the withdrawal of all recognitions or tributes that they may have received over the years.”

As detailed in the report, the investigation “cannot conclude that legally there was a cover-up by the Company,” but it would have incurred “a clear omission of the victims’ right to help,” which is why they undertake to carry out “processes.” of assuming responsibilities with the people who have not acted diligently to report these very serious events.”