Spain: priests denounce discrimination and harassment for exercising their ministry

Dozens of Spanish priests have denounced various forms of harassment and discrimination that they suffer in their daily lives for exercising their ministry, according to a survey of the Observatory for Religious and Consciousness Freedom (OLRC).

During a day on religious freedom held on April 1 in the Congress of Deputies – with the participation of national deputies and the Madrid Assembly -, the president of the OLRC, María García, presented the results of a recent poll made to Catholic priests in Spain “about her experiences as victims of stigmatization, discrimination, intolerance and attacks in the public and private sphere.”

117 presbyters who exercise their ministry in Spain participated in the investigation, of which 67 % claimed to have been “insulted or ridiculed”, or have been subject to “jokes, inappropriate, disrespectful or offensive comments.”

The survey also reflects that 20% of the ordered ministers “have suffered vandalism or material damage” such as cross -shaped brands outside the car or worse acts: “They put a homemade explosive at the door of my house,” said one of the respondents.

In addition, 58% explained that on occasion “they have been subject to negative stereotypes or generalizations, or have suffered intolerance or prejudices by other people about their faith, the priesthood or priests, or the Catholic community.”

On the other hand, the report indicates that a third of the priests surveyed have ever been “subject to hatred or harassment because of their faith or their priest condition.”

In a lower percentage, presbyters have been denied “services or opportunities” or have suffered unfavorable treatment in the public or private sphere because of their faith or their status as a priest (12%), has been a victim of extortion or coercion (9%) or physically or assaulting (5%).

Among the concrete facts expressed by presbyters are to receive the appellation of “pedophile” or “crow”, receive spit or boos on the street or be threatened by public officials.

One of them tells: “A kid, which I did not know, has called me a pedophile in the town where I am a pastor. He has shouted, in the middle of the square. The kid was about 13 years old.”

Another presbytery partner tells how they distributed pamphlets with their face and the word “scoundrel” during the confinement of the Covid-19 pandemic, because it was vaccinated in a priority way since it attended “a very old monastery of nuns.”

On the other hand, about half of the respondents (48 %) denounced acts of vandalism in their parish or in the ecclesiastical installation that OA manages are linked. These attacks have included offensive painted on the facades to the detonation of firecrackers during the celebration of the Eucharist, and even the sabotage of cooling systems.

In addition, one in five respondents complaint that there has been some sacrilegious or desecration act in their temples.

In general, almost all priests who have participated in the survey (90%) consider that “in the media there are prejudices against Catholic priests and bishops and the problem of sexual abuses is used for the purpose of discrediting and denigration of the Church.”

Thus, one of them tells how the father of a girl who went to religious formation, told him that “if cases of pedophilia on TV continued to withdraw the girl from catechesis.”

Another said that, finding a nephew, someone snapped “that he was careful with the priests”, while a third party remembers that someone told him that his position contrary to abortion was “to have more children than to abuse.”