THE Roman Catholic Church in Spain is to set up a ‘comprehensive’ reparation plan for victims of sexual abuse.
The secretary general of the Episcopal Conference, Cesar Garcia Magan, announced on Friday that compensation will be paid out to people abused by priests or church officials without the need for any court ruling.
Spain’s bishops have been meeting this week and received a draft report stretching to over 800 pages that they had commissioned from solicitor Javier Cremades.
He spent nearly two years taking evidence in a probe that was separate to the government-commissioned inquiry undertaken by Spain’s Ombudsman.
In July 2022, Cremades praised the ‘great collaboration’ of the Catholic Church and revealed that the Archdiocese of Madrid had given him permission to access its secret archives.
The new reparation plan will not just involve payments, but providing care for victims including psychological and spiritual help.
Until now, compensation has been by individual dioceses without any national framework.
Cesar Garcia Magan did not reveal how much money would be paid but specified that the Church will ‘always make reparations’ and in cases of court judgements, it would abide by any ruling.
In cases where an aggressor has died and the matter cannot go to court, he said victims would be compensated if there is a ‘firm moral conviction’ that abuse occurred
Garciaa Magan said the plan would be implemented as soon as possible after some statutory procedures area completed.
“In cases where a trial cannot be reached, there will also be comprehensive reparation, the product of a moral obligation.”
The finished Javier Cremades report will be delivered to the bishops on December 15.
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