It was announced that the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) is working on a ‘comprehensive reparation plan’ for victims of abuse in the Catholic Church, in which, for the first time, financial compensation will be provided without the need for a judicial sentence.
César García Magán, the spokesman for the EEC, pointed out that the agreement is made up of three lines: “attention to the victims, prevention, integral reparation, which includes psychological as well as social, spiritual and economic reparation.” Likewise, the spokesman indicated as a novelty the payment of economic compensation to the victims without the need for a judicial obligation, since up to now, the church had made these payments only after a sentence.
“If judicially there cannot be a sentence, because the victimizer has died or the case is time-barred, but there is a moral conviction that there was an abuse, compensation can also be paid,” explained García Magán, who added that for this “it will have to be studied case by case”.
What Else Does the Catholic Church’s “Integral Reparation Plan” Say?
García Magán also explained that this ‘integral reparation plan’ will be carried out as soon as possible; however, he made it clear that the economic compensation will be assumed by the victimizers or, if applicable, by the institutions involved in any type of abuse.
In addition, he said that they will shortly publish a letter addressed to “all the people of God” focused on the issue of victims of sexual abuse within the church; in that letter, there will be “an explicit, clear and direct request for forgiveness to the victims” and the ‘integral reparation plan’ will be announced.
According to the Ombudsman, in Spain, some 400,000 Spaniards have allegedly been victims of sexual abuse in the Church, although many cases have been judicially prescribed because a long time has passed or many of the alleged abusers have died.
This story was written in Spanish by Lizbeth García in Cultura Colectiva News
