The Portuguese Church will not separate priests suspected of abuse
- March 3, 2023
- 0
The Portuguese Catholic Church will not yet remove priests suspected of sexually abusing minors. which are still in force, but he will give names to the dioceses so
The Portuguese Catholic Church will not yet remove priests suspected of sexually abusing minors. which are still in force, but he will give names to the dioceses so that they study the affairs and act in accordance with “civil and canon norms”.
“We cannot remove someone from the ministry just because a person comes and says that he is a rapist,” Portuguese Episcopal Conference (CEP) President José Ornelas said at a press conference in Fatima today following a meeting where bishops gathered to explore measures to combat child abuse.
The bishops met to review a report prepared by an expert commission investigating 70 years of violence, in which estimates that there are at least 4,800 victims, and that this Friday he delivered to the CEP a list with a hundred suspects of active abuse.
In recent days, an investigation into child abuse in the Catholic Church has estimated that more than 4,800 priestly victims are protected by silence, now broken by complaints and a list of active abusers.
commission The independent agency, which has been investigating abuses for a year, has been able to verify 512 victim testimonies, though it admits a “minimum” of more than 4,815, and its coordinator Pedro Strecht admitted today that “it’s impossible to quantify the total.” crimes”, during the presentation of the final report on their work.
Of the total complaints received, the commission has sent only 25 cases to court because most of them are already ordered, although the commission is preparing a list with active rapists, which, they note, may be completed in the coming weeks and will not be made public. but sent to the prosecutor’s office.
The findings of this investigation should lead to a “change,” Strecht declared, in the presence of Manuel Clemente, Cardinal Lisbon and President of the Bishops’ Conference José Ornelas, Bishop of Leiria Fatima, among other members of the leadership of the Portuguese Catholic Church,
The bulk of abuse They were committed between the 1960s and 1990s, so a six-member commission set up by the Episcopal Conference, including psychologists, sociologists, lawyers, and even a filmmaker, is calling for changes to the laws to extend the statute of limitations. up to 30 years of crime.
(EFE)
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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