An independent commission to study child sexual abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church met with the President of Parliament this Thursday to report on its work and ask MPs to cooperate to raise awareness of the complaint.
At the end of the meeting with Augusto Santos Silva, which lasted just over an hour, the coordinator of the Commission, Pedro Strecht, said that the meeting had already been planned “for a long time” and was part of the decision to establish contacts with various institutional structures. , taking into account January last year, has already met with the President of the Republic and is waiting for a meeting with the Prime Minister.
“We have come to report on the work and clarify any doubts” that may exist, he told reporters, adding that “a great request has been made for institutional assistance to civil society, and the Assembly of the Republic (AR) is home to which expresses this very well — so that people can continue to cooperate” with the commission.
“Parliament can help, because deputies are elected by the people, and we really want to reach out to the people. We do not focus on numbers, we do not focus on quantitative aspects, they are, of course, we really focus on those who left despite these circumstances, while children, and we retain the important concern that so far we have managed to reach out to a lot of people, which is great,” said Pedro Strecht.
However, he noted, “there are still a lot of people who care about some kind of reality more inland, in perhaps poorer and more disadvantaged areas, for whom it is not so easy to talk about these problems.”
Pedro Strecht recalled that the deputies are elected by the various constituencies, they represent their population, and together with them it is important to continue to spread the message, not least because time is short and the deadline for completion of the work ends in December.
The president of the commission emphasized that “the one who asked the Independent Commission to work was the Conference of Portuguese Bishops, which includes 21 diocesan bishops, the cardinal patriarch, and in the interests of the Catholic Church, so that all situations are investigated.” namely those that have happened in the past to prevent and make the future obviously better in all these circumstances that concern the well-being of children and adolescents.”
The same official stated that the goal of the commission is to ensure that there are no more situations of abuse in the future and that actions are more preventive.
The Ministry of State has opened 10 investigations into 17 anonymous complaints reported by the Independent Commission (CI) to investigate child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Portugal, published today by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
“10 investigations were launched, one of which concentrates six participants, and the other two (surveys), two (participations) in each,” PGR told Lusa, citing the fact that they are being handled by the Office of Family Affairs. , Kids do it Jovem, from PGR. Of the two investigations, each containing two complaints, one has been adjourned while the other is ongoing.
The CI also emphasized that it remains attentive to the testimony received, citing that the last balance sheet was made on July 10, indicating that 352 requests were confirmed and 17 cases were transferred to the MP.
Regarding closed cases, Strecht noted that many cases “relate to statute of limitations crimes, and also because victims often prefer anonymity, and even if they have the ability to move forward through other mechanisms from a legal point of view, they prefer don’t do that.”
“They prefer above all, and this was very striking in our study, and the Church has already said, to wait for an apology, a request for forgiveness and the fulfillment of this request by the Portuguese Catholic Church.”
Pedro Strecht also said that denunciations, testimonies or statements “always concern a much larger number of victims, because many more victims are mentioned in each statement in many cases”, but that these will be data that will be disclosed only at the end of the work.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
