Spain on Tuesday approved a plan aimed toward making reparation and economic compensation for victims of sex abuse committed by people connected to the Catholic Church.
It also announced the longer term celebration of a public act of recognition for those affected and their families.
The Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, said the plan was based on recommendations in a report by Spain’s Ombudsman last 12 months. From that report, he said it was concluded that some 440,000 adults could have suffered sex abuse in Spain by people linked to the church and that roughly half of those cases were committed by clergy.
Bolaños said the compensation can be financed by the church.
But in an announcement Tuesday, Spain’s Bishops Conference rejected the plan, saying it discriminated against victims outside of church circles.
No details of how much or when financial compensation can be paid were released. Neither was a date set for any public act of recognition.
Bolaños said the plan aimed to “settle a debt with those victims who for many years were forgotten by everyone and now our democracy goals to repair” that, and make it a central part of presidency policy.
After years of virtually ignoring the difficulty, Spain’s bishops apologized for the abuses committed by church members following the Ombudsman’s report but disputed the variety of victims involving the church as exaggerated. That report accused the church of widespread negligence.
Bolaños said the federal government hoped to perform the plan over the following 4 years in collaboration with the church.
The project will include free legal assistance for all victims of sexual abuse and it is going to reinforce the prevention supervision in schools.
Only a handful of nations have had government-initiated or parliamentary inquiries into clergy sex abuse, although some independent groups have carried out their very own investigations.
