On February 13, the general file of the Independent Commission for the Study of Sexual Abuse within the Portuguese Catholic Church might be launched.
In October, the fee had already validated testimony from 424 witnesses, however maximum had already expired in criminal phrases.
However, Pedro Strecht, President of the Independent Commission for the Study of Sexual Abuse within the Portuguese Catholic Church, says what they’ve is compelling: “The witness reports present a lot of identical information, a fact that reinforces the consistency of the testimonies and outlines serious situations existing over decades that become more evident the further you go back in time, and in some places, they assumed truly endemic proportions.”
The preliminary figures offered via the fee got here as no wonder to people who paintings within the box of sexual abuse in Portugal, together with Carla Ferreira, a technical adviser to the board of the Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV).
“It’s a significant number, but we have to be aware that this number is just ‘a drop’ in this area, explained Ms Ferreira. “We have already got this perception on the subject of a extra normal viewpoint of sexual abuse, this is, we’ve got a transparent belief that simplest a few 3rd of scenarios are officially reported.”
And Ricardo Barroso, a psychologist and researcher in the field, believes an even more alarming scenario will emerge: “I imagine it’s to be anticipated, taking the enjoy of alternative international locations and what we’re finding out about truth, those figures will building up over the following couple of months.”
The work of the commission so far has been widely praised. In 2022, it received an award from the APAV.
“We have the belief that uncovering scenarios like that is at all times a good building, no longer simplest for individuals who have been focused via acts of violence but additionally for all folks as a society, as it makes us a extra attentive society,” said Carla Ferreira.
For Ricardo Barroso, it’s what happens in the future that is also just as important: “Victims must remember that what took place to them can’t occur once more and the Catholic Church has to obviously and completely reveal that this is not going to occur once more and that it’ll put into observe a collection of gestures, a collection of concrete movements, like denunciations, like strengthen from the psychotherapeutic perspective that it will probably be offering even to the contributors of the Catholic Church, just like the responsibility of the aggressors, just like the strengthen that it can provide to doable sufferers sooner or later. “
The Catholic Church said it is prepared to “take suitable measures.”
On March 3, there might be a Plenary Assembly of the Portuguese Catholic Episcopate, to additional analyse the fee’s ultimate file.
