Portugal Catholic priests sexually abused nearly 5,000 minors: report

Pope Francis has yet to respond to this latest controversy surrounding the Church. (Representative)

Lisbon, Portugal:

Catholic priests in Portugal have sexually abused some 5,000 children since the 1950s, an independent commission said on Monday after hearing statements from hundreds of victims.

Thousands of reports of pedophilia within the Catholic Church have emerged around the world and Pope Francis is under pressure to deal with the scandal.

A Portuguese inquiry commissioned by the church in the staunchly Catholic country published its findings last year after hearing from more than 500 victims.

“This testimony allows us to establish a large network of victims, at least 4,815,” commission head Pedro Strech told a news conference in Lisbon. Several senior church officials attended.

Child psychiatrist Streicht said it would now be difficult for Portugal to ignore child sexual abuse or the trauma it causes.

“I am satisfied with this difficult and dramatic task,” said Bishop José Ornelas, head of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference (CEP).

“And we hope it marks a new beginning,” Bishop said after attending the presentation of the report.

Monsignor Ornelas, who also expressed “a thought for the victims”, is scheduled to hold a press conference afterwards.

Father Manuel Barbosa, a senior member of the CEP, said in January that the country’s bishops would convene in March to draw up conclusions from the report and “to rid the Church of this crisis as much as possible”.

Faced with allegations of cover-ups and clergy sex abuse cases that have come to light around the world, Pope Francis promised in 2019 to root out pedophilia within the Catholic Church.

In addition to Portugal, inquiries have been launched in several countries including Australia, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The capital’s auxiliary bishop Americo Aguiar recently said the pontiff could meet some of the Portuguese victims when he visits Lisbon in August.

‘The Church needs to purify itself’

The deadline for bringing charges has already passed for most of the crimes recorded by Streich’s six-member commission, but 25 cases have been transferred to the prosecution service.

One of them belongs to “Alexandra”, a 43-year-old woman who requested anonymity. She alleged that she was raped by a priest during confession when she was a 17-year-old novice nun.

“It’s very hard to talk about these things in Portugal,” said Alexandra, a country where 80 percent of people say they are Catholic.

“I kept it a secret for many years but it became difficult to face it alone,” she told AFP in a telephone interview last week.

Three years ago, she mustered up the courage to report her attacker to church authorities.

But she said she was “overlooked”. The bishop in charge did nothing except take his complaint to the Vatican, which has not yet responded.

In April last year, Manuel Clemente, the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon and the highest-ranking bishop in Portugal, said he was ready to “recognise the errors of the past” and “apologise” to the victims.

Alexandra said, “The bishop’s apology means nothing to me. We don’t know what he means.”

At the very least, the independent commission had lent her an understanding ear and psychological support.

It was “a good first step” for victims, he said, who wanted to “break down the wall of silence” that had surrounded them.

Stretch quoted another anonymous victim as saying, “It’s taken too long.” “The Church needs to purify itself.”

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