On Thursday, following the increasing pressure from prominent congregants to lift the veil of silence surrounding the issue of sexual abuses, Portugal’s Roman Catholic Church announced the formation of an independent commission to investigate child sexual abuse cases allegedly committed by members of the clergy.
The Bishops’ Conference in Portugal said in a statement that the commission was formed to improve the way the cases were handled and to ‘carry out a study to clarify the history of this serious issue.’
The announcement comes after a major report released last month by an independent commission in France which revealed that over the past 70 years, approximately 3,000 priests and religious officials sexually abused over 200,000 children.
It was the latest devastating blow for the Roman Catholic Church, which has been shook by sexual assault allegations all across the globe in the last twenty years, often involving minors.
Earlier this month, more than 200 Catholics in Portugal wrote to the Bishops’ Conference, urging them to launch an investigation similar to the one took place in France, claiming that child sexual abuse was a ‘systemic’ problem ‘directly related to the exercise of power’ within the church.
The signatories stated that ‘just over ten cases’ of sexual abuse of children by the clergy members have been reported in the country over the last decade, but warned that the number was likely to be significantly higher.
There is currently no overarching supervisory body, with bishops in each of Portugal’s 21 dioceses in charge of investigating allegations of clergy misconduct.
Pope Francis issued the most extensive revision to Catholic Church law in the past four decades in June, requiring bishops to take action against clerics who abuse minors and vulnerable adults.
The members of the commission are yet to be nominated, according to the bishop of Setubal, Jose Ornelas, who also stated that the commission and members of the investigative body will have ‘independence to create their own processes and methodology.’
‘We are not afraid, quite the contrary,’ he declared.
According to the letter to bishops, which was signed by legislators, writers and other public figures, the commission should include believers and nonbelievers, as well as social science and justice experts.
The time span of the investigations to be carried out by the independent commission is unknown, but the signatories of the letter suggested that it should span fifty years.
Post Your Comments