The dance of figures in sexual abuse: the Church accuses Cremades of counting at least 305 complaints twice

The numbers don't add up. The different reports on sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic Church do not offer the same data on the registered cases, although, in any case, there would be around a thousand.. Yesterday, the Episcopal Conference discredited the audit that it commissioned from the law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo because it considers that it has been able to count at least 305 complaints twice.

The Cremades report has identified 1,383 complaints, from which “a minimum of 2,056 victims are derived, although it is objectively evident that the number is higher.”

The Episcopal Conference has prepared its own report, entitled To give light, whose latest update was released yesterday, where it accepts this number of victims, although it contradicts the number of complaints from Cremades because, following its same methodology, it only comes out to 1,302 and not 1,383. He believes that the audit “basically carries out a compilation of cases that appeared in previous studies, without carrying out an in-depth study, and makes conceptual errors,” such as collecting 305 complaints received in the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that would have been counted already by the dioceses and the congregations.

«It is a bit surprising that this report from Cremades adds to the figures of the cases registered in the dioceses and congregations the figures received from the Doctrine of the Faith. Because it is the norm in the Church that all cases received in the congregations and dioceses must be sent to Doctrine of the Faith. We have to look at it carefully, but we think that there could be at least those duplicate cases,” sources from the Episcopate point out.

In the report To shed light, the Church admits 806 cases of abuse, of which it only sees 205 proven. It states that there are 70 credible but unproven cases, 75 pending resolution or under investigation, 280 unproven, 24 excluded, 13 archived and three false complaints.

What differentiates the Paradar luz studio from that of Cremades? Sources from the Episcopal Conference explain that the first “is a complex report of all the previous ones that have been presented” and “it is the most complete”. «It offers a detailed study of the complaints received through different means, makes an analysis of the measures adopted by the Church and provides a compilation of the observations and recommendations made by the report of the Ombudsman or by Cremades, which the Conference is studying to integrate into your action plan». But this work does not include recommendations from Cremades, such as calling for a public act of reparation or creating a fund of 50 million euros to compensate the victims.

The Church denounces that its compilation has not been without difficulties and accuses the Ombudsman of not having provided all the information it requested “to be able to compare the testimonies received and be able to offer a study that is as accurate as possible of reality.”. They are missing the GAD3 statistical report, presented in October and one of the pillars of the investigation, and disaggregated data to be able to cross-reference them.

This survey, carried out among 8,000 people, says that 0.6% of the population over 18 years of age claims to have been a victim of sexual abuse by a priest or religious and another 1.13% have suffered abuse in the religious sphere. which would give a figure of more than 440,000 people. In any case, the Ombudsman says that the Victim Care Unit collected “relevant” information about 487 victims, 334 of whom were heard directly and the rest, through indirect testimonies.. The Church points out that only 118 of these interviews were carried out exclusively by the Ombudsman and the others “are already included in the other reports that have been carried out.”

He has asked the agency to provide him with all the data because “it is very probable that there are cases that have been included in the same two, three or even four times.”. But “he has not received a response”. He also criticizes the work of El País – which yesterday counted 1,381 cases with 2,616 victims in its database – because “it collects all the information received without questioning it.”

In any case, the Church, which at first minimized the problem, suggests in its document that it does not want to evade its responsibility and remembers that it has launched a Comprehensive Reparation Plan for Victims of Abuse that contemplates care for the victims. with all legal and ecclesial channels, the comprehensive reparation of the damage caused and training for the prevention of these abuses.

He has also recognized “the pain, shame and sorrow” caused by “this reality that betrays the message of the Gospel”, has reiterated his “most sincere request for forgiveness to all the people who have suffered due to these execrable actions” and has expressed “the commitment to take concrete and effective measures to prevent future abuses.”