Over 1,000 clergy accused of pedophilia in Spain’s Catholic Church

CADIZ, Spain

More than 1,000 clergy from Spain’s Catholic Church have been accused of pedophilia, according to a report published by the Spanish daily El Pais on Monday.

The newspaper has been collecting testimony from victims since 2018. It shared the latest data with Spanish bishops and the country’s ombudsman, which are both carrying out simultaneous investigations on the subject.

The latest El Pais data raises the number of victims to at least 2,100. Before the investigation began, only 34 cases in Spain were publicly known.

Of the around 110,000 priests and other male religious staff in Spain, the El Pais figures suggest that at least 0.9% have sexually abused minors.

That statistic is still far off from what has been uncovered in other countries like the US or Ireland. In other Catholic nations that have looked into this subject, on average, around 4% of male clergy members have been involved in this kind of abuse since around the middle of the 20th century.

Criminologist Gemma Varona of the Pais Vasco University told El Pais that it is “perfectly possible” for the number of sexually abusive priests in Spain to quadruple from the current figure.

“Four percent is the expected average; it’s shown up in country after country. And when we’re talking about 4%, that’s a social problem — not a minority. Another of the major problems is how the institution has treated victims,” she said.

Until within the last couple of years, Spain’s Catholic Church insisted that there were hardly any cases in the majority Catholic country. El Pais now says 74 bishops and religious superiors were systematically involved in covering up the criminal behavior.

“The newest stories that we’ve compiled reflect the same patterns as before: the impunity, the coverups and the trauma that lasts a lifetime. But as time passes, the cases coming forward are even more hidden, more complex and more serious,” the El Pais article read.

One such case is that of Albert Vallory, who went to a Catholic school in Lleida in the 1960s. He recounted how he and other boys in the choir were inappropriately touched by three Catholic monks. He also explained how he was raped by another when he was just six years old.

“I suspect that there are a lot of people like me. I was very innocent, silly and now, I’m ashamed of it as if it were my fault. The Stockholm syndrome lasts forever,” he told El Pais.