Spain: probe on abuse in the Church
Four years after the newspaper El País handed over a dossier containing 251 unpublished cases of sexualised violence against children by Church employees to the Pope and the President of the Spanish Bishops' Conference, the Spanish parliament has agreed to consider setting up an inquiry into the claims of abuse. The Congress of Deputies approved a petition to this effect. The national press reflects a turbulent debate.
Paedocriminality is everywhere
La Razón fears the entire Catholic Church will be stigmatised:
“Parliament does not seem to be the most fitting body to investigate paedocriminality in the Church, unless the plan is to indict the entire institution, exploiting facts that are indeed terrible but that do not change the essence of what Catholicism represents in society as a whole. After all, paedocriminality is a scourge that is rampant in all educational institutions. ... It is therefore up to the courts to take the necessary action. ... Because the stigmatisation of the ecclesiastical institution by political and ideological circles opposed to the religion it represents has little to do with the search for justice and redress.”
Faith made parents blind
Writer Sergio del Molino wonders in El País about the spiritual power priests wield over their parishioners:
“We are mammals, we are designed to react violently against anything that threatens our offspring. ... To override this instinct, a person must be completely reprogrammed, like in a cult. This is the only way to explain the passivity of parents and the fact that there are hardly any cases of aggression against paedophile priests. If the abusers had not been wearing cassocks, I am convinced that the reaction would have been very different. ... But faith, when it is sincere, is always blind to any truth that could shake it.”