The president of the Spanish bishops meets this Wednesday with victims of clerical pederasty

It will be a historic meeting. For the first time since the scandal of sexual abuse of minors broke out in the Spanish Church, the Episcopal Conference opens its doors, in public, to the victims of pedophilia, in a meeting, with lights and stenographers, which will be reported to the press According to elDiario.es, the president of the CEE, Juan José Omella, will meet this Wednesday afternoon with fifteen members of the National Association of Stolen Children, which brings together survivors of clerical pederasty and abuses of power and of another nature in other spheres of society.

The meeting takes place after a gradual rapprochement between the Cardinal of Barcelona and the representatives of Infancia Robada, and unlike other occasions (both the former president, Ricardo Blázquez, and the secretary general, Luis Argüello, have met with victims at the Casa of the Church), the meeting will be made public. After the meeting, Omella and representatives of the association will appear before the media.

This novelty, explicitly requested by the victims, represents a change in the communication policy of the House of the Church, which has been managed directly by Cardinal Omella. In principle, the cardinal will attend the meeting alone. Except for a last minute surprise, the attendance of the CEE spokesman Luis Argüello is not expected. Neither does that of representatives of the office Cremades & Calvo Sotelo, in charge of the external audit to investigate the abuse of minors in the Spanish Church.

Tomorrow's meeting contrasts with the words of the Secretary General of the EEC, who last week, at a press conference, pointed out that "a meeting with the victims in the next Episcopal Plenary Assembly has not been considered"which will be held at the end of April. Argüello did point out that “the Cremades team has the desire to meet with all the associations and with all the people who want to do so”. At the moment, Stolen Childhood has no intention of doing so, pointing to the relationship between the firm's founder and Opus Dei, which has not yet condemned or apologized to the victim of the 'Gaztelueta case', a member of the association.

What the bishops have done, and it is a novelty compared to the last few months, is to present a series of data, coming from the 202 offices that the Church has between dioceses (60) and religious congregations (142), and that throws the least 506 victims of abuse – “to whom we want to offer recognition and reparation in the future,” they pointed out.

The figure is double the number recognized just a year ago, which was 220 victims, and which includes a good part of those included in the report The country. In 2021, in addition, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith received and investigates 14 new cases, which have not passed through the sieve of the Spanish Church.

Meanwhile, the other commission, led by the Ombudsman, has already begun its search and selection of candidates, from inside and outside the Church, to be part of the study commissioned by the Congress of Deputies. Gabilondo, who plans to present his members last Easter, is trying to gather experts in all areas, and making it clear that it is not a "hunt" against the Church. Despite this, the direct participation of the Episcopal Conference in it is not at all clear, since, as Argüello added at a press conference, "the Church is not a public administration" to which, by law, the Ombudsman of the People can control.

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