MADRID: Over 200,000 minors are estimated to have been sexually abused in Spain by the Roman Catholic clergy since 1940, according to an independent commission report published on Friday.

The report did not give specific figures but said a poll of over 8,000 people found that 0.6 per cent of Spain’s adult population of around 39 million people said they had suffered sexual abuse by members of the clergy when they were still children.

The percentage rises to 1.13 per cent (or over 400,000 people ) if abuse by lay members is included, Spain’s national ombudsman Angel Gabilondo told a presser called to present findings of the 700-page report.

The revelations in Spain are the latest to rock the Roman Catholic Church after a series of sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.

The commission also interviewed 487 victims, who stressed “the emotional problems” the abuse has caused them, Gabilondo said.

“There are people who have (died by) suicide... people who have never put their lives back together,” the former Socialist education minister said.

Unlike in other nations, in Spain — a traditionally Catholic country that has become highly secular — clerical abuse allegations only recently started to gain traction, leading to accusations by survivors of stonewalling.

The report is critical of the response of the Cat­holic Church, saying “it has long been characterised by denial and atte­mpts to downplay the issue”.

Unfortunately, for many years there had been a certain desire to deny abuses or a desire to conceal or protect the abusers, said Gabilondo.

Spain’s parliament in March 2022 overwhelmingly approved the creation of an independent commission led by the country’s ombudsman to look into clerical abuse.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2023