Spain signs agreement with Church to compensate abuse victims

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MADRID — The Spanish government and the Catholic Church signed a landmark agreement Thursday to compensate victims of sexual abuse by clergy, aiming to settle what officials described as a "moral debt".

The accord signed by Justice Minister Felix Bolanos and the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) sets up a system to provide reparations to victims of church-related sexual abuse who are unable to pursue legal action, often due to statutes of limitations, the justice ministry said in a statement.

"For decades, there has been silence, concealment, a moral harm often impossible to repair," Bolanos told a news conference.

"This agreement allows us to settle a historical moral debt we owed to the victims of abuse."

Under the new system, the Church will fund the reparations, a first in Spain, where ecclesiastical authorities had previously resisted participating in such programs.

Luis Arguello, president of the CEE, called the agreement "another step along the path we have been pursuing for years", noting that the Church already had internal mechanisms to compensate victims.

Victims will submit complaints to the state ombudsman's office, which will propose reparations that may include financial, moral, psychological, restorative, or combined measures, Bolanos said.

If either the victim or the Church rejects the proposal, a mixed commission of representatives from the Church, the government, and victims will review it.

Failing an agreement at that stage, the ombudsman's recommendation will prevail.

Bolanos credited the Vatican with providing "a necessary and essential impetus" for the deal, which he had previously discussed with the late Pope Francis and Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.

The move follows a 2023 report by Spain's ombudsman, which found that more than 200,000 minors had suffered sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy since 1940.

That number could rise to 400,000 if abuse by laypersons in religious settings is included.

The Church's own records list 1,057 "registered cases", with 358 deemed "proven" or "credible".

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.