New research reveals the gravity of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and the dearth of initiatives to ret it

In April, the Spanish Catholic Church recognized, for the first time, 220 cases of child abuse perpetrated by Spanish priests since 2001 in a statement made by the spokesperson of the Spanish Episcopal Conference in a press conference. Initiatives to report sexual abuse in religious institutions in Spain have always been scant. The protocols implemented to prevent it in the Spanish Catholic Church have been wide-ranging, but there has been no in-depth investigation into the abuse taking place over the years to make adequate and equitable reparations to all the victims. This is one of the conclusions of the most ambitious study on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church ever undertaken in Spain. The study was conducted by Josep M. Tamarit, of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Noemí Pereda, of the University of Barcelona (UB), and Gema Varona, of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).

The results of this research were presented on Monday 28 June at the Conference on child sexual abuse at religious institutions: restorative responses based on victimology, which was held at the auditorium of the Carlos Santamaría Centre of the University of the Basque Country, in San Sebastián. The event, which was organized by the researchers, included the participation of experts in criminology, psychology, criminal law and other fields of knowledge, in addition to investigative journalists, victims, and professionals involved with specific victim support programmes.

It is a project coordinated by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), along with the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), a pioneer in this field since 2013, and the University of Barcelona (UB). The project encompasses all investigations into this type of abuse carried out in Spain with the aim of comparing the results with those of other countries and discussing the impact they may have on reparation, intervention and prevention for this kind of abuse.

Multidisciplinary project

The study was conducted from 2018 to 2021 by a group of professionals with solid research experience in the field of victimology. The project received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the EU. The framework of this project encompassed several studies assessing specific aspects of the situation in Spain.

The study included quantitative and qualitative research, concluding that males were the prime targets of abuse, although there was a specific gender perspective section on the invisibility of female victimization. It also found evidence of the deep, enduring harm suffered by victims, both with respect to the crime perpetrated against them and to the secondary victimization or added harm resulting from an institutional response that frequently tended to conceal, silence, confuse and, even, blame the victims. Likewise, the victims were often children and adolescents in situations already exacerbated by exclusion, social disadvantage or disability.

The study shows that the sexual abuse was mainly committed by priests who were aware that their victims had suffered before and that they were, thus, extremely vulnerable and lacked protection. This meant they could act with impunity.

"Research into how the Catholic Church reacted to the appearance of cases of abuse reveals a variety of different attitudes. The predominant attitude in many countries was one of defence, based on denial or minimizing the problem. When it proved impossible to deny the existence of abuse cases, the official response tended to present them as isolated cases or focus explanations on individual causes, attributing the abuse to the psychopathological traits of the abusers and ignoring the possible influence of environmental or structural causes," said Tamarit, the coordinator of the project and the principal investigator of the UOC's Criminal Justice System (VICRIM) research group.

Risk factors

This project also covered the structural causes of sexual abuse at Spanish ecclesiastic institutions. This identified aspects such as clerical power, moral perfectionism, the concept of sexuality, secrecy, loneliness and the idea of sin and forgiveness as risk factors. The UPV/EHU team specifically focused on institutional and organizational aspects and analysed the harm caused by so-called institutional and spiritual betrayal, which is the term used in specialist comparative research projects. Its fundamental findings included the instrumentalization of the victims and prioritizing institutional reputation over the individual rights of the abused children.

Moreover, canon law, which has recently been reformed, for a long time did not consider the rights that victims should have in procedures to review cases. According to international regulations, these cases require an assurance of specialization to treat sexual victimization, in addition to impartiality and the protection of the victims, without affecting the presumption of innocence.

Some restorative justice programmes seek means of moral and financial reparation for the victims, enabling both accountability and solidarity that reaffirms the injustice of the harm caused. In this way it is possible to assume individual and institutional responsibility and recover the trust and legitimacy lost or questioned by many victims and by society, provided that these restorative programmes are independent in nature.

The project, the results of which are being published by Aranzadi, offers specific good practice models to allow religious institutions and public bodies in general, as well as civil society, to develop responses based on solidarity with the victims, with honesty and commitment, two aspects that are especially important in this context. They also illustrate the greater success achieved by other countries in relation to this social problem. This has allowed the institutions concerned to improve, given that they have taken the harm done seriously and considered the problem within a framework of justice and public health.

The University of Barcelona, for its part, described the characteristics of the victims, mainly children with a history of abuse; the seriousness of the sexual abuse, which was repeated and physical, including penetration in more than half of the cases; the psychological consequences, with the majority of the victims suffering chronic problems such as anxiety and depression, sexual difficulties, and eating and sleeping disorders; and the spiritual trauma related to the extreme impact that the sexual abuse has had on their faith and their belief in the Catholic Church. The reports made by the victims to the Church years after the sexual abuse, after a period of growing up and reflecting, were also analysed. The institutional responses were also examined and seen to cause new harm and feelings of betrayal that increased the discomfort of the victims.

The researchers showed their gratitude to all the people who collaborated with the study, including members of the Church, but especially the victims, both direct and indirect, who offered their testimony for analysis as part of the project.

This research by the UOC promotes Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 (Peace Justice and Strong Institutions).

UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century, by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health. Over 500 researchers and 51 research groups work among the University's seven faculties and two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and open knowledge serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu. #UOC25years