El Pais Investigation Documents Over 3,000 Child Sexual Abuse Cases in Spanish Catholic Church

More than 3,000 people have reportedly suffered sexual abuse as minors within the Spanish Catholic Church, according to an eight-year investigation by the El Pais newspaper which published its latest findings on Monday. The outlet began collecting data on sex crimes within the church in 2018, when only 34 cases were officially known. Since then, through public testimonies, judicial records, and church admissions, the number of victims of pedophilia has risen to 3,084 with the earliest incidents dating back to the 1940's. The list of accused has reached 1,613, representing 1.46% of the 110,000 priests and laypeople who have served in Spain in the past 80 years. El Pais' latest report, the sixth in five years, has added 58 new testimonies from Spain accusing 50 clerics and laypeople, all men except two nuns, and a separate section covering 21 testimonies from eight Latin American countries with 24 individuals accused. The outlet said that it has shared all its findings with the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), the Vatican, and Spain's human rights commissioner. However, the newspaper noted that over the past five years, the Church has not responded substantively to the allegations with the CEE prioritizing "opacity and denial" while the Vatican has delegated responsibility to the Spanish bishops. El Pais has also noted a recurring pattern where accused priests are often transferred between parishes or sent abroad, sometimes to Latin America, without facing canonical or civil consequences. In several cases, religious orders are accused of having moved known offenders to new locations where they continued to have access to children. Previously, a 2023 survey by Spain's human rights commissioner estimated that 1.13% of the adult population, about 440,000 people, may have suffered sexual abuse in a Catholic environment. The latest findings mirror similar revelations in the US, where the Diocese of Brooklyn is currently seeking a global settlement for 1,100 child sex abuse cases, having already paid over $100 million to survivors. Pope Leo XIV, who will visit Spain in June, is said to have received copies of El Pais's reports but the Vatican has yet to comment on the latest findings.