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Catholic leaders in Portugal take up the laity's call for an independent body to investigate and prevent the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults
By Matthieu Lasserre | Portugal
Similar to the action taken by their confreres in France, the Catholic bishops of Portugal have announced they will create a "national commission" to investigate Church-related cases of sexual abuse of minors.
The Portuguese Bishops' Conference (CEP) announced the plan last Thursday while holding a plenary assembly at the Marian shrine of Fatima.
The Church leaders said the commission will have the task of "strengthening and extending the treatment of cases [of abuse] and the respective follow-up at the civil and canonical levels".
They said it will also "carry out a study to establish the historical context of this serious problem" of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.
"We are not afraid," said Bishpo José Ornelas, the CEP president.
"We are very sorry and it costs us a lot to deal with these things, like any family facing such a problem, but it is in our best interest to clarify all this," he said during the CEP assembly's closing press conference.
Like the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE), which investigated cases in France, a CEP statement said the Portuguese body would be made up of qualified lay people as well as "some non-Catholics".
Among other things, it will be in charge of coordinating and supporting 21 already existing diocesan commissions "made up of lay people qualified in various fields such as law, psychiatry and psychology".
Bishop Ornelas said the committee would work in conjunction with local groups in order to allow "over time for the harmonization of methods and a better understanding of this phenomenon".
Among the tasks detailed by the Portuguese bishops are assistance in the management of information surrounding sexual abuse, the drafting of a manual intended to unify the procedures to be applied in handling complaints and the creation of a national hotline for victims.
The CEP president told reporters that there is "unanimity" among the bishops on the need for "clarity" on the issue.
An investigation is expected
More than 240 Portuguese Catholics – including psychologists, committed lay people, the former president of Caritas and numerous priests and religious – had called on the bishops at the beginning of their conference plenary to set up such a commission.
In a letter on November 8 they urged their pastors to launch "without delay… a rigorous national investigation" to be carried out "by a commission of experts... lay Catholics, non-believers and professionals in the social sciences and justice whose autonomy and independence are absolutely indisputable".
A lawyer named Nuno Franco Caido was behind the letter campaign.
He said he was motivated by "the surprising results of the investigation commissioned by the French bishops and the opinion articles, unanimously and severely critical of the Portuguese bishops' reactions to the problem".
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