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RELIGION

Spain’s Catholic church backs plan to compensate sex abuse victims

Spain's Catholic Church on Tuesday said it had approved a plan to compensate victims of child sexual abuse by its clergy and expressed hope it would be operational within months.

Published: 10 July 2024 09:11 CEST
Spain's Catholic church backs plan to compensate sex abuse victims
Recent estimates suggest up to 400,000 people have been the victims of sexual abuse by members of Spain's Catholic Church over the past decades. (Photo by LLUIS GENE / AFP)

Spain’s left-wing government has upped pressure on the Church over clerical abuse which has only recently gained traction in a country once deeply Catholic but now increasingly secular.

The document, which outlines “guidelines for Church action in relation to sexual abuse committed against minors”, was approved Tuesday by the CEE Episcopal Conference, which groups Spain’s leading bishops, the body said in a statement.

READ ALSO: Spain’s Catholic bishops apologise after report of 200,000 abused

The bishops also backed the creation of a committee to assess each case and decide on the specific level of compensation, which would be “operational as soon as possible, ideally from September”, CEE head archbishop Luis Arguello told a news conference.

“This is an important day,” he said, indicating the Church was “opening a door to a system of comprehensive reparations”, while indicating “the majority of cases involved dated back to before the 1990s”.

Asked about cases where dioceses were unable or unwilling to compensate a victim, Jesús Díaz Sariego, who heads Spain’s conference of religious orders, said the Church authorities would step in.

“If a case arose where a congregation, or a diocese.. refused to give compensation, the higher Church authority will step in to cover it,” he told reporters.

The CEE said in March it had approved its own comprehensive compensation plan for victims but did not give details about how or when it would be implemented, nor did it give figures.

Victims groups have denounced the Church’s opacity and its failure so far to offer any reparations.

Figures published in October in the first-ever official report on child sexual abuse within the Church estimated that more than 400,000 people had suffered sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy and other lay people since 1940.

It proposed a compensation fund be set up – but the Church ruled out taking part if it was only for compensating victims of pastoral abuse, and not those who suffered in any other setting.

Casting doubt on the “dubious reliability” of the reported figures, the CEE pointed to an audit it commissioned which found some 2,056 minors were abused by the clergy.

In April, the government adopted a plan based on the recommendations in the October report which was compiled by independent experts working under the Spanish ombudsman.

That included the creation of a state compensation fund for victims — an idea backed by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

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RELIGION

The little known Anglican community in Catholic Spain

Spain is traditionally known as one of the world's most Catholic countries, but there are many Anglican and other English-speaking churches around the country.

Published: 4 July 2024 09:20 CEST
The little known Anglican community in Catholic Spain

Spain is regarded as one of Europe’s and the world’s most Catholic countries, although the trend now is more towards cultural Catholicism rather than a devout religiosity, and the numbers back this up.

In May 1978, 90.5 percent of Spaniards described themselves as Catholic. By October 2021, however, that figure had fallen to 55.4 percent, according to the CIS, Spain’s sociological research centre. Of those, less and less are practicing beyond going to Mass on special occasions like Christmas and Easter.

Nonetheless, whether it be Seville’s world famous Semana Santa celebrations, or the endless street names named after famous Bishops and Priests, or even the occasional nun you see walking down the street, Spain is undoubtedly still a Catholic country.

READ ALSO: FOCUS: How Catholic are people in Spain nowadays?

It may come as a surprise to you then to learn that the Anglican Church claims that Madrid’s first cathedral was not Catholic but Anglican. In fact, the capital city is home to several Anglican churches, and there are many more scattered around Spain.

Anglican churches can be found as far flung as Seville and Galicia, Bilbao, all long the Costa del Sol around the Málaga area, as well as in southeastern Spain from Murcia up through Alicante to Valencia and Barcelona and beyond. They can also be found on the Balearic and Canary Islands, Zaragoza, and Salamanca. 

Below is a map of all the Anglican churches in Spain that are associated with the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church. There are likely many more that have popped up to cater to British migrant communities.

Anglicanism in Spain

Anglicanism in Spain goes back a long way, and has its roots in the 16th-century Spanish Reformation when certain Spaniards supported the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther in Germany.

Initially Anglicanism was adopted by some (in reality very few) members of the Spanish nobility, though of course these numbers paled in comparison to the pre-established Catholic hegemony in the country.

Nowadays this is made up of two separate Church bodies, namely the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church, which are the majority, and then Church of England’s European Diocese which usually cater for British immigrants living in Spain.

Anglican All Saints Church in the Tenerife town of Puerto de la Cruz, in the Canary Islands. Photo: Koppchen/Wikipedia (CC BY 3.0)

The latter are usually English-language churches where the services are carried out in English, whereas the Spanish Episcopal church services are in Spanish for Spaniards.

Increasingly, many Anglican churches also attract Latin American migrants.

In terms of total congregation numbers, it’s hard to say. Carlos López Lozano, Spain’s most senior Anglican bishop, told COPE radio network that “In terms of membership, the figures are around 20,000 in total, which includes Spaniards and British people living in our country.”

Anglican Madrid

Incredibly for the capital city of a Catholic country, at the end of the 19th century Madrid’s first cathedral was built… and it reportedly wasn’t Catholic.

La Catedral del Redentor was built in and 1880 and still stands on Calle de la Beneficencia, in Malasaña, just behind the Barceló Market.

This means that there are daily church services in the Spanish capital that don’t look to the Pope in the Vatican, but to the Archbishop of Canterbury in England.

In total there are five Anglican churches in the Madrid regions and few Madrileños are aware of their existence. They are in Móstoles, Alcorcón, Navalcarnero, the aforementioned Madrid cathedral and the church of San Jorge (Saint George) in calle Núñez de Balboa.

Other English speaking churches in Spain

Spain is also home to several other types of English-speaking churches that are non-Catholic.

There’s the International Christian Assembly in Torrevieja (Alicante) an evangelical church which does services in English, Spanish and Dutch.

There’s also the Barcelona International Church, the Cádiz All Nations Christian Fellowship, Calahonda Baptist Church in Mijas, Málaga, Salt Church, an evangelical church in Los Alcázares, Murcia, as well as the Immanuel Baptist Church in Madrid, Madrid International Church, an evangelical church with offers bilingual services, and Elim Family Fellowship church, a pentecostal church in Málaga.

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