At least 2,056 minors were victims of sexual abuse, according to an audit based on lawsuits filed against members of the clergy. It was however “obvious that the number is higher”, said the Spanish Episcopal Conference, which groups Spain’s leading bishops. The audit was prepared by the law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo.

The figures from the audit are far lower than those cited in the independent commission published in October. It found that more than 200,000 were estimated to have been sexually abused in Spain by the Roman Catholic clergy since 1940.

That report did not however give a specific figure.

Instead, it extrapolated from a poll of over 8,000 people, which found that 0.6 percent of Spain’s adult population of around 39 million people had said they had suffered sexual abuse by members of the clergy during childhood.

That percentage rose to 1.13 percent — or more 400,000 people — when the questions included abuse by lay members.

Cardinal Juan Jose Omella, head of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, cast doubt at the time on the “dubious reliability” of those figures. He said the Church was aware of 1,125 cases of sexual abuse.

In February 2022, the Church tasked private law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo with the audit — the first time that it had ordered an investigation into the issue. The brief covered past and present sexual abuse by clergy, teachers and others.

But one victim’s association dismissed the church audit as a “smokescreen”.

The Church has said it will publish the full audit, which it received on Saturday at a later date. But it said Thursday that the audit listed a total of 1,383 complaints
without saying how many members of the clergy had allegedly committed sexual crimes.

The victims were mainly men, and the sexual violence was committed mainly in schools and seminaries by priests or teachers, it added.

Unlike in other nations including France, Ireland and the United States, clerical abuse allegations are only now gaining traction in Spain.

A traditionally Catholic country, it has become increasingly secular.