It was a real bomb that the Spanish daily dropped on Monday April 20The Country, which reveals having transmitted to the Vatican a file of around a hundred pages containing 21 testimonies relating to acts of child crime allegedly committed by 24 priests, religious and lay people from eight countries on the American continent. More than half of the cases (13) are linked to Colombia. The others concern the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador and Venezuela.
This is the final part of work begun in 2021 to compile the testimonies of victims in Spain, and which now extends to America. According toThe Country, “The various cases brought together in this report demonstrate once again that many complaints do not reach Rome, even though their reporting has been mandatory since 2001. In very rare cases, victims have benefited from adequate care or financial compensation. In general, they were ignored.â€
A pact of silence
If the newspaper does not disclose the identity of the victims, it undertakes to transmit it to the ecclesiastical authorities if the latter open an investigation and if the victims consent. The defendants are designated by their initials, the place and the year where the alleged events took place.
