The Jesuits recognize seven new cases of child abuse in Spain

The Society of Jesus has recognized this Tuesday another seven cases of abuse of minors in Spain, three of them committed by members of the order, which brings the number of victims since the end of 1920 to 84 (and the accused Jesuits to 68), to which must be added four others who were attacked by laymen who worked for the order.

Until now, the Company, which was the first to carry out an internal investigation into pederasty in Spain, had not included lay people in its data.

This Tuesday has published a new report, with the complaints received throughout the past year.

In addition to reporting on cases of pederasty, the Jesuits also recognize four adults as victims of abuse, bringing the list to 41 adults and 35 Jesuits accused of these acts.

"The accusations are very varied, from visits to the showers to watch, humiliation and humiliating treatment, touching (the most frequent), to sexual relations," the report reads.

There are collected the new complaints about sexual abuse received last year, after his first investigation on the matter was published that January.

“At the end of 2021, the newspaper EL PAÍS also received a list of possible cases that occurred in institutions of the Society of Jesus.

Many of them were already being investigated.

Of the others, the investigation began in 2022 and for this reason this information will be included in the report” for next year, the document adds.

They thus refer to the dossier that this newspaper delivered to the Vatican and the Spanish Church, which also included denunciations against the Jesuits.

So far, 640 cases with 1.

The investigation of the Jesuits paved the way and later other orders were recognizing some cases.

However, it also drew criticism from experts.

For example, that of Gemma Varona, a criminologist at the University of the Basque Country who in 2015 carried out a pioneering study on the cases registered in Spain.

Shortly after the first Jesuit report was published, she told this newspaper that the summary that had been released is "incomplete and methodologically very doubtful."

"They do not explain how they have done it or make the complete study public," she pointed out at the time, and described the number of registered cases as "ridiculous."

Currently, the Ombudsman has entrusted the first official investigation to be opened in Spain on pederasty in the Catholic Church.

In its second report, the Society of Jesus does not specify too much regarding the abuses.

It limits itself to saying that the three new cases of which it is aware with minor victims were committed in the years 1956-1957, 1981 and between 1986 and 1990, in the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Community and Navarra, although it does not specify which community corresponds to each period.

Of the three accused Jesuits, two of them have already died and a canonical process has begun with the third.

In reference to the four allegations of abuse against adults, all the accused Jesuits are alive.

A canonical process has also been opened against one of them, in another two “no matter of canonical crime has been found, but in one it has been seen convenient to accompany and follow up the Jesuit, after having distanced him from the victim.”

And in the other, his superior in the country in which he is located has been informed (they do not specify which one) and it has been communicated to "the curia of the Jesuits in Rome".

The events took place in the Community of Madrid, the Balearic Islands and Castilla y León, one of them in 1975-1976, another from 1990 to 1995, a third between 1997 and 2022, and another between 2020 and 2021.

The investigation, until now, only included cases related to Jesuits, but this new report incorporates complaints against lay personnel of their institutions, as well as abuse among minors.

In total, 11 cases, five of them from the past and six from the present, involving teachers, monitors or volunteers reported, as well as minors.

Seven of them are complaints of cases of abuse committed by adults (all of them, part of the staff), in three of which "guilt has been dismissed".

In another three "a dismissal has been proceeded" and in another, the victim, now an adult, has not "wanted action by the Society of Jesus for the time being."

There are four other cases of abuse among minors who attended Jesuit institutions (only in one of the cases did the abuse take place in a center).

The order ensures that the "effort" in 2021 is "seeing its fruits."

"A change of culture is beginning to be perceived in our works and their personnel in this matter," the document adds.

In addition, it reports that last year "risk maps" of its institutions were drawn up, to "identify potential risks in each work in terms of all kinds of abuses", and also modified the physical spaces that did not comply with the regulations of their protocols (windows on the doors, lighting of certain spaces...).

“And references have begun to be requested in the hiring of workers, together with the certificate of crimes of a sexual nature from the Spanish Ministry of Justice, which has been required for years for positions that involve contact with minors,” it reads.

Also,

If you know of any case of sexual abuse that has not seen the light of day, write to us with your complaint at