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Catholic Church in Lisbon
Photo: Armando Franca/AP
There have only been a handful of cases of sexual abuse - this has long been the narrative of Catholic church officials in Portugal.
However, a report presented on Monday suggests that at least 4,815 people have been victims of sexual assault by clergy and church workers since 1950.
512 of them had reported their experiences to the commission.
Experience has shown that the number of unreported cases of sexual offenses within the church is high.
Psychiatrist Pedro Strecht, who was involved in the study, said the majority of those affected were between the ages of ten and fourteen.
The youngest victim was two years old.
The majority of the victims had been abused more than once.
25 cases were forwarded to the state investigative authorities - most other incidents were criminally statute-barred.
The bishops commissioned the independent study about a year ago.
Now the church wants to evaluate the results.
According to the report, 77 percent of the suspects were priests, and 47 percent of the victims were women.
48 percent of those affected stated that they were making the abuse public for the first time.
Neither the names of the victims nor those of the alleged perpetrators were mentioned in the report from Portugal.
Also, no crime scenes were listed.
However, the dioceses will be given a list of all those suspects who are still in the service of the church, it said.
The police and the Portuguese Bishops' Conference also received the non-public list.
increase the statute of limitations
The Catholic Church in Portugal did not comment on whether and in what form those affected should be compensated.
The authors of the study strongly recommended increasing the statute of limitations for sexual abuse from the current 23 to at least 30 years.
The Portuguese commission began its work in January 2022 after a report from France stated that around 3,000 clergy and church workers there had abused more than 200,000 minors.
ala/Reuters