The Polish Catholic Church revealed on Monday June 28 that it has received, since 2018, several hundred new complaints for sexual assault on minors committed by members of the clergy.
The report comes as the Church, politically very influential in Poland, is faced with a series of high-profile accusations of child crime and cover-ups, a taboo subject not long ago, in this country on trial. very attached to the Catholic faith.
Read also: The Church's plan against pedophilia
"
What is striking ... is that since the last investigation, we have had a wave of revelations
", declared Adam Zak, Jesuit and coordinator within the Polish episcopate, responsible for the protection of children. "
There are certainly still a lot of hidden cases that probably continue to be reported,
" he said during an online presentation of the results of the study.
From July 2018 to the end of last year, 368 cases of sexual assault, committed between 1958 and last year, were reported to the Church.
According to the Polish Catholic Church, 39% of the complaints were found to be founded.
Investigations are continuing into just under 51% of the remaining cases while 10% of complaints were dismissed for reasons such as lack of credibility.
Half of the victims were under 15, the age of consent in Poland.
The assaults were evenly distributed between the sexes.
Some of these attacks lasted more than ten years.
According to Adam Zak the number of recent cases was "
not at all low
".
4 bishops sanctioned, two resignations
A previous Church report found nearly 400 clergy sexually assaulting children and minors between 1990 and 2018. A long string of accusations of sexual assault has rocked the Polish Church in recent years, especially after the release of the viral documentary “
Tell no one
” by journalist Tomasz Sekielski.
Since last year, the Vatican has sanctioned four Polish bishops for covering up acts of pedophilia committed by members of the clergy, and announced the resignation of two other bishops, including that of Bishop Zbigniew Kiernikowski, on Monday, accused of the similar facts.
The Holy See also sanctioned the 97-year-old Polish cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz, who has since died, following an investigation, the nature of which has not been specified and accepted the resignation of Archbishop Slawoj Leszek Glodz to the following accusations of harassment of priests and failure to respond to allegations of sexual assault. The Vatican is also investigating a very close collaborator of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, for similar suspicions.
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