An investigation by the daily El Pais into 251 suspected pedophiles in the Spanish Catholic Church has been transmitted to the Vatican, which has opened internal investigations, according to a newspaper article published on Sunday.
"
The Church has opened a large investigation, unprecedented in Spain, on 251 members of the clergy and some lay people of religious institutions accused of sexual assault on minors, which El Pais has been investigating for the past three years
", wrote this Spanish newspaper.
Read alsoPedophilia: the Spanish episcopal conference asks the dioceses to investigate
These accusations and testimonies relate to facts that occurred between 1943 and 2018 detailed in a report submitted to the Pope on December 2, said the daily, which published the first anonymized data of these cases on its website. In matters of sexual violence, the Church's investigations are opened and carried out from the Vatican by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was not able to confirm the opening of investigations to AFP on Sunday.
For its part, the Spanish Episcopal Conference "
reiterates its interest and its willingness to carry out an investigation into all cases of abuse
" and "
encourages all victims to submit complaints
", in a statement released on Sunday.
Since 2001, the Vatican has already received 220 complaints of sexual violence in the Spanish Church, a spokesperson for the Spanish Episcopal Conference told AFP.
