SPAIN
EuroWeekly
October 20, 2018
By Tara Rippin
A SPANISH bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse is to lead a commission against paedophilia in the church.
Juan Antonio Menendez has proposed to update its protocols for action against these crimes.
The Bishop of Astorga is reported as saying it will be ‘a matter of recovering and bringing back everything that the civil and canonical regulations have been issuing these years’.
The Spanish Episcopal Conference intends to outline its actions, up to now governed by agreements signed between Spain and the Vatican in 1979, and the Protocol of Action Against Abuses the institute activated in 2010, before many of the documented cases became public.
It comes after Pope Francis declared he wants to open an ‘internal debate’ at a meeting scheduled for February 2019, to which all presidents of the conferences are expected to attend.
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