LISBON (PORTUGAL)
Lusa News Agency [Lisbon, Portugal]
April 12, 2022
The independent commission created in January to investigate sexual abuse in the Portuguese Catholic church has already received 290 valid testimonies from victims and 16 cases have already been referred to the prosecutor.
In an assessment of the first three months of work, made on Tuesday at a press conference at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, the former minister of justice Alvaro Laborinho Lúcio, who is part of the commission, said that among the 290 validated testimonies, 16 have not yet been invalidated and, therefore, have been referred to the prosecutor.
Created in January to investigate sexual abuse in the Portuguese catholic church, the independent commission had already received 214 statements from victims, aged between 15 and 88, in its first month of activity.
Complaints and statements can be sent to the commission by completing an online survey at darvozaosilencio.org, by mobile phone +351917110000 (daily between 10am and 8pm), by email at geral@darvozaosilencio.org, and by letter to “Comissão Independente”, Apartado 012079, EC Picoas 1061-011 Lisbon.
At the time, and to make its work known to more people, the commission contacted other structures and institutions closer to the public, namely diocesan commissions, religious institutes in Portugal, the Child Support Institute, the National Commission for the Promotion of the Rights and Protection of Children and Young People, the Portuguese Association for Victim Support, the Association Quebrar o Silêncio and the System of Protection and Care of Minors and Vulnerable Adults.
Until the end of the year, the commission intends to collect testimonies and denunciations from people who suffered abuse in childhood and adolescence, up to the age of 18. At the end of its work, a report will be drafted and given to the Portuguese Episcopal Conference (CEP), which will decide what action to take.
Besides Pedro Strecht, the commission includes the psychiatrist Daniel Sampaio, the former minister of justice Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio, the sociologist Ana Nunes de Almeida, the social worker and family therapist Filipa Tavares and the film director Catarina Vasconcelos.
MYCA/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa