Spain’s church to compensate victims whose abusers have died. Victims say the plan lacks guarantees

Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s Catholic bishops have approved a plan to compensate the victims of sexual abuse inside the Church whose alleged aggressors have died or whose possible crimes have been proscribed, an initiative the government and victims’ associations called lacking in real guarantees. The Spanish Episcopal Conference did not provide an estimate on how many victims it could help. But last year the conference said it had found evidence of 728 sexual abusers within the church since 1945. Last year a survey by Spain’s Public Ombudsman office indicated that the total number of victims could be much higher.