EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018 and did a database updated with all known cases. If you know of any cases that have not seen the light of day, you can write to us at: Abusos@elpais.es If it is Latin America, the address is: abusesamerica@elpais.es
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Victim of pedophilia by a priest of the diocese of Barcelona, whose case was discovered by EL PAÍS in 2023, he finally collected 50,000 euros in compensation from the Church, but when asked whether they would then take away part of his tax return, those responsible for the archbishopric shrugged their shoulders. “They told me they didn’t know anything,” he says. Apparently no one in the Church or government has thought about it, despite the fact that they have been fighting for compensation for the victims for years. It’s a systemic failure that adds to all the obstacles victims already face in getting financially compensated.
This person consulted with the Treasury and his tax advisor and found that this compensation should have a withholding, because to be exempt from taxes, according to the law, it would have to be the result of a judicial decision, and these cases are not. That of this victim and all the others, which at this moment, according to the financial statements of this newspaper, are 2,936, even if the Church has so far only accepted 99 compensation for practices, 2.9%. That is, those victims of pedophilia in the Church who receive compensation will then see how the Treasury will take care of them. For this reason, this person reported the case to the Ombudsman, who asked the Treasury Ministry to apply an exemption on Church compensation, as already happens, for example, for victims of terrorism.
As for the amount to be withheld, the victim says she went to ask at the Treasury office in Barcelona and they couldn’t explain it to her there either. They told him it was “a new case for them”. And he adds: “Apparently it depended on how the Church declared it. I remember that the person who assisted me told me about a box to which the increase in assets could be attributed, but he didn’t know much about it.” He also asked the archbishop how the Church would declare the compensation paid to the treasury, but received no response.
The victims who turned to PRIVA (Complete Reparation Plan for Victims of Abuse) to ask for compensation have been complaining for months about how slow and cumbersome the process is, and about the re-victimization they suffer by having to go and testify before the same institution that did not protect them from the abuse they suffered during childhood. Many fear that once the attacks are known, they will not be investigated. They also complain about the obscurantism that exists regarding the scales used to fix compensation: because there are repairs worth 3,000 euros and others worth 50,000 and more. Furthermore, the resolutions of the independent commission are not binding: it makes an economic proposal, but the diocese can modify it without the victims knowing what the criteria are.
The victim in Barcelona who reported the tax problem was not even given a copy of the opinion of the commission that had decided on his compensation, according to what he told this newspaper. He also asks how the amount was decided and why it was that amount and not another. “It gave me the feeling that it was all very arbitrary,” he points out. When he questioned the existence of criteria for setting the amount of compensation, he says they replied: “Yes, they exist, but we don’t say them because otherwise it would create comparisons between victims and more confusion.” Furthermore, he asked to speak in person with the archbishop, Cardinal Juan José Omella, and five months have passed without a response.
When the transfer was made, the concept that appears is “moral reparation and economic compensation”, as this newspaper verified. His tax advisor informed him that they would withhold a portion because, according to Spanish law, for the compensation to be tax-free, it must be judicially recognized. In the vast majority of sexual abuse in the Church there is no resolution because the cases are prescribed by law and, therefore, there has been no trial. That’s why the victim asked the Ombudsman for help.
A petition that reaches the Senate
In a letter to which this newspaper had access, dated 6 November, the Ombudsman responded that he had asked the Secretary of State for Finance to “promote as soon as possible the amendment of Article 7 of Law 35/2006 on personal income tax, so that it includes the exemption for compensation for civil liability corresponding to personal injuries (physical, mental or moral) that bodies of the Catholic Church pay as compensation for abuse”. The objective is to prevent the tax burden from worsening the damage suffered.
The letter contains references to the Guarantor’s report on pedophilia in the Spanish Catholic Church, presented in 2023, which underlines that “the public authorities have the responsibility so that the victims of these crimes can see the right to justice they demand recognized, without forgetting that they must assume the part of the responsibility that falls on them for the prolonged period of inattention and inactivity”. For this reason, the Guarantor underlines that, as the Secretariat of State for Finance itself indicates, “nothing prevents the legislator, taking into account its social policy objectives, from establishing a specific exemption for the aforementioned compensation, as has been done with other income in response to the aforementioned purposes, and may include, among others, extraordinary public benefits for acts of terrorism.”
In this direction, on Monday, the left-wing Parliamentary Group for Independence (Esquerra Republicana and Euskal Herria Bildu) asked the Senate to draw up a motion regarding the exemption from personal income tax of compensation to victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church for discussion in the Finance Committee. Among the reasons is, in fact, “the devastating impact that these events had on thousands of people, many of whom were minors at the time of the events”.
The motion proposes that the Finance Commission urge the Government to “promote, through the decree law, the modification of article 7 of law 35/2006, on the income tax of natural persons” to “ensure that said tax exemption fully preserves the economic recovery”. Furthermore, “the Catholic Church and its organizations and institutions are required to declare such compensation to the public treasury, without prejudice to the amount that the victims will receive”.
