Portugal church readies pay for sex abuse victims

LISBON (AFP) — Portugal’s Roman Catholic church announced Thursday that it was ready to pay compensation to victims of church sex abuse, just over a year after a report said thousands of minors suffered.

Portugal is among a number of countries to have been confronted by church abuse scandals in recent years. A report published in February 2023 found that at least 4,815 minors had been victims of sexual violence by church officials since 1950.

It is not known how many people will apply for compensation, however, as many victims have since died.

Compensation requests must be made between June and December, according to a statement issued after Portuguese bishops met in the central town of Fatima. Money will be paid from a fund set up by the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference financed by all of the country’s dioceses.

The report by an independent commission found that violence and abuse was covered up by the Church hierarchy in a “systemic” way.

The commission gathered more than 500 testimonies in a country where 80 percent of the population of 10 million identifies itself as Catholic.

Church leaders apologized to the victims and acknowledged that it was necessary to “change the culture of the Church.”