Survivors of clerical sexual abuse in Portugal have been airing their grievances following the revelation by The Pillar last week that bishops made significant cuts to recommended compensation packages suggested by a panel of experts commissioned by the country’s episcopal conference.
António Grosso of Coração Silenciado (Silenced Heart), an association for survivors of abuse, described the bishops’ attitude as “unspeakable,” but said the decision to reduce recommended compensation payments
“There was a Compensation Determination Commission, which included judges,” he told The Pillar. “Words have meaning. ‘determination’ means determination. But as it turns out, the commission determined something and then someone came along later and decided differently.”
The Pillar reported this week that the Portuguese bishops’ conference cut the proposed compensation packages by about 50%, which in many cases amounted to tens of thousands of euros.
The bishops did not disclose their decision publicly, or to the victims, only confirming it after news of the decision was reported by The Pillar.
According to Grosso, the decision not to disclose a vote to cut compensation by the bishops’ conference in February was characteristic of a lack of transparency.
“That has bothered us for a long time,” he said. “This whole process is based on a report on our lives. That report was what the Compensation Determination Commission worked on, and it is what the bishops read, and they clearly considered that the facts described didn’t merit the [recommended] compensation, so they made the cuts. But throughout the whole process, we were never allowed to read what was written in those reports and what led them to those conclusions.”
The bishops’ conference has defended its decision, saying this week that the new amounts align with Portuguese jurisprudence and with compensations awarded by other European countries such as France and Germany.
Grosso is himself a survivor of sexual abuse, he told The Pillar. He received a Church compensation package for a case of abuse he says was perpetrated by a priest in the minor seminary he attended as a child. The priest is now deceased.
On Thursday the Portuguese Victim Support Association (APAV), a secular organization which defends the rights of victims – not exclusively victims of sexual abuse – issued a statement lamenting the bishops’ decisions and the way the process was conducted.
APAV’s Carla Ferreira, criticized “the cuts to compensation decided by the Church, ignoring a technical report issued by the Compensation Determination Commission.”
“This commission was composed of seven legal experts, possessed specific technical expertise, and had established a set of compensation amounts that the Church said it would not pay and therefore decided to reduce,” she said in the statement. “Therefore, we regret the way in which this technical opinion was disregarded.”
“If there was a limit to the money available, they should have made that clear to the commission beforehand,” she added.
The organization also criticized that victims will be required to pay tax on any funds received. Although that has to do with the tax law, which the Church naturally does not control, Carla Ferreira says that the bishops’ conference still could have taken measures to address the issue in the final award amounts:
“The Church has shown no regard for the impact of taxation, nor does it appear that there was any attempt to coordinate with the Portuguese government to potentially find an exemption,” she said.
‘I should have realized what I was getting into’
Manuela Fernandes made her first confession in 1968. “The priest asked me if I had bad thoughts. I had no idea what he meant, so he showed me. Physically. That was my introduction to sexuality. I was eight years old,” she told The Pillar.
When the Portuguese bishops formed an independent commission to study the extent of clerical sexual abuse in Portugal, Fernandes got in touch and told her story.
“I never thought of asking for compensation, but when I saw some of the bishops, and even the President of the Republic, belittle the problem I realized that money is all they really care about. So when the Church announced this program for requesting compensation I applied,” she said. “I should have realized what I was getting into.”
“I am the victim here. But I was forced to meet on the Church’s terms, in places the Church appointed, with people who worked for the Church. I felt like someone who was robbed and was being judged in the thief’s own home, by his employees,” she told The Pillar.
Manuela’s alledged abuser left the priesthood decades ago.
One of Manuela’s complaints has to do with a receipt that victims are required to sign in order to obtain their compensations. The receipt includes commitments not to sue for future compensation, whether through the legal system or extrajudicial means. Victims say this release is rekindling old traumas by preventing them from seeking justice, with many calling the liability release a kind of gag order.
In an open letter to the Portuguese bishops published in the website “Sete Margens”, one victim, who used a pseudonym said: “You’ve put a price on my pain, but it comes with silencing clauses. I’m only entitled to ‘reparation’ if I surrender my voice. As if, after everything that’s been done to me, I were still expected to silently accept what’s being imposed… As if silence were part of the reparation. It isn’t. Silence was part of the violence. And it continues to hurt when it is demanded again.”
One woman who asked not to be named, who claims she was raped by a priest when she was a novice in religious life, echoed these sentiments.
In 2023 she received a letter from the bishop of the priest she claims abused her, informing her that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had decided not to lift the statute of limitations to prosecute her alleged abuser after “taking into account that there have been no other allegations against the accused priest,” and “the fragile psychological state of the alleged victim, which makes it inadvisable to subject her to the vicissitudes of legal proceedings.”
The Pillar confirmed the authenticity of the document, which includes recommendations from the bishop that the priest pray the Rosary every day for victims, cut down on his time spent on social media, and travel less.
The alleged abuser remains a priest in good standing in the diocese. The former novice received one of the highest compensations awarded by the process, around 40,000 euros. But, she said, she is aware that because she can’t now file a claim against her alleged abuser, he is unlikely to face any kind of personal consequence for his actions.
Peace over justice
The Pillar spoke to one of many women who claim to have been subjected to indecent behavior by Canon Fernando Sousa e Silva, a priest in Joane, in the Archdiocese of Braga, where she grew up.
“He would make us lie with our head on his lap when we went to confession, and he sometimes masturbated in front of us as well,” she alleged.
While the woman received compensation, some claimants connected to the priest did not, seemingly because the details of their specific situation did not meet the legal framework of sexual abuse.
But the woman said does not regret her decision not to ask for compensation.
“I preferred peace to justice,” she told The Pillar.
Last Wednesday evening, as the Church was under the firestorm of criticism over its handling of the compensation cases, the Archdiocese of Braga published a statement saying that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith had decided not to lift the canonical statute of limitations in the case of Canon Fernando Sousa e Silva, who at 93 is now free to exercise his ministry again despite the numerous allegations against him.
“It’s a ridiculous situation, but what can I say? I’ll just have to check when he is celebrating Mass so that I can avoid going to Church on those days,” said the alleged victim.
Another alleged abuse victim told The Pillar he was abused at 13. His faith and commitment to the Church remained unphased, he told The Pillar, and when he was already married, he confided to his bishop about what had happened.
“I didn’t want to make waves or cause a scandal. I just wanted to make sure that they didn’t let him do this to anyone else,” he said. “The bishop listened very attentively, and was very kind. But nothing changed. Later I told his successor. He was also very friendly, and told me about other problems he had with that priest, but again, nothing was done.”
The victim told his story to the Independent Commission, and when the compensation process began, he tried to get in touch, but says he was never contacted after filling out an online contact form.
“I didn’t do it for the compensation,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure that the situation was not forgotten. After all these years I get the feeling that it was precisely because I always made it clear that I didn’t want to make a fuss that the Church didn’t act. They always told me how they regretted what had happened to me, but what is that worth if they didn’t take any concrete action?”
The priest who allegedly abused him was given a post in the diocesan ecclesiastical court at one point, but since the arrival of a third bishop in the diocese he is currently listed as not having any assignment.
According to the bishops’ conference, 95 people applied for financial compensation, of whom 78 were considered initially eligible. Eleven of those claims were later rejected, and 66 cases approved for compensation.
Fifty-seven have had compensation already awarded, and nine others are pending analysis. One case was still awaiting a judicial decision by the Holy See when the bishops issued their statement.
Sigh. The Lord is still weeping 😞