Victims of paedophilia demand that Parliament withdraw the Gold Medal from the Abbey of Montserrat | Society | EUROtoday

Several victims of paedophilia in non secular establishments in Catalonia have demanded that the Parliament withdraw the Gold Medal, the very best distinction of this chamber, from the Abbey of Montserrat and that Catalonia “stop whitewashing paedophilia in the Church”. On 9 July, the Board of the Parliament unanimously accredited, on the proposal of the president of the chamber, Josep Rull, the granting of the Medal of Honour within the Gold class to the Monastery of Montserrat, coinciding with the celebration of its millennium. The ceremony to current the medal is scheduled for 10 September, inside the framework of the commemorative occasions of the Diada of 11 September.

Josep Rull then highlighted “the contribution of the Monastery of Montserrat and the Benedictine community throughout the history of Catalonia” and that the Abbey is “much more than a place of contemplation, prayer, evangelical life, or profession of the Christian faith and promotion of ecumenism”, as a result of “it transcends its spiritual and religious dimension, to also represent the feeling of Catalan identity, of roots in our land”.

According to the victims of paedophilia, “the long list of supposed contributions of Montserrat to the progress of Catalonia failed to mention that the monastery is the epicentre, ground zero, of the serious crisis of clerical paedophilia that is ravaging Catalonia.” The Abbey of Montserrat “has repeatedly refused for years to implement a comprehensive plan of material and symbolic reparation to compensate the victims of the Benedictine monk Andreu Soler, former leader of the group scout“, have added.

Those affected also recalled that, in September 2019, “an internal commission of inquiry appointed by the abbey, most of whose members had serious conflicts of interest that disqualified them from holding office, acknowledged that Soler had been a sexual predator who had abused at least 12 minors over three decades” and that “another monk, head of the choir school, had abused two altar boys in the 1960s.”

“The response of the abbey in both cases was identical” and consisted of “silencing and covering up the facts by transferring the paedophiles to a monastery in the interior of Catalonia”, the victims have deplored, who have recalled that Montserrat “did not report the crimes to the civil justice system, did not open a canonical investigation to impose disciplinary measures and did not carry out an active search for cases to find other victims”. “Montserrat only reacted in 2019 when the scandal blew up in her face due to the public revelation of the facts by the victim Miguel Hurtado”, they added.

The Parliament approved the awarding of the gold medal to the Abbey of Montserrat on the same day that the Plenary Assembly of the Episcopal Conference approved the “controversial” Comprehensive Reparation Plan for minors and persons with equal rights, victims of sexual abuse, and for which “the participation of the victims” was not taken into account, the victims have stressed.

This is an “arbitrary, discriminatory and non-binding plan, so that bishops and religious superiors will continue to have veto power to decide whether or not to compensate each specific victim and for what amount, allowing punishment, denying payment of compensation to activists, who have adopted a profile of public criticism of the disastrous management of the crisis by the Catholic hierarchy,” they added.

In order to get the Medal of Honour of the Parliament withdrawn from the Abbey, this Tuesday 23 July victims of paedophilia will deliver a letter to the general registry of the Parliament. The letter is signed by Miguel Hurtado (victim in Montserrat), Alejandro Palomas (assaulted in a La Salle school), Manuel Barbero (father of a victim at the Maristas) and Jordi de la Mata (abused at the Jesuits), among others.

If the Catalan chamber goes ahead with its intention to award its highest distinction to the Abbey of Montserrat, the victims have announced that they will stage a cacerolada on September 10, the day on which the award ceremony is scheduled.

If you understand of any case of sexual abuse that has not come to gentle, write to us along with your grievance at abuses@elpais.es