Pope Francis hasn't visited Spain due to the episcopal laxity in sexual abuse cases.

The Spanish Catholic Church is once again shaken by sexual abuse scandals within the institution. One of the most recent involves a 34-year-old priest who was arrested in Málaga for drugging women whom he later raped. However, he is not the only one. In recent years, reports of sexual abuse within the Church have increased, and this is something that has not pleased the Vatican.

According to elcierredigital.com through sources from the Holy See, "the Vatican is very angry with Spain for not having taken measures against sexual abuse earlier. They consider that they have had a lax and delayed response to the cases that are being uncovered."

These same sources state that the treatment of this issue by the Episcopal Conference, which has been unsatisfactory for the Holy See, has been decisive in the fact that, in the more than ten years that Bergoglio has been Pope, Francis has not visited Spain. Despite speculation about this possibility—in 2022 it was said he might come for the Galician Xacobeo and in 2015 for the 500th anniversary of Saint Teresa of Jesus's birth—Pope Francis has yet to set foot on Spanish soil. He recently declared that the reason is that he wants to visit smaller countries first before going to larger ones.

However, he did visit Portugal this year for the World Youth Day (WYD). He did so despite reports from eldiario.es that a planned tribute during the WYD to remember the survivors of pedophilia in the Church, as well as any reference to victims of abuse by the institution, was halted.

It should be noted that Pope Francis has been firm in the fight against sexual abuse. In 2019, he already promulgated rules against abuse within the Catholic Church, which he has expanded over the years to also affect lay leaders.

Spain, Church Victims, and Initial Figures

According to the same newspaper, in Portugal, it is estimated that there are about 5,000 victims of abuse by the Portuguese Church in recent decades. In Spain, the exact number is unknown. The newspaper El País, which has been accounting for pedophilia within the Spanish clergy for years, estimates today that the victims could exceed 2,100, with more than 1,000 accused.

The Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), however, published in the 'To Shed Light' report from June of this year, that they had received 927 testimonies of sexual abuse. Among them, not only minors but also vulnerable people. Most of the reported cases, according to the same report, were allegedly committed before 1990. Specifically, 80 percent of the total. They also pointed to abuses of a male homosexual nature.

However, this document dates from 2023, the first year the Church speaks of the victims. According to elcierredigital.com through episcopal sources, there are two reasons why the Church has taken so long to act and offer some "transparency" about the sexual abuses committed in the institution.