368 reported cases of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Poland in the past 30 months

The Catholic Church has been shaken by the discovery of yet another clergy sexual abuse scandal with 368 children sexually abused between July 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020, in Poland.

“Between July 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020, the dioceses and monasteries of the Catholic Church in Poland received 368 reports of sexual abuse of minors,” the Statistical Institute of the Catholic Church announced on Monday, adding that its report covered the period between 1958 and 2020.

From disturbing reports from Poland, it appears that one minor child per day is sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest in the country.

This is the second time that the episcopate has published a report on cases of pedophilia. The first was published in 2019 and reported 382 cases reported between January 1990 and June 2018.

The Catholic Church in Poland has asked for forgiveness for the “evil of the Church” after new figures revealed more than 360 incidents of child sexual abuse involving the clergy.

“A total of 38 reports were considered unreliable and therefore rejected, 186 are under investigation and 144 charges have been verified or considered reliable during a preliminary investigation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) “, added the institute. .

The Polish Primate and delegate of the Polish Bishops’ Conference for Child and Youth Protection asked people to forgive the Church. I would like to address the wounded and all those who are scandalized by the evil of the Church and ask for forgiveness, ”declared Bishop Wojciech Polak, who attended the presentation of the report.

He added that the data “does not fully reflect the tragedy of child sexual abuse committed by some members of the clergy.”

“First, statistical data are just numbers, which cannot reflect the suffering of a human being injured in this way,” Polak said, adding that it should be remembered that not all injured people had decided to reveal their tragedy and inform the authorities.

The Primate also expressed his gratitude to everyone who reported incidents of child sexual abuse to the Church because, as he explained, in this way they were helping the Church to truly purify itself.