“We want to give voice to our voice”. Victims of abuse in the Church create association

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Three victims of sexual abuse of minors in the Church will create an association to support other people who have been the target of this type of crime. The organization will be called “Silenced Heart – Association of Victims and Survivors of Sexual Abuse of the Church” and is the first of its kind to be created in Portugal.

“We want to give voice to our voice”, he tells the Renaissance Cristina Amaral, one of the three founding elements of the organization, all of them victims of abuse in childhood and adolescence, explaining that the association was born out of a feeling of “indignation at the response of the Church”.

“It is not enough to go to social networks, there is a general indignation. An organization needs to be created”, he says, revealing that the group has the support of the Independent Commission for the Study of Sexual Abuses against Children in the Catholic Church in Portugal, including Pedro Strecht and Daniel Sampaio. “They have enlightened us and helped in the creation of the association.”

In addition to providing psychological and legal support to the victims, the group, which has not yet been formally created due to “bureaucratic issues”, also intends to claim financial reparations.

“We all spent a lot of money on therapies and medicines. Obviously compensation is on the table”. And he clarifies: “We intend that the victims be compensated”.

In addition to this, the new association also aims to tell its stories to Pope Francis, when he comes to Portugal, in the summer, for the World Youth Day, and has already requested an audience with the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in the meantime scheduled.

In addition to Cristina Amaral, the association is founded by António Grosso and Alexandra (the only name by which she wants to be identified).