ADVERTISEMENT

       Over the past seven decades, more than 4,800 children were sexually abused within the Catholic Church in Portugal, according to a report by an independent commission released on Monday.

       The harrowing report was based on 512 direct complaints. But according to the commission's coordinator, child psychiatrist Pedro Strecht, the number of victims could be much higher.

       "The highest percentage of victims distance themselves from the Church as an institution and from religious practice after the abuse, and this position persists across generations,” Strecht said after the report was released.

       Sexual abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church reached 'epic proportions'

       It is not hard to find shocking facts in the document delivered to the Portuguese Episcopal Conference, such as the average age of the victims at the onset of abuse was just 11.2 years old.

       The Church said that it will release a list of abusers that are still active by the end of the month.

       The districts with the most cases are Lisbon, Porto, Braga, Santarém and Leiria. And some twenty-five complaints have been forwarded to the Public Prosecutor's Office.

       The head of the Portuguese Bishops Conference, Bishop Jose Ornelas arrives for a news conference to comment on the report. AP Photo

       Vast majority of cases are time-barred

       The report looks at cases starting in 1950, and it covers victims that are now between 15 and 88 years old. The age of some of these cases means the courts can no longer pursue them.

       A plenary assembly of the Bishops' Conference, chaired by Bishop Jose Ornelas, is scheduled on 3 March to analyse the implications of that report that covers seven decades.

       Created at the end of 2021, the commission worked under the motto "giving voice to silence".

       The group includes people not connected to the Church, such as a former minister of justice, a sociologist and a social worker.

       In just one week after it began operating in January, the commission received more than a hundred complaints. By October, they had already exceeded 400 complaints.

       Irish Catholic Church in 'terminal decline' after sexual abuse scandals

       More than 300,000 cases of abuse in Spain

       An open letter signed by hundreds of Catholics prompted the retrospective study in Portugal.

       It follows a similar scandal surrounding the Catholic Church in France, in which more than 300,000 cases were reported using the same methodology: statistical extrapolation from direct denunciations.

       Recently, the channel France 2 published a report on the compensation proposed to some victims.

       The church reportedly offered victims trips to Venice or payment of vet fees.

       The abuse has had a profound effect on society, even with the repeated apologies offered by the Catholic Church, reversing its previous stance that the cases were "isolated" acts.

       One of the difficult chapters to deal with will be the cover-up of cases by the Catholic hierarchy, a detail in several of the testimonies presented in Portugal.

       The conclusions to the report reveal a systemic problem that is spread throughout the institution and leaves several questions open in a year when the Pope will travel to Lisbon for World Youth Day.

       ADVERTISEMENT

       Blown-out windows, and the burns left by old fires: a building in the northern Saltivka suburb of the city of Kharkiv is a stark testimony of the scale of destruction caused by the fighting.

       The city is at the entrance point to Kharkiv, only some 20 kilometres away from the border with Russia. Before the war, some 40,000 people lived in the area. There are only between 2,000 and 3,000 people living there now.

       Olga and her sister left the area after their homes were bombed last year. They now live in Kharkiv, but often return to Saltivka to visit their relatives.

       Russian missile destroys market in Kharkiv region killing two people

       Each trip back to the suburb brings back painful memories. Olga’s husband was shot when he was getting fuel at a gas station.

       “Life used to be beautiful here,” she said. “To be honest, I cannot look at this without tears. I have no words.

       “They destroyed everything. They left us without our loved ones, without our parents, without husbands, without sons, without our previous life, without jobs, without anything."

       Svetlana, another former resident of the area, came back from Poland with her mother to check on their home and collect their belongings.

       “We don’t have light,” she said. “We’ve been flooded. We don’t have light. We live, with cracks. With mould. We live like hobos”

       Reconstruction is underway in Saltivka, but the task is huge, and the future is uncertain.

       Russian forces 'palpably panicking' in Kharkiv region, says Zelenskyy

       A local school has been turned into a humanitarian hub. Some of the women who used to work at the school canteen now deliver hot meals to hundreds of people every day.

       “We left for about half a year, and then we returned. We live at home.

       "When we were away, I understood that at the first opportunity, I need to return here, and do the right thing, to ease the burden on people. That’s why we returned, we work and help," Veronika Semenivna, a volunteer at the Saltivka humanitarian centre, told Euronews.

       "We want peace. We don’t want anything else. And for everyone to be alive, and to live as we used to live before. This is the only thing we want. “

       Aid workers and beneficiaries alike are adamant in the suburb. They say that they will stay in Saltivka until victory comes.

       “My son is on the frontline and I work as a teacher. I give classes online. And I will stay right here with my Kharkiv and with my Ukraine,” Zoya, resident of Saltivka said.

       ADVERTISEMENT

       The Institute for the Study of War says Ukrainian military authorities and Russian pro-war nationalists are downplaying Russia's ability to launch a sweeping operation in the Donetsk region.

       Experts say the Kremlin has failed to prepare conscripts to conduct efficient warfare and that the culmination of tactical failures around Vuhledar has likely further weakened the Russian ultranationalist community’s belief that Russian forces are able to launch a decisive offensive operation.

       To hear more from Euronews Correspondent Sasha Vakulina please click on the player icon above