“I didn’t mean to offend when I said what I said, but if you understand, whatever victim was offended, I apologize for that. That was not my intention.” The statement was made by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who on Thursday apologized for the statements he had made when he believed the number of sexual abuse complaints in the church “was not particularly high,” referring to the 424 testimonies that have arrived at the Independent Commission for the Study of Child Sexual Abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church.
On the sidelines of a conference at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa made a brief statement to journalists, starting with a first word “to the victims of sexual abuse, all of them, but especially now those who of Catholic Church officials, priests and other officials”.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stated that his words were misinterpreted, that his aim was not to offend anyone. “My goal was the exact opposite, the fear that many victims had not spoken out of fear, out of limitation, and the number that should have remained even higher.” justified.
the head of state thanked the Portuguese for “the hundreds and hundreds of messages” he received in the “last two days”. “Finally saying, which was clear, that they know me already I don’t know how many years, that they know the seven years of my mandate and that therefore they know that social targets, the poor, the exploited, the dependents, the abused are my social causes,” he said.
For the president of the republic, the Portuguese followed him by saying: “we know your character, it is what it is, it does not change at the age of 74 and after the seventh year in office”.
Marcelo also spoke a special word “to the media and to those who have made their judgments in the political world” about what he said, “some agree, others disagree”.
When he referred that “the critical spirit, openness, not having the censorship typical of dictatorship, of having the freedom proper to democracy, are part of democracy”, Marcelo left a word “to the Portuguese and to all who serve the Portuguese”: “I would like to guarantee that the President will be here, that he will continue his path, which has three and a half years to go, just as he always was, without changing a single comma in values, principles, determination, always at the service of the Portuguese and of Portugal”.
On Tuesday, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa sparked criticism and outrage when, when asked about the 424 testimony of sexual abuse in the church that reached the independent commission, he said: “Having 400 cases does not seem particularly high to me, because in other lands, and with smaller horizons there were thousands of cases.”
At the time, the president of the republic said he was not surprised by the number of cases, noting that “there is no time limit on these complaints” that have been collected, some of which relate to “60 or 70 or 80 years.” “It means we are faced with a universe of people who were related to millions or many hundreds of thousands,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa continued on the occasion.
In light of the criticism his statements provoked, the head of state issued a note explaining that “this number does not seem particularly high given the probably sad reality both in Portugal and around the world”, admitting that “there are also have been much higher numbers in Portugal”.
He then spoke to RTP and SIC to reinforce the same message, reiterating that 424 complaints seem to him a “short” number compared to what he believes to be the reality, stating that he democratically accepted the criticism he received, but she did not understand .
The 424 testimonies have been collected by the so-called Independent Commission for the Study of Sexual Abuse Against Children in the Portuguese Catholic Church, a structure created by decree of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference and coordinated by the child psychiatrist Pedro Strecht.
with Lusa
Source: DN
