In exactly 2407 days (six years, seven months and two days) as President of the Republic (PR), Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had never put himself in the position he had placed himself on Tuesday, subject to harsh criticism from all sides, from far left to far right, including personalities of the PS and PSD – a consensus in censorship like never before.
Even on Tuesday evening, when he was already trying to control the damage caused by the incendiary statement he made late morning in Belém on the issue of sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church (“there are 400 cases does not seem particularly high to me, because in other countries and with smaller horizons there were thousands of cases”), Marcelo seemed perplexed: “I was misunderstood, but I do not understand why”.
At least in the opening statement and then in the Tuesday evening clearing (“this number [424 denúncias] does not seem particularly high given the probably sad reality both in Portugal and in the rest of the world”), the PR has always followed the same line of reasoning, appreciating the figures obtained by the independent commission for the study of sexual child abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church. He commented on the matter in a quantitative way, thereby distancing himself from one of Pope Francis’ central arguments: even one case is still one, “a monstrosity”.
This Wednesday afternoon, during a press conference, the President of the Episcopal Conference, José Ornelas, also Bishop of Leiria-Fátima, declined to comment on all the controversy surrounding the considerations of the President of the Republic (who was sent to the PGR reports on September 6. received it, leading Ornelas to be suspected of covering up cases of child abuse within the church).
Censorship in Belem
But without commenting directly on the words of the president of the republic, he always insisted that this issue is not about the numbers. In line with Francisco, he stated that “any number is always too many”, reinforcing the idea that “every case is a defeat” because “someone has been trampled upon in their fundamental rights and in a way that would most affect any person”, in addition to “radically contradicting” what the church is.
“They’re people, not numbers. They’re people with great dramas,” he insisted. “It’s good to have a statement from everyone, it’s not the numbers that scare me. This is already a big number, but it indicates and shows you that there are others behind it,” he said – letting in appeal to the middle so that, who has reasons to do so, make use of the right of complaint to the committee set up by the church.
The partisan criticism of the PR began Tuesday — and the unanimity helped him realize he needed to explain himself. Despite the clarifications, the criticism continued this Wednesday, and in the most unexpected scenarios: the presidency of the republic itself.
The president received parliamentary delegations throughout the day on the theme of OE2023. And at the end of the hearings, the deputies of the various parties distanced themselves from the president, on the issue of the abuse of minors in the church – in a unanimity that only the PS and the PCP avoided. In Belém, Jerónimo de Sousa believed that Marcelo’s statements should be “dedramatized”. In Viseu, where he went for an AICEP conference, the prime minister sympathized with the PR and considered it an “unacceptable interpretation”. However, he acknowledged, “Sometimes we don’t use the best expression.”
Marcelo Dixit
July 28 “What I can say – and that is not even as President of the Republic, but as a person – is that the judgment I formulate about people and not about the elements of the Catholic hierarchy, the people D. José Policarpo and D. Manuel Clemente, is the reason I don’t see any reason in any of them to consider that they wanted to hide the practice of a crime from justice. That’s my opinion, folks.”
August 5 “It is necessary to bring the investigation to the end, take the time it takes, regardless of the number of cases, and then draw the conclusions. I think that the Portuguese community and the different institutions, including in the case of the Catholic Church, should draw conclusions from this past procedure.”
October 4 (morning) “The Presidency of the Republic sent a complaint to the Office of the Prosecutor General on September 6, involving in particular D. José Ornelas. (…) On September 24, the President of the Republic D. José confirmed Ornelas this submission, after the media has been contacted about it.”
October 4 (afternoon) “I felt obliged because in the meantime I got a version presented by the Media that it would have been an initiative because it was A, B or C. And I said: “Look, Mr. José, it’s very simple, that’s the general rule that applies and that’s why the media says it was a personal matter, it wasn’t personal.”
October 9 “[O telefonema ao bispo Ornelas] Not only did the investigation not stop, on the contrary, the investigation went deeper than – and ultimately thanks to – the phone call.”
October 11 (morning) “Having 400 cases doesn’t seem particularly high to me, because there have been thousands of cases in other countries and with smaller horizons.”
October 11 (overnight) “It’s not a devaluation. I just think my expectations were much higher unfortunately. I’m glad it fell in 424, but it’s short for now, short for expectations and for the universe of people who came into contact with it. “
Source: DN
