The decision was communicated, in Fátima, at the end of the CEP Plenary Assembly, which determined that these financial compensations will be awarded on a “supplementary basis”.

“To continue this process, the Assembly defined that requests for financial compensation must be presented to Grupo Vita or to the Diocesan Commissions for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults between June and December 2024”, adds the CEP statement distributed at the end of the Plenary Assembly, which has been taking place since Monday.

According to the episcopate, “later, an evaluation committee will determine the amounts of compensation to be awarded”.

“These decisions are part of the path taken by the Church in Portugal. In communion with the suffering of the victims, the Portuguese bishops reaffirm their total commitment to do everything to repair them and express the desire that this process of reception, monitoring and prevention will be a contribution to the action of society in general on this issue”, adds the document.

In recent days, Rute Agulhas, coordinator of Grupo Vita, said that 20 victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Portugal have already expressed their desire to be financially compensated for the damages suffered.

This body, created by the Portuguese Episcopal Conference (CEP) following the work of the Independent Commission for the Study of Sexual Abuse of Children in the Catholic Church - which over the course of almost a year validated 512 testimonies of cases that occurred between 1950 and 2022, pointing out, by extrapolation, to a minimum number of 4,815 victims -, he added that he had “carried out a total of 56 consultations” and that “more consultations are scheduled for April”.