Madrid (Spain), 8 June. (LaPresse) – Some victims of sexual abuse in the Spanish Catholic Church have gathered in front of the Apostolic Nunciature in Madrid to ask to be heard by the Pope, just as the meeting between the Pontiff and some survivors who are part of a program initiated by the Church of Madrid is reportedly taking place inside the building. "The victims who are gathering with the Pope today are not critical of the Church's work. We ask that the Pontiff listen to everyone and not leave Spain thinking that everything is fine here," young Juan Cuatrecasas, who was abused at an Opus Dei school in the Basque Country, told LaPresse. The boy complains that, despite numerous requests for a meeting with the Pontiff, he received no response and that no one called him or other associations to provide information about the meeting. "It's like ignoring those who have suffered," he said. "It seems there are first-class and second-class victims," José Luis Velasco, president of Infancia Robada Madrid, and a victim of abuse in his parish in Getafe, told LaPresse. "It's important for the Pope to listen to us because we could tell him important things, useful for making decisions," "if he listened to us, he would be much tougher on the Spanish bishops" than he was today at the Spanish Episcopal Conference, he added. What happened to him marked him for life, he said, and after twenty years of silence he decided to speak out, to prevent what he suffered from happening to other children.
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