Analysis of an international crisis

“The Spanish church refuses to examine its past.”

In the framework of the Crisis Management Simulation lab, the students of ADandPRLAB were asked to review various international newspapers, find an article describing a crisis, analyze it and present it in class. Our team was assigned the Spanish newspaper EL PAÍS and among other very interesting articles we chose “La Iglesia se resiste a revisar su pasado” (The church refuses to examine its past) written by José Manuel Romero and Julio Núñez regarding the way the Spanish catholic church is handling the cases of sexual abuse in minors.

The Crisis

In February of 2018 Pope Francis ordered episcopal conferences around the world to examine the matter of sexual abuse of minors in church. As reported by the article, while in other countries, such as France and Germany, investigations started immediately, the Spanish church denied to publicly discuss the matter. After EL PAÍS published an article reporting that the Spanish church has spent decades covering up reported cases of pedophilia and pressuring them for a statement, the episcopal conference announced that they plan to create a committee to update the protocols of the Church and draft new regulations for the protection of children and the prevention of child sexual abuse. However no member of said committee has been a victim of sexual abuse or is specialized in matters of this nature. Moreover, in an attempt to facilitate the procedures the Spanish government has announced a legal reform to make sure the cases of child abuse involving the church do not expire.

The Article

The article was found on the homepage of Elpais.com under the section Destacado (featured). The language used is fitting and not overly emotional, considering that the piece is referring to child abuse. The vocabulary included some more emotional words such as victim, crime, pedophilia, abuse, suffering.

Regarding the writers, one of them is José Manuel Romero, who is a well known Spanish journalist, during his career he has served as Deputy Director of EL PAÍS and has won an Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award. The second one is Julio Núñez. Writing for the newspaper since 2017 he has published a series of articles regarding the cases of pedophilia in the Spanish Church.

Possible Effects

A crisis of this nature and magnitude can have a series of effects on society. First and foremost, when an ethical issue such as this one arises in the church it is bound to create a crisis of faith to the entire community and cause them to divert from religion. What is more, the secrecy of the Spanish church could cause disruptions in the relationship with not only Pope Francis but the entire Catholic community as well. As mentioned above the government has acknowledged the situation and has already started taking action, something that the church has not done. A possible rivalry between the two could cause serious problems to the entire country. Last and certainly not least, the political and legal issues that may arise in the process could deprive the victims of the justice they deserve and keep others from speaking the truth.

Our Team: Sofia Anastasiou, Stavi diakoumakou, Nektaria Ignatiou, Marianna Kantli, Xenia kissa, Martha Skyrianou, Martha Tselemegkou, Vassilis Fragoulis

Special thanks to our instructors Betty Tsakarestou and Mania Xenou for guiding us through another creative semester in ADandPRLAB.