Catholic clergy in Portugal have abused nearly 5,000 children since 1950, an independent commission said on Monday, announcing its findings after hearing hundreds of victim accounts. Thousands of reports of paedophilia within the Catholic Church have surfaced around the world and Pope Francis is under pressure to tackle the scandal. The Portuguese inquiry, commissioned by the Church in the staunchly Catholic country, published the results of its investigation after hearing from more than 500 victims. "This testimony allows us to establish a much larger network of victims, at least 4,815," child psychiatrist Pedro Strecht told a press conference in Lisbon. In October, the team of six experts said it had recorded 424 legitimate accounts from presumed victims but warned that their testimony indicated the total number of victims was "much larger". The accounts revealed "serious situations which persisted for decades ... and in some cases reached epidemic proportions", it said at the time. The time limit for bringing charges has already expired for the vast majority of alleged offences, but 25 cases have been transferred police and several inquiries have already been opened. One of...
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