Activists accused a Portuguese municipality of “illegal censorship” after it removed a billboard denouncing sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic Church just as Pope Francis arrived in the country to celebrate World Youth Day.
On Wednesday afternoon, the municipality of Oeiras ordered the removal of the billboard that said: “4800+ children abused by the Catholic Church in Portugal.” Pope Francis arrived in Lisbon on Wednesday for a five-day visit to the country that is being overshadowed by the abuse controversy.
The members of the organization “This Is Our Memorial,” which put up the huge poster, accused the municipality of violating its “right to freedom of expression,” according to local media.
“We have the right to display the poster and we will fight for that right,” they said.
The billboard refers to the findings released in February of an independent committee of experts which found that 4,815 children were abused by priests and church staff over seven decades starting in the 1950s. The report, which was commissioned after the Catholic Church in Portugal was accused of covering up sexual abuse cases, caused shock waves as the number of victims was much larger than expected.
“Once again they want to hide us,” Portuguese daily Diário de Notícias quoted one unidentified victim as saying after the removal.
Two similar billboards — in the municipalities of Lisbon and Loures — were not removed.
In Oeiras, the local council said the billboard constituted “illegal advertising.” The members of This Is Our Memorial challenged the claim, saying the poster was political not commercial.
“Together with our lawyers, we are analyzing the use of the judicial route to react to this injustice, in order to compensate, as far as possible, this form of illegal censorship by the Oeiras City Council,” the group said, according to local reports.
Pope Francis addressed the abuse scandal after landing in Lisbon, saying the church needs “a humble and ongoing purification, starting with the anguished cry of the victims, who must always be accepted and listened to.” He met privately with 13 of the victims on Wednesday evening.
In 2021, a similar report revealed that in France 216,000 children were abused by clerics between 1950 and now.