The president of the Spanish Conference of Religious (CONFER), Jesús Díaz Sariego, has stated that “the equation of migrant equal to criminal cannot be accepted without further consideration,” although he warned that “poverty and uprooting of these people can generate conflictive social situations.”
“The equation of migrant equal to criminal cannot be accepted without further consideration. That does not prevent us from noting that poverty and uprooting of these people can generate conflictive social situations,” Díaz Sariego said in an interview with Europa Press.
In this regard, he has advocated for “carefully listening” to the reasons of “those who do not share everything with the legalization decreed by the Government” –the extraordinary regularization of migrants– because “surely there are aspects that must be considered,” but at the same time, he has asked those who “look at this measure with great suspicion” not to forget the history of Spanish emigration and that migrants are “people,” not a “number.”
“Many migrants have been in the country for several years, undergoing various integration processes; with very precarious jobs, susceptible to all kinds of abuse and degradation,” he pointed out.
In this context, he has highlighted the “work” constant and often silent that is carried out by the Spanish Church with migrant people and in which “very professional and expert people in that reality” also participate.
“Their proposals are not improvised. Quite the opposite, they know the ground well and what they are talking about and the reasons that lead them to request the aforementioned regularization,” Díaz Sariego insisted, confident in “their experience and professionalism” and in “their daily contact with concrete faces of migrants.”
Response to victims of abuse: compliance and acceptance
On the other hand, regarding the response that the Church is giving to victims of sexual abuse, the president of the CONFER has highlighted the “acceptance and compliance” of dioceses and congregations with the rulings of the Advisory Commission of the Comprehensive Reparation Plan for minors and people with equivalent rights, victims of sexual abuse (PRIVA).
“The response of the dioceses and congregations to the rulings of the Commission has been, so far, of acceptance and compliance. Proof of this is that both conferences (bishops and religious) have not had to intervene beyond the usual reminders regarding the speed of the processes,” he explained.
Furthermore, he has valued it as “an important step” the agreement signed with the Government early in January to launch a mixed system of victim reparation, taking into account that they started from “rather opposed positions.”
“When addressing a reality as complex as that of sexual abuse of minors, it is very difficult to achieve complete and far from perfect responses. But, with the agreement, an important step has been taken. We started from rather opposed positions. We have managed to approach the need to provide a response as closely as possible in favor of the victims. There is still a long way to go,” he indicated.
Church-State agreement for the compensation of victims of abuse within the Catholic Church
As he recalled, citing data from the PRIVA Advisory Commission, in the last month, the commission has received 17 new requests for compensation. In total, since February 2025, the date the first requests were received, the Commission has received a total of 127 and issued 76 rulings for compensation.
Regarding the role religious figures have played in responding to victims, Díaz Sariego highlighted that “the CONFER has had an important role in relation to the reality of abuse in its various forms, such as abuse of power, of conscience, and sexual.” **”Faced with this reality, which is so painful for many people, we have been and continue to be a bridge of encounter and listening,”** he assured.
Similarly, it has valued its “effort of listening and understanding” with the survivors of the **Patronato de Protección a la Mujer** (**Women’s Protection Board**), an institution active during the Franco dictatorship and entrusted to some religious congregations, for which the CONFER organized a public act of forgiveness in June 2025 in response to their complaints of exploitation, abuse, and mistreatment. Nevertheless, **it has regretted that this effort “has not yielded the expected results from everyone.”**
Progressive decrease of religious and religious women
Regarding the situation of consecrated life in Spain, the president of the CONFER has indicated that “the total number of religious men and women in Spain currently amounts to 30,603,” to which the 893 Spanish missionaries located outside of Spain must be added. On the other hand, he highlighted that approximately 1,389 of the religious living in Spain are foreigners. While noting a **progressive decline** in the number of religious men and women in Spain.
“The number is progressively decreasing. This is due, among other reasons, to the **ageing** of members and the **insufficient replacement** of vocations to reach the numbers of religious people that existed in Spain in the 1960s,” he explained.
Finally, Díaz Sariego pointed out that “it is still premature to talk about a ‘Catholic turn’ in the current cultural context,” but **highlighted the “religious awakening of young people,”** something he attributes to the arrival of “a generation less encumbered by prejudices and negative stereotypes about the Church” and underscored the need to “get it right in their accompaniment without stifling it.”
Decline in vocations
“Without a doubt, there is a hunger for transcendence, for meaning, for depth, for spirituality. We must be attentive to this religious awakening of young people. We must succeed in accompanying them without stifling them, trying to understand what that awakening expresses,” he concluded.
**Jesús Díaz Sariego**
Religion Digital
English version translated with AI