The report was delivered on Oct 27 to government officials and seen by church experts as populist as it focuses only on the Catholic church and, in their opinion, "is not accurate."

"If you are a public authority, you should be worried about every victim of sexual abuse, not only those of the church," said Yago de la Cierva, a Spanish communications professor who teaches at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, author of a book on crisis management for the church.

"What you need to do is a proper investigation regarding all kind of sexual abuse cases and then attribute this to whatever the cause was, so schools, doctors, sports trainers — something similar to what the Royal Commission did in Australia," he told OSV News.

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The details emerged from an unprecedented public investigation by Spain's ombudsman, who spoke of the "devastating impact" on victims.

Angel Gabilondo also criticised the Church for its inaction and attempts to cover up or deny the abuse.

"What has happened has been possible because of that silence," he said.

The 700-page report, which was ordered by Spain's Congress last year, reveals the result of a survey that the commission carried out on 800,000 members of the public.

It found that 0.6% of the country's adult population, roughly 39 million people, said that they had suffered sexual abuse as children by members of the clergy.

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