“Marital violence is not a private fact”, declares the bishop of Asidonia-Jerez (in Andalusia), Monsignor Juan del Rio, in an interview published in various magazines. Bishop Juan Del Rio cites the figures of domestic violence: 68 women and 10 men killed by their spouses in Spain in 2003 alone. But only 10% of women subjected to violence denounce the fact because “they prefer, mistakenly, to support in silence this inhumane and unjust attack on their own dignity”. Andalusia is in fact the Spanish region with the highest rate of domestic violence, in contrast to the Basque Provinces and Melilla (North Africa) where no crimes of violence in the home have been reported. “In response to the maltreatment of women and children, there is at times a silence of complicity or cowardice on the part of neighbours, friends and acquaintances, who seek refuge in vague expressions like “it’s their business”, “a family affair”. The bishop denounces this silence and says that the time has come to say: enough is enough! People, he says, should stop considering violence a private problem: it is on the contrary “a scourge that attacks the very heart of society and concerns us all”. The solution proposed by the bishop is “education in non-violence” and “the recovery of marriage as a union between man and woman to build a home as a space for love”. He also calls for “a greater social awareness of the problem” and “strong political concern to ensure that the victims of aggression in the home feel themselves protected”. The Church has done a lot to address this problem, recalls Del Rio, who also chairs the Commission for the Media of the Spanish Episcopal Conference: “From a Christian perspective, marital violence has its best antidote in the recognition of the equal dignity of man and woman”. Organizations like Caritas and other associations, he points out, “are pioneers in the field of caring for maltreated women”.
