Spain's prosecutor's office has ordered regional offices to investigate all current court cases of sexual abuse of minors by the Catholic Church, while parliament has taken the first step toward potentially launching its own investigation, Reuters reported.

The prosecutor's office gave each region 10 days to gather information.

The move comes after Spain's Catholic Church said last month that it would set up diocese level commissions to review complaints from victims of abuse after its top leaders met with the Pope in Rome.

El Pais newspaper in December published the results of a three-year investigation that found potential abuse by 251 priests and some lay people from religious institutions against at least 1,237 victims between 1943 and 2018.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had a meeting with Juan Omella, president of the Spanish Bishops' Conference, last week and will meet with one alleged abuse victim this week.

The government said in a statement that the prosecutor, which operates independently, was acting "within the scope of its autonomy and competences".

"These actions do not replace the measures that the government is considering in order to clarify the facts and avoid further cases," it said in a statement.

Separately, Spain's parliament approved a vote on a proposal by some small leftist parties to conduct their own investigation, although any such commission would take time to establish and would likely face opposition from right-wing parties.

Sexual harassment scandals in the global Catholic Church first hit the headlines in 2002, when the Boston Globe daily published a series of articles exposing the abuse of minors by clergy and the widespread culture of concealment in the church.