Full Analysis Summary
Court ruling and reactions
Victims and campaigners hailed the ruling.
Bernardo Teixeira, one of the victims, said, "The court recognised that we were telling the truth."
Catalina Pestana, who ran Casa Pia after the crimes were first reported in 2002, said Portugal had "won a lot from this process" because accusations by children would no longer be treated with the same lack of attention.
The senior judge, Ana Peres, warned that the accounts would be graphic and could be considered pornographic.
Psychiatrists told the court several victims had attempted suicide after denouncing the abuse and one threw himself from a second-floor window.
Portuguese media provided live coverage of the sentence reading.
The judges said they gave an abbreviated version and will publish a much fuller judgment next week.
Cruz's lawyer, Antonio Serra Lopes, said an appeal "seems inevitable" and called the ruling "the first round."
The article also reports, citing at least one source, that case paperwork contains allegations Casa Pia was known to paedophiles internationally and that some flew in to abuse children, but presents that as an allegation rather than a proven fact.