The Pope recognized “with sorrow” the 216,000 abuses of minors committed by the Catholic Church in France

In France, some 216,000 minors were sexually assaulted between 1950 and 2020, by priests and religious of the Catholic Church, as revealed on Tuesday by the report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase). Taking into account the laity who worked in religious institutions, the number of this “hell” would amount to 330 thousand children and adolescents.

Pope Francis said he believed “before all victims, with immense pain for his injuries and with gratitude for his courage to denounce“wrote his spokesperson in a message in which the pontiff wishes that” the Church of France, aware of this terrible reality, united to the suffering of the Lord for his most vulnerable children, embarks on a path of redemption “.

The world boss of the Catholic Church, who will have a private audience on October 18 with French Prime Minister Jean Castex, according to the newspaper La Croix, had already raised the issue with the French bishops last September.

After two and a half years of work, where nearly 250 hearings were held with victims (among the nearly 6500 charges), the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase) denounced that the abuses committed in had a “systemic character“and the French Catholic Church has shown a”cruel indifference“with the victims.

The most resounding cases of sexual abuse reported against the Catholic Church

The report, which will be examined by the Vatican, indicates that, on French territory, between 1950 and 2020, priests and religious mistreated 216,000 children and adolescents. The figure would rise to 330,000 if we take into account lay people who have worked in religious institutions, said the president of Ciase, Jean-Marc Sauvé.

The president of the French Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, asked for “forgiveness” and expressed his “shame” and his “determination to act” with the victims.

The first figures put forward have already shown the horror. Of the 115,000 priests or religious registered over the past 70 years in France, there were “between 2,900 and 3,200 pedophiles,” Sauvé told AFP on Sunday, specifying that it is a ” minimum estimate “.

Research in the Church of France

La Ciase began with the investigation in February 2019, it was at the request of the Episcopal Conference and the Conference of Religious of France. The book was developed by 22 experts who immersed themselves in this drama focused on child sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church.

The investigation was launched after a series of scandals, such as that led by the priest Bernard Preynat, sentenced in 2020 to five years in prison for abuse in the 70s and 80s and whose case inspired the award-winning film “Thanks to God”. “(Thank God), by François Ozon.

In addition to assessing the scale of the events, the commission’s experts (lawyers, theologians, psychologists, historians) analyzed the Church’s response and made proposals to recognize the pain of the victims and avoid further cases. .

Beyond the data disclosed, most of the facts are already prescribed and the perpetrators are already deceased, therefore recourse to justice is unlikely. The French episcopate has already promised financial compensation for 2022, which is not unanimous among the victims.

They found 215 bodies of children on the grounds of a Catholic church in Canada

Other cases of abuse around the world

In addition to the “hell” that this report revealed about what happened in France, similar situations have already rocked Germany, Australia, Canada, Chile and the United States.

In the case German, at least 3,677 children were victims of religious abuse in this European republic between 1946 and 2014, according to a 2018 report. United StatesAccording to independent lawyers, more than 11,000 complaints have been filed.

With RFI information