Abuse in France: a commission of inquiry has identified some 3,000 pedophiles in the Catholic Church since 1950

There have been “Between 2,900 and 3,200 pedophiles”, priests or religious, within the Catholic Church of France since 1950, according to a commission which is investigating sexual abuse in the institution and will publish its report Tuesday, unpublished and eagerly awaited.

After two and a half years of work, the independent commission on pedophilia in the Church for 70 years, chaired by Jean-Marc Sauvé, will deliver its conclusions in a 2,500-page report, including appendices.

This number of pedophiles is “a minimum estimate”, based on the census and analysis of Church, justice, judicial police and press archives, as well as testimonies received by the commission.Saved insured.

The figure refers to a total population of 115,000 priests or religious in this period starting in 1950.

The report will be publicly transmitted to the French Episcopal Conference (CEF) and to the Conference of Religious of Institutes and Congregations (Corref), which had commissioned it.

“It’s going to be an explosion”, assures AFP a member of the commission, known by his initials Ciase, on condition of anonymity.

“It will look like a bomb”, agrees Olivier Savignac, of the Hablar y Revivir collective (Parler et Revivre), who welcomes the testimonies of victims of sexual abuse.

“TRUTH AND COMPASSION”

Its publication “will be a test of truth and a hard and serious moment”, we can read in the message sent by the episcopate to priests and parishes before masses this weekend. A message that calls for “an attitude of truth and compassion”.

In the document, Ciase compares the prevalence of sexual violence in the Church with that which has been identified in other institutions, such as sports associations and schools, and in the family circle.

The commission is also evaluating the “mechanisms, mainly institutional and cultural” which may have favored sexual abuse and will present 45 proposals, said Mr. Sauvé.

These proposals are applied in various fields, such as listening to victims, prevention, training of religious, transformation of Church governance, as well as advocacy for a policy of recognition and reparation.

To prepare its report, the Ciase made testimonies of the victims “the matrix of its work”, according to Sauvé. First with a call for testimonies, open for 17 months, which received 6,500 calls or contacts from victims or relatives. Then proceed to some 250 long investigative hearings or interrogations.

She also deepened her research with an immersion in her numerous archives (Church, Ministry of Justice, Interior, press).

PRESCRIBED FACTS

In most cases, the facts are now prescribed and the perpetrators of the abuses dead, making legal recourse unlikely. The canonical procedures – the law of the Church -, when they have been activated, are very long and not very transparent.

What will be the response of the Catholic Church to this report?

“I hope that we are confronted with this burden, as dark as it is, so that we can then adopt the measures imposed on us,” says Véronique Margron, president of Corref.

The episcopate has already gone ahead by promising, not a series of reparations, but a system of financial “contributions” paid to victims from 2022, which is not unanimous among the victims.

The report will be closely examined at the Vatican, where the subject has already been addressed by Pope Francis and some of the French bishops on the occasion of their visit to the Holy See in September.

(with information from AFP)

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