OLD MEN COVER UP CELIBACY FAIL
'They believed me':
French Catholic Church inquiry finds 216,000 sex abuse victims from 1950
An independent inquiry into alleged sex abuse of minors by French Catholic priests, deacons and other clergy has found some 216,000 victims of paedophilia from 1950 to 2020, a "massive phenomenon" that was covered up for decades by a "veil of silence." Thérèse was sexually abused by a priest at the age of 16. Since then, she has been haunted by the abuse, but testifying has helped her to heal.
Issued on: 05/10/2021
Text by: FRANCE 24
An investigation into sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church has found that an estimated 216,000 children were victims of abuse by clergy since 1950, Jean-March Sauvé, head of the commission that compiled the report, said on Tuesday.
The revelations in France are the latest to rock the Roman Catholic Church, after a series of sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.
The abuse was systemic, Sauvé said at a public, online presentation of the report.
The Church not only did not take the necessary measures to prevent abuse but also turned a blind eye, failing to report abuse and sometimes knowingly putting children in touch with predators, he said.
The commission was established by Catholic bishops in France at the end of 2018 to shed light on abuses and restore public confidence in the Church at a time of dwindling congregations. It has worked independently from the Church.
01:09
Sauvé said the problem was still there. He added that the Church had until the 2000s showed complete indifference to victims and that it only started to really change its attitude in 2015-2016.
Sauvé said the commission itself had identified around 2,700 victims, but that a wide-ranging study by research and polling groups had estimated that there had been around 216,000 victims. The number could go up further to 330,000 when including abuse by lay members.
"You are a disgrace to our humanity," François Devaux, who set up victims' association La Parole Libérée, told church representatives at the public presentation of the report, before Sauvé took the floor.
"In this hell there have been abominable mass crimes ... but there has been even worse, betrayal of trust, betrayal of morale, betrayal of children," Devaux said, also accusing the Church of cowardice.
The report, at nearly 2,500 pages, found that the "vast majority" of victims were pre-adolescent boys from a wide variety of social backgrounds.
"The Catholic Church is, after the circle of family and friends, the environment that has the highest prevalence of sexual violence," the report said.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)
Commission president Jean-Marc Sauvé attends the publishing of a report by an independent commission into sexual abuse by church officials (Ciase) on October 5, 2021, in Paris. © Thomas Coex, AFP/Pool
Text by: FRANCE 24
An investigation into sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church has found that an estimated 216,000 children were victims of abuse by clergy since 1950, Jean-March Sauvé, head of the commission that compiled the report, said on Tuesday.
The revelations in France are the latest to rock the Roman Catholic Church, after a series of sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.
The abuse was systemic, Sauvé said at a public, online presentation of the report.
The Church not only did not take the necessary measures to prevent abuse but also turned a blind eye, failing to report abuse and sometimes knowingly putting children in touch with predators, he said.
The commission was established by Catholic bishops in France at the end of 2018 to shed light on abuses and restore public confidence in the Church at a time of dwindling congregations. It has worked independently from the Church.
01:09
Sauvé said the problem was still there. He added that the Church had until the 2000s showed complete indifference to victims and that it only started to really change its attitude in 2015-2016.
Sauvé said the commission itself had identified around 2,700 victims, but that a wide-ranging study by research and polling groups had estimated that there had been around 216,000 victims. The number could go up further to 330,000 when including abuse by lay members.
"You are a disgrace to our humanity," François Devaux, who set up victims' association La Parole Libérée, told church representatives at the public presentation of the report, before Sauvé took the floor.
"In this hell there have been abominable mass crimes ... but there has been even worse, betrayal of trust, betrayal of morale, betrayal of children," Devaux said, also accusing the Church of cowardice.
The report, at nearly 2,500 pages, found that the "vast majority" of victims were pre-adolescent boys from a wide variety of social backgrounds.
"The Catholic Church is, after the circle of family and friends, the environment that has the highest prevalence of sexual violence," the report said.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)
French report finds over 300,000 children were victims of sex abuse in the Catholic Church
A French commission has released an exhaustive report uncovering 70 years of child sex abuse in the country's Catholic Church. The 2.5- year probe looked at church, court, press and police files.
Twenty-two of the alleged crimes can still be pursued for legal action — but the statue of limitations has expired for another 40 cases
A major report prepared by an independent commission and published Tuesday on child sex abuse in the French Catholic Church has shed light on thousands of child sex abuse cases over the last 70 years.
The 2,500-page document details how an estimated 3,000 child abusers, two-thirds of whom were priests, worked in the Catholic Church in France over seven decades.
The president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauve, told a news conference that the estimated number of victims is believed to 330,000, when lay members of the Church such as teachers at Catholic schools are included. An estimated 216,000 were victims of French clergy.
On Tuesday, the head of the French conference of bishops, Monsignor Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, expressed shame and asked for forgiveness.
"We are appalled" at the conclusions of the report and the numbers of victims, he said.
Who formed the commission and what are its conclusions?
The commission, requested by the church and headed by former civil servant Jean-Marc Sauve, comprised 22 people including sociologists, magistrates, law professors and theologians and members of different faith groups. Together they studied church, court, press and police files as part of its work.
Investigator Jean-Marc Sauve led the 2.5-year investigation
Sauve told the press Tuesday the problem is "very serious," adding, "About 60% of men and women who were sexually abused encounter major problems in their sentimental or sexual life."
Sauve said until the last twenty years, the attitude of the church towards its victims was "deep, cruel indifference.''
Twenty-two of the alleged crimes, which can still be pursued for legal action, have been forwarded to French prosecutors. Forty cases where the statute of limitations has expired, but the alleged perpetrators are living, have been sent on to church officials.
The report states, "The Catholic Church is, after the circle of family and friends, the environment that has the highest prevalence of sexual violence."
Recommendations for preventing abuse include training for priests and other clerics, revising the legal code the Vatican uses to govern the church known as Canon Law, and creating policies that recognize and offer compensation to victims.
How have victims reacted?
Francois Devaux is one of the victims of Bernard Peynat, a notorious, since-defrocked priest, who was convicted of sexually abusing minors and given a five-year prison sentence.
Peynat acknowledged abusing more than 75 boys over decades in a case that led to the resignation last year of the former archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin resigned over the case of a notorious pedophile priest, Bernard Peynat, but was later cleared by the highest court in France of covering up the scandal
Devaux is also the head of the victims' group "La Parole Liberee" (The Liberated Word). He believes the number of victims in the report are "a minimum" since "some victims did not dare to speak out or trust the commission."
The church in France still "hasn't understood" or continues to minimize the issue, Devaux told The Associated Press.
He said the church must not only acknowledge the issue but financially compensate the victims of child sex abuse by clergy and others employed by the church.
"It is indispensable that the church redresses the harm caused by all these crimes, and compensation is the first step," Devaux said.
What has the Vatican done to rein in the problem?
In May 2019, Pope Francis issued a new church law that requires Catholic priests and nuns around the world to report sex abuse by members of the clergy, as well as attempts to cover it up by superiors, to church authorities – but not the police.
In June of this year, Pope Francis turned down the resignation of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a papal advisor who also serves as the archbishop of Munich and Freising, over the mishandling of child sex abuse cases.
The pope, however, did conclude a process of reform was necessary and said every bishop bears some responsibility for the "catastrophe" caused by child sex abuse within the church.
ar/wmr (AP, Reuters)
A French commission has released an exhaustive report uncovering 70 years of child sex abuse in the country's Catholic Church. The 2.5- year probe looked at church, court, press and police files.
Twenty-two of the alleged crimes can still be pursued for legal action — but the statue of limitations has expired for another 40 cases
A major report prepared by an independent commission and published Tuesday on child sex abuse in the French Catholic Church has shed light on thousands of child sex abuse cases over the last 70 years.
The 2,500-page document details how an estimated 3,000 child abusers, two-thirds of whom were priests, worked in the Catholic Church in France over seven decades.
The president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauve, told a news conference that the estimated number of victims is believed to 330,000, when lay members of the Church such as teachers at Catholic schools are included. An estimated 216,000 were victims of French clergy.
On Tuesday, the head of the French conference of bishops, Monsignor Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, expressed shame and asked for forgiveness.
"We are appalled" at the conclusions of the report and the numbers of victims, he said.
Who formed the commission and what are its conclusions?
The commission, requested by the church and headed by former civil servant Jean-Marc Sauve, comprised 22 people including sociologists, magistrates, law professors and theologians and members of different faith groups. Together they studied church, court, press and police files as part of its work.
Investigator Jean-Marc Sauve led the 2.5-year investigation
Sauve told the press Tuesday the problem is "very serious," adding, "About 60% of men and women who were sexually abused encounter major problems in their sentimental or sexual life."
Sauve said until the last twenty years, the attitude of the church towards its victims was "deep, cruel indifference.''
Twenty-two of the alleged crimes, which can still be pursued for legal action, have been forwarded to French prosecutors. Forty cases where the statute of limitations has expired, but the alleged perpetrators are living, have been sent on to church officials.
The report states, "The Catholic Church is, after the circle of family and friends, the environment that has the highest prevalence of sexual violence."
Watch video 26:00 The Catholic Church: Power and abuse of power?
Recommendations for preventing abuse include training for priests and other clerics, revising the legal code the Vatican uses to govern the church known as Canon Law, and creating policies that recognize and offer compensation to victims.
How have victims reacted?
Francois Devaux is one of the victims of Bernard Peynat, a notorious, since-defrocked priest, who was convicted of sexually abusing minors and given a five-year prison sentence.
Peynat acknowledged abusing more than 75 boys over decades in a case that led to the resignation last year of the former archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin resigned over the case of a notorious pedophile priest, Bernard Peynat, but was later cleared by the highest court in France of covering up the scandal
Devaux is also the head of the victims' group "La Parole Liberee" (The Liberated Word). He believes the number of victims in the report are "a minimum" since "some victims did not dare to speak out or trust the commission."
The church in France still "hasn't understood" or continues to minimize the issue, Devaux told The Associated Press.
He said the church must not only acknowledge the issue but financially compensate the victims of child sex abuse by clergy and others employed by the church.
"It is indispensable that the church redresses the harm caused by all these crimes, and compensation is the first step," Devaux said.
What has the Vatican done to rein in the problem?
In May 2019, Pope Francis issued a new church law that requires Catholic priests and nuns around the world to report sex abuse by members of the clergy, as well as attempts to cover it up by superiors, to church authorities – but not the police.
Watch video 03:53 German Cardinal Reinhard Marx offers resignation to pope
In June of this year, Pope Francis turned down the resignation of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a papal advisor who also serves as the archbishop of Munich and Freising, over the mishandling of child sex abuse cases.
The pope, however, did conclude a process of reform was necessary and said every bishop bears some responsibility for the "catastrophe" caused by child sex abuse within the church.
ar/wmr (AP, Reuters)
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