Catholic Church: 330,000 victims of abuse in France

According to a commission of inquiry, the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in France has appalling dimensions. Since 1950 there have been hundreds of thousands of minor victims. The experts are calling for reforms.

Sexual violence was part of the system, says Jean-Marc Sauvé, head of the commission of inquiry into sexual violence against minors in France’s Catholic Church. After two and a half years, the commission comes to the conclusion: Around 330,000 children were victims of sexual violence in the church. In 216,000 cases the perpetrators were apparently clergy and in thousands more cases they were lay members of the Church.

Serious consequences

The investigative commission itself identified 2,700 cases. At the beginning of the investigation, the commission set up a hotline through which it received 6,500 calls from victims or relatives.

In its 2500-page report, the commission also refers to scientific studies over the past 70 years. There were around 3,000 perpetrators, two thirds of them clergy. Four out of five victims are male.

Most of the offenses are now statute-barred, including 40 cases of perpetrators who are still alive. In 22 cases, however, legal processing can still take place, said Sauvé when presenting the report. They were handed over to the public prosecutor.

Those in the know looked the other way

The consequences of sexual violence are very serious, said Sauvé. Three out of five people affected would have problems with their emotional and sexual life in adulthood.

The Catholic Church not only did not take the necessary measures to prevent sexual violence, but also actively looked the other way, said Sauvé. They did not report known cases and sometimes deliberately placed children in the hands of perpetrators.

Calls for reform

The problem is still there, said Sauvé. Until the 2000s, the church had shown a “deep, cruel indifference to the victims”. Only since 2015 have their attitudes slowly changed. Church teachings on topics such as sexuality, obedience, and the inviolability of the priesthood also need to change, Sauvé said.

The commission published 45 pieces of advice on how to prevent sexual violence in the church. This includes training priests and other clergy differently, reforming Catholic canon law and recognizing and compensating victims.

The independent commission of inquiry was set up by the French Bishops’ Conference at the end of 2018 to ensure more transparency and trust in the face of the abuse scandal.

Please excuse me

The commission of inquiry had finally recognized the responsibility of the church institutionally, said the founder of the victims’ organization “La Parole Libérée”, François Devaux, at the presentation of the report: “Something that the bishops have not yet achieved.” The bishops should pay for the crimes.

The chairman of the French Bishops’ Conference, Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, asked the victims for forgiveness. The bishops were “horrified” by the results of the commission of inquiry and the number of victims.