When the resonance of the Sauvé report goes beyond the walls of the Churches. On Wednesday October 20, Jean-Marc Sauvé will be auditioned by the Laws Commission of the National Assembly as president of Ciase, the independent commission which has just issued a resounding report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. “If the findings and recommendations formulated by Ciase primarily concern the Church, its work is aimed at the whole of society and calls upon all the institutions, including the national representation”, estimates the chaired commission. by Yvelines deputy Yaël Braun-Pivet (LREM) in a press release.
The Sauvé report presented on October 5 draws up an “overwhelming” inventory, estimating at some 216,000 the number of minors victims of priests, deacons and religious since 1950 in France. Jean-Marc Sauvé denounced “a set of negligence, failures, silence, institutional coverage, which presented a systemic character”. This report “also raises questions about the framework for professional secrecy of ministers of religion as well as compensation for victims”, writes the parliamentary committee.
The Law Commission interested in the analyzes of Ciase
The secrecy of the confession has been in recent days at the center of a lively controversy, after statements by the president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) Mgr de Moulins-Beaufort considering that it was “stronger than the laws of the Republic “. After an interview with the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin, the ecclesiastical official had recognized a “clumsy formulation”.
The Law Commission says it is “particularly interested in the analyzes of Ciase and in the implementation of its recommendations, particularly in view of the consequences that a certain number of them could have in the fields falling within its competence, in particular. particularly in criminal matters ”. The press release also highlights the measures adopted under the current legislature to protect minors, in particular the law strengthening the fight against sexual abuse of children.
The idea of the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into sexual abuse in the Church, mentioned in 2018 in the Assembly and in the Senate by the elected socialists, did not succeed, no group having met. decided to use its “right of drawing” to organize it. The upper house had, however, set up a fact-finding mission in the same year, but with the broader object of sexual assault against minors by people in the exercise of their profession or functions, whatever they may be, in schools, child welfare services, sports clubs, religious institutions etc.