Report: French Catholic clergy sexually abused more than 200,000 children

An independent panel stated on Tuesday that the two-and-a half year inquiry into sexual abuse within the French Catholic clergy discovered 216,000 youngsters were victims of abuse from 1950 to 2020, in what it called a vast phenomenon covered up for decades by a “veil of silence.”

The commission discovered that pre-adolescent boys from various social backgrounds made up the “overwhelming majority” of the victims.

The number of victims increases to 330,000 over the seven decades when claims against lay members of the church, such as teachers at Catholic schools, are included in the statistics.

According to Jean-Marc Sauvé, the commission’s chairman, the abuse was systemic. When he announced the results to the public on Tuesday, he said the church had shown “profound, total and even cruel indifference towards the victims.”

He claimed that in addition to failing to stop the abuse, the church sometimes purposefully put children in danger by putting them in contact with predators.

The allegations come following a slew of global sexual abuse scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church. The report’s co-requester, Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF) President Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, voiced his “shame and horror” at the results.

He said, “My wish today is to ask forgiveness from each of you.”

“You are a disgrace to our humanity,” said Francois Devaux, who founded the victims’ association La Parole Libérée.

“In this hell there have been abominable mass crimes… but even worse, there has been betrayal of trust, betrayal of morale, betrayal of children.”

The Report

The independent committee was established by the French Catholic bishops in 2018 to investigate abuses and rebuild public faith in the church.

According to Sauvé, the issue persists. The church had been indifferent to victims up until the 2000s, and it wasn’t until 2015–16 that it started to alter. Sauvé asked the church to make amends despite the fact that the bulk of cases are far past the point at which legal action may be taken.

The report made recommendations for the Catholic church to reorganise its internal legal system, change its governance, reconsider its training policies, and take a closer look at the excessive power held by priests.

Additionally, it promoted a rise in the number of lay preachers and female clergy.

If the veil of silence covering the acts committed has finally been torn away… we owe it to the courage of these victims wrote Sauvé

According to a Vatican statement on Tuesday, Pope Francis “learned with grief” about the findings of the probe.

The Pope promised to address clergy abuse in May 2019 and commanded those who were aware of situations to inform church authorities.