‘MASSIVE’ CHILD SEX ABUSE IN FRENCH CATHOLIC CHURCH
French Catholic clergy sexually abused some 216,000 minors in the seven decades since 1950, a “massive phenomenon” that was covered up for decades by a “veil of silence,” an independent commission said Tuesday.
The commission’s two-anda-half-year investigation was prompted by outrage over a growing number of abuse claims and prosecutions against Church officials worldwide.
When claims against lay members of the Church such as teachers at Catholic schools are included, the number of child abuse victims climbs to 330,000 since 1950.
“Until the early 2000s, the Catholic Church showed a profound and even cruel indifference towards the victims.” Archbishop Eric de MoulinsBeaufort, president of the Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF), which co-requested the report, expressed his “shame and horror” at the findings.
“My wish today is to ask forgiveness from each of you,” he told the news conference.
Sauve denounced the “systemic character” of efforts to shield clergy from sex abuse claims
and urged the Church to pay reparations even though most cases are well beyond the statute of limitations for prosecution.
The report, at nearly 2,500 pages, found that the “vast majority” of victims were preadolescent boys from a variety of social backgrounds.
For commission chief Sauve, until his retirement one of France’s highest-ranking civil servants, the inquiry ended up hitting close to home. Shortly after accepting the job, he got a letter from a former classmate at his boarding school, telling of abuse at the hands of the priest who gave them both music lessons.