French report: 330,000 children victims of church sex abuse

PARIS - A major French report released Tuesday found that an estimated 330,000 children were victims of sex abuse within France’s Catholic Church over the past 70 years, in France's first major reckoning with the devastating phenomenon.

The president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauvé, said the estimate, based on scientific research, includes abuses committed by priests and others clerics as well as by non-religious people involved in the church. He said about 80 percent are male victims.

"The consequences are very serious," Sauvé said. "About 60 percent of men and women who were sexually abused encounter major problems in their sentimental or sexual life."

The 2,500-page document prepared by an independent commission comes as the Catholic Church in France, like in other countries, seeks to face up to shameful secrets that were long covered up.

The report says an estimated 3,000 child abusers — two-thirds of them priests — worked in the church during that period. Sauvé said the overall figure of victims includes an estimated 216,000 people abused by priests and other clerics.

The commission worked for 2 1/2 years, listening to victims and witnesses and studying church, court, police and press archives starting from the 1950s. A hotline launched at the beginning of the probe received 6,500 calls from alleged victims or people who said they knew a victim.

Sauvé denounced the church’s attitude until the beginning of the 2000s as "a deep, cruel indifference toward victims." They were "not believed or not heard" and sometimes suspected of being "in part responsible" for what happened, he deplored.

Sauvé said 22 alleged crimes that can still be pursued have been forwarded to prosecutors. More than 40 cases that are too old to be prosecuted but involve alleged perpetrators who are still alive have been forwarded to church officials.

The commission issued 45 recommendations about how to prevent abuse. These included training priests and other clerics, revising Canon Law — the legal code the Vatican uses to govern the church — and fostering policies to recognize and compensate victims, Sauvé said.

French archbishops, in a message to parishioners read during Sunday Mass across the country, said the publication of the report is "a test of truth and a tough and serious moment."

"We will receive and study these conclusions to adapt our actions," the message said. "The fight against pedophilia concerns all of us ... Our support and our prayers will keep going toward all the people who have been abused within the church."

Pope Francis issued in May 2019 a groundbreaking new church law requiring all Catholic priests and nuns around the world to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups by their superiors to church authorities.

In June, Francis swiftly rejected an offer from Cardinal Reinhard Marx, one of Germany’s most prominent clerics and a close papal adviser, to resign as archbishop of Munich and Freising over the church’s mishandling of abuse cases. But he said a process of reform was necessary and every bishop must take responsibility for the "catastrophe" of the crisis.

Agencies via Xinhua