The president of an independent commission on sexual abuse reported to CNN that between 2,900 and 3,200 pedophile clergymen have operated in the French Catholic Church since the 1950s. According to the commission’s website, the report aims to establish the facts and provide an understanding of what happened in order to prevent any such tragedies from occurring in the future. Made up of 21 people, the commission was set up in 2018 by the French Catholic Church hierarchy and religious institutes after abuse scandals surfaced.
Finance by the French Catholic Bishops conference, members are not paid and do not receive instructions from the church. The archives of religious institutions were all accessible to the commission in order for it to address, what a member called, this secret and hideous side of our society. The report was developed over the last 32 months, working with the victims a lot of the time.
The commission was set ip before Pope Francis issued an edict in May of 2019, establishing new regulations for reporting sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. All dioceses were to set up systems, for the first time ever, which report on abuse and cover-ups. CNN has reached out to the French Catholic Church for a comment.
Katherine Dalle, head of communications for the Bishop’s Conference of France, said that the report will change everything. She said that Jean-Marc Suave’s work is an important moment for people who have been victims of such abuse. Olivier Savignac, who runs a victims group, said powerfully that ‘the church has been too moderate in following the word of God and taking care of the smallest and the weakest’.
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Photo Source: CNN