Clergy Sex Abuse on the Rise Again
Over 200,000 Minors Abused by Clergy in French republic Since 1950, Report Estimates
An contained committee set upwards at the asking of the Roman Cosmic Church in French republic found that corruption was far more pervasive than previously thought.
PARIS — Clergy members in the Roman Catholic Church in French republic sexually driveling more than than 200,000 minors over the past 7 decades, according to an estimate published on Tuesday by an contained committee that concluded the problem was far more than pervasive than previously known.
The long-awaited 2,500-page report by the Independent Committee on Sexual Corruption in the Church laid out in detail how the church building hierarchy had repeatedly silenced the victims and failed to report or subject field the clergy members involved.
"The church failed to run across or hear, failed to option upwardly on the weak signals, failed to accept the rigorous measures that were necessary," Jean-Marc Sauvé, the committee president, said at a news conference in Paris on Tuesday. For years, the church showed a "deep, total and even cruel indifference toward victims," he added.
There has been a growing reckoning with sexual abuse in the church building in France later a series of high-profile scandals. The investigative commission was prepare in 2018 at the request of the Catholic Church in France in response to criticism of its handling of abuse cases.
Meticulously compiled over the by iii years by contained experts, the findings were the most all-encompassing account to date of the telescopic of sexual abuse by clergy in the country, peculiarly of children and other vulnerable people.
This followed efforts in contempo years to disclose or document like allegations against Roman Catholic clergy members in Australia, Germany, Republic of ireland, Poland, the United States and other countries as the church continues to grapple with the destruction wrought by decades of sexual abuse scandals. The French church has seen congregations compress and its influence wane in recent decades.
Pope Francis met with French bishops in contempo days and took note of the report, said Matteo Bruni, a Vatican spokesman, in a argument.
"His first thoughts are for the victims, with immense sadness for their trauma and gratitude for their bravery in coming forward," the argument said.
Near 216,000 minors, by and large boys ages 10 to 13, have been abused by clergy members in French republic since 1950, co-ordinate to an estimate by the committee. The effigy reached 330,000 after including perpetrators who were laypeople and worked for the church or were affiliated with information technology, such as Boy Sentry organizers or Cosmic school staff. The estimate is a projection based on a full general population survey, archival analysis, and other sources.
"The Catholic Church is thus, with the exception of family and friendship circles, the environs in which the prevalence of sexual violence is by far the highest," the written report said.
The commission also estimated that in that location had been at least two,900 perpetrators of sexual abuse among clergy members over the past 70 years — likely an underestimate, Mr. Sauvé said.
Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, the archbishop of Reims and the president of the Bishop's Conference of France, chosen the findings alarming and expressed shame, calculation that he was determined to human activity.
"Their vox moves u.s.a. securely. Their number overwhelms united states of america," he said of the victims. "It goes beyond what we might have imagined," he added. "Today, I want to ask for your forgiveness."
Victims and experts welcomed the written report, but noted that information technology was unclear how the church building would human action on the commission'due south recommendations. Some changes — similar better training for priests and background checks — are things the church has already started to implement.
Just other recommendations urged a more profound rethinking of the church'southward practices and overhauling of its Canon law, the legal framework for the world'due south ane.3 billion Catholics, which the written report chosen "totally sick adapted" to deal with sexual abuse cases.
The report encouraged French bishops to consider the ordination of married men and to requite "a far greater presence of laypersons in general, and women in particular" in the church'due south deciding bodies. The commission as well said that the secrecy around confession was not incompatible with the legal obligation for priests to report sexual abuse.
Many cases accept not or will not be prosecuted because the accused accept died or considering the statute of limitations for the allegations has expired — over half of the abuse occurred between 1950 and 1970, the committee estimated.
It recommended that the church financially compensate victims on a example-by-case basis with funds recouped directly from the perpetrators and from church avails. Victims were particularly outraged this year when France's bishops suggested giving them a fixed "contribution" paid for by donations of the faithful.
"You lot are a disgrace to humanity," François Devaux, co-founder of a victims' association, said at Tuesday's news conference, addressing the Catholic officials in the auditorium.
Mr. Devaux founded La Parole Libérée, an clan of victims of Bernard Preynat, a sometime priest who was defendant of sexually assaulting dozens of Boy Scouts from the 1970s to the 1990s and who was bedevilled concluding year.
"You must pay for all of these crimes," Mr. Devaux said, emphasizing each word.
Epitome
Mr. Sauvé, a well-respected former summit magistrate, selected 21 experts, including sociologists, historians, jurists, psychologists and theologians, who dug through church, state and news archives, held more than 250 hearings with witnesses and experts, and worked with demographic, polling and research institutes.
About 6,500 people, victims or those close to them, submitted oral or written testimony.
Many victims praised the commission for its thoroughness and hailed the report as a much-needed corrective after years of denial from the church.
"Victims were worried that it might tone things downward," Mr. Devaux said of the report. But he said, "not merely did they give a quantitative and qualitative account of the scope of sexual violence, they tried to understand where it came from — the institutional mechanisms."
Amongst the scandals that drew attention to the problem, the Preynat affair, which embroiled a cardinal who was accused of declining to study abuse, stood out. It became a symbol of the church's failings and its secretive approach to dealing with abuse, and signaled a shift in the willingness of victims to challenge church authorities.
"Before that, things were handled with shame," said Isabelle de Gaulmyn, a summit editor at La Croix, France's leading Catholic newspaper, who wrote a book about the Preynat case. "And they said, 'No, nosotros were abused, we are going to concord people accountable, and we are going to do so openly,'" she added, referring to Mr. Preynat's accusers.
The Bishop's Conference, seeking to restore confidence in the Church building, best-selling in a letter in March that cases of sexual abuse committed by clergy members were "undeniable" and that too often church authorities had turned a blind eye. The bishops announced a series of measures to tackle the issue.
Only the commission said in its report that the pace of modify had been too slow and that some measures had been unevenly applied beyond dioceses and institutions.
Olivier Savignac, who was sexually abused by a priest in 1993, at the age of 13, and who founded Parler et Revivre, an association for corruption victims, said the church was all the same ensconced in a culture of silence, "because in that location are potent questions of loyalty — loyalty to the priest, and loyalty to the bishop."
"What's at stake in the long term is to truly establish a civilization of speaking out, of prevention," he added.
Jason Horowitz contributed reporting from Rome.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/world/europe/france-catholic-church-abuse.html
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