Report: at least 216,000 victims of sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church

At least 216,000 children have been victims of sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church since 1950. That says in a report published on Tuesday of CIASE, a commission set up to investigate the abuse. The number of victims can be as high as 330,000 when including victims of sexual abuse committed by someone without an official position within the church.

The report specifically concerns persons up to the age of 18 who have become victims of sexual abuse. Commission president Jean-Marc Sauvé called the numbers “more than worrying” and “overwhelming” and said they “cannot go unanswered in any way”. The abuse was committed by some 2,900 to 3,200 clergy and other Church officials.

According to Sauvé, the Catholic Church “displayed a deep indifference and even cruelty towards the victims until the early 2000s” and the problems are still unresolved. Victims were “not believed, heard, they are thought to have contributed more or less to what happened to them,” he added. The committee speaks of the abuse of a ‘systemic character’ and believes that financial compensation should be paid to those affected.