By : Louise Requin

A report by an independent commission found over 216 000 victims of sexual abuse by French priests since 1950.

The commission, headed by Jean Marc Sauvé, found that the abuse was silenced, ignored, if not facilitated by the Catholic Church, at least until around 2015. Victims were mostly boys aged 10 to 13.  The number of cases could exceed 330 000 when including abuse by lay members to the church.

The commission was established in 2018 by catholic bishops and works independently from the Church. Its purpose was to restore public trust by finally bringing transparency to the scandals of abuse progressively gaining public attention. Sauvé believes that the problem has been kept underreported for so long due to the Church’s structure, notably its teachings about obedience and sexual taboo.

Abuse by priests has never been reported on such a large scale.  Worse yet, the Church has been wholly indifferent to the victims’ pleas for years. Not only did the Church ignore the problem, but it knowingly left children with known predators. Now, responsibility must be taken by the Church itself, as the problem is a systemic one. Individual responsibility of priests must be engaged, but proceedings need to involve the Catholic Church itself.

Guarantees for human rights forbid any act of systemic violence, including sexual violence, especially against children. Minors are left with very little access to effective remedy, especially in the context of a religious institution perpetuating shame, secrecy and protecting the “sanctity of priesthood”. Members of the Catholic Church are under no circumstance above the law. Judicial authorities need to prosecute the cases of sexual assault committed by French priests over at least the last ten years. Moreover, the Catholic Church as an institution needs to take responsibility, as well as immediately provide reparation for the victims. No financial compensation will ever repair the harm done, but it is an indispensable part of the recognition process.

The report also provides recommendations such as criminal record checks and adequate training. GICJ strongly encourages the Catholic Church as well the French judicial authorities to publicly address the issue. Victims must be heard and given reparation. The Church must publicly take responsibility and undertake reform internally. The priests involved must be investigated to make sure the harm ends now. Training and background checks while necessary can never be sufficient. The Catholic Church’s teaching s and ideology must be wholly reformed to ensure that no such crimes are kept secret. All proceedings should consider the enhanced vulnerability of children.  

Justice, Human rights, Geneva, geneva4justice, GICJ, Geneva International For Justice