It promised to be a shocking journey through the shadows of the French church, and so it is. In fact, there are 216,000 victims of pedophilia from 1950 to today, according to the report of the Commission on sexual abuse in the Church (Ciase). Two days ago Jean-Marc Sauvé, a high-ranking French executive responsible for the burning report commissioned by the bishops from across the Alps, had disclosed the first data of a work that lasted two and a half years, giving a first, unequivocal clue to the extent of the revelations: in the the last seventy years of ecclesiastical history, would be between 2,900 and 3,200 “predators”, surveyed by the report.
Today the complete volume has been released, 2,500 pages in all, which will be delivered to the Bishops’ Conference of France and to the Conference of Religious of Institutes and Congregations. The bishops of France are aware that the publication of the figures will usher in an enormous internal and public image crisis. At a meeting in his diocese, the president of the Bishops’ Conference, Monsignor Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, said he feared a report that “announces enormous, frightening figures”. In a message disseminated to parishes across the country, the bishops spoke of a “test of truth” that will await the entire Catholic community. In recent days, Sauvé had announced that the number of torturers is still a downward estimate.
The “silences and failings” of the Catholic Church in the face of the acts of pedophile perpetrated within it since the 1950s have a “systemic” character, Sauvè continued today at a press conference. “The commission deliberated for a long time and reached a unanimous conclusion: the Church did not know how to see, it did not know how to hear, it did not know how to pick up the weak signals”.
Now, having opened the abyss of abuse and violence, the commission in charge will have to begin a dutiful process of expiation, in parallel with that of reconciliation with the wounded society and associations representing the victims. The announcement of 45 proposals is expected that will range from listening to the victims to prevention, from the formation of priests and religious to canon law, to the governance of the Church. The will of the Ciase, as Monsignor de Moulins-Beaufort recalled, is to “assume one’s responsibilities, asking for forgiveness”, providing a flat-rate financial contribution to the victims.
In the more than two years of investigations, the commission was able to hear more than 6,000 testimonies during the hundreds of interviews that took place also thanks to the collaboration of associations in defense of victims of pedophilia. All completed by searches in the archives of the Church, of the Ministry of Justice, of the Interior, in collections of newspapers. As for the criminal consequences, in most cases these are prescribed acts, carried out by mostly deceased persons.
Two days ago, the French bishops had anticipated what emerged from the report in a note sent to Pope Francis: “I told the Pope what I could, it seemed necessary to do so, it is important that he was warned”, said Monsignor de Moulins Beaufort.