Catholic Church in France had 3,000 child abusers, probe finds
- Independent commission investigates sex abuse inside French Catholic Church going back to the 1950s
- Scandal is the latest to hit the Roman Catholic Church, which has been rocked by abuse scandals around the world
An independent commission examining church sex abuse in France believes that 3,000 child abusers – two-thirds of them priests – have worked in the church over the past 70 years.
The estimate was given by the commission president, Jean-Marc Sauve, in an interview published on Sunday in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper. The commission has been investigating for two-and-a-half years. Its full findings are expected to be released on Tuesday.
In the interview, Sauve did not give a figure on the number of sex abuse victims but said the report does include a new estimate.
Asked about the commission’s work investigating child abusers, he said: “We evaluated their number at 3,000, out of 11,500 priests and church people since the 1950s. Two-thirds are diocesan priests.”
He said 22 cases have been forwarded to prosecutors for alleged crimes that can still be pursued. More than 40 cases of alleged crimes that are too old to be prosecuted but that involve suspects who are still alive have been forwarded to church officials, Sauve said.
“From 1950 to 1970, the church is completely indifferent to the victims: They don’t exist, the suffering inflicted on children is ignored,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “The periods that followed were different.”
He added: “Our objective is to furnish a concrete diagnosis of all the abuses, to identify the causes and draw all of the consequences.”
Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has taken a series of steps aimed at wiping out sexual abuse of minors by clerics.
In 2019, the pope issued a landmark decree making bishops directly accountable for sexual abuse or covering it up, requiring clerics to report any cases to Church superiors and allowing anyone to complain directly to the Vatican if needed.
This year, he issued the most extensive revision to Catholic Church law in four decades, insisting that bishops take action against clerics who abuse minors and vulnerable adults. Critics have said he has not done enough.
A report published last year in Britain said the Catholic Church received more than 900 complaints involving over 3,000 instances of child sex abuse in England and Wales between 1970 and 2015, and that there have been more than 100 reported allegations a year since 2016.
Additional reporting by Reuters
