NDTV<\/em><\/a> report,\u00a0 Jean-Marc Sauv\u00e9, above, head of the commission that compiled the report, said that the church had shown \u201cdeep, total and even cruel indifference for years,\u201d protecting itself rather than the victims of what was systemic abuse.<\/p>\nMost of the victims were boys, he said, many of them aged between 10 and 13.<\/p>\n
The church not only did not take the necessary measures to prevent abuse but also failed to report it and sometimes knowingly putting children in touch with predators, he said.<\/p>\nImage via YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBefore Sauv\u00e9 took the floor, Fran\u00e7ois Devaux, above, who set up victims\u2019 association La Parole Liberee<\/em>, accused church representatives at the public presentation of the report of \u201ccowardice\u201d. He added:<\/p>\n\u201cYou must all pay for these crimes,\u201d Devaux told the clergymen, slowly enunciating each word before repeating the phrase again.<\/p>\n
In this hell, there have been atrocious crimes committed for decades \u2026 there was a betrayal: betrayal of trust, betrayal of morality, betrayal of children, betrayal of innocence of your own people, betrayal of the gospel, betrayal of the original message, betrayal of everything.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nSauv\u00e9 said the commission itself had identified around 2,700 victims through a call for testimony, and thousands more had been found in archives.<\/p>\n
But a wide-ranging study by research and polling groups estimated that there had been around 216,000 victims, and the number could rise to 330,000 when including abuse by lay members.<\/p>\n
There have been around 2,900-3,200 suspected paedophiles in the French church over the last 70 years, he added.<\/p>\n
Sauv\u00e9 said the abuse was systemic and not limited to \u201ca few black sheep that strayed from the flock\u201d, and that abuse of minors within the Church accounts for close to four percent of all sexual violence in France. Most of the violence happened between 1950 and 1968, he said, but it still persists today, adding:<\/p>\n
The problem is not behind us, it is still here.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe French findings come a year after Britain said the Catholic Church had 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 had been more than 100 reported allegations a year since 2016.<\/p>\n
The report said that over the 70 years examined by the commission:<\/p>\n
The Church\u2019s attitude could be summarised as one of concealment, relativisation or even denial, with only a very recent recognition dating from 2015, and even then, unequally accepted by dioceses and religious institutions.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhile the Church has taken \u201cimportant steps\u201d to prevent sexual violence in recent years, the report described them as reactive and insufficient. It also warned that:<\/p>\n
Although these acts of violence were in decline up until the early 1990s, they have since stopped decreasing.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe report\u2019s summary said that \u201creinforcing the presence of secular figures and women in particularly in decision making spheres\u201d of the Church \u201cseems not only useful but necessary,\u201d and suggested \u201cpsychological evaluation\u201d for trainee priests.<\/p>\n
The report also recommends that the Church puts in place a mechanism to compensate the victims of sexual abuses committed by its clergy and to put in place an \u201cindependent process to officially recognise\u201d survivors if the statute of limitations has expired, or if the offender has died.<\/p>\n
One of the thousands of victims who testified before the commission was Christian Dubreuil, now aged 65. He said:<\/p>\n
Paedophilia is the perfect crime because it is the only one for which the criminal is sure, or almost sure, that the victim will not report them.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nA senior aide to French government ministers before his retirement, Dubreuil grew up not far from Lyon. He says he was a shy and studious child in a family without much history of formal education.<\/p>\n
Dubreuil\u2019s abuser slipped into the family circle under the guise of furthering a bright boy\u2019s education, he says. Every Thursday, he would pick him up and they would visit historical sites together.<\/p>\n
Dubreuil described his abuser\u2019s infiltration of his family as:<\/p>\n
The spinning of a spider web that traps you.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nDubreuil remembers being abused in his family\u2019s living room, as his parents worked in their shop below. He said the abuse lasted for nine months, starting when he was 11 and lasting beyond his twelfth birthday.<\/p>\n
I will die with the trauma of what happened, even though it was more than half a century ago.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nHat tip: M Dolon Hickmon<\/strong><\/p>\n
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