Rapport sur les violences et abus sexuels dans l’Eglise catholique

• October 2021
  Revelations of rape, abuse, sexual violence and paedophilia in the Catholic Church have put the institution in a difficult situation for many years. The French Bishops’ Conference has already produced several reports on the fight against paedophilia in the Church.
  In February 2019, the French Bishops’ Conference (CEF) and the Conference of Religious of France (CORREF) had mandated a commission, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (CIASE).
  Composed of 22 people with diverse philosophical and religious opinions (believers of different confessions, non-believers, agnostics or atheists), not including religious, and chaired by Jean-Marc Sauvé, honorary vice-president of the Council of State, the commission made its report public on 5 October.
  The commission estimates that 216,000 minors have been sexually abused by clerics or religious since 1950, and 330,000 if one includes those assaulted by laypeople working in Church institutions (teachers, supervisors, youth movement leaders...). These figures are the result of a statistical estimate with a margin of plus or minus 50,000 people.
  The Commission first took 6,500 calls from victims or relatives, and then conducted about 250 long hearings or research interviews. It also analysed the archives, in an attempt to discover the institutional and cultural mechanisms that may have fostered paedocriminality.
  The Commission’s report ends with some forty recommendations.
  This report has provoked a great deal of reaction : by revealing the extent of the problem, but also by revealing that the Church has frequently refused to take into account the cases of which it has been made aware, this report seems quite damning for the ecclesial institution.

For more information :
 ICASE Final Report, Les violences sexuelles dans l’Eglise catholique, France 1950-2020 (Sexual Violence in the Catholic Church, France 1950-2020) (in French, will be available in English by the end of the year)
 Summary of the report
 Collection of testimonies from victims, De victimes à témoins (From victims to witnesses)
 Interview with Jean-Marc Sauvé, Studies, October 2021