At least 216,000 underage sexual assault victims

In 2018, “Commission Indépendante sur les abus sexuels dans l’Eglise” (Ciase) was launched, headed by Jean-Marc Sauvé. In those three years, commission members spoke with hundreds of victims and relatives and also searched church and spiritual archives, looking for possible evidence of (children) abuse.

Some details were leaked earlier – so there will be At least 2,900 to 3,200 French clerics sexually abused children – Now the full 2,500-page report has been submitted. In the seventy years, between 1950 and 2020, as many as 216,000 minors (at the time of the facts) were abused by priests or other clergy. This number will rise to 330,000 victims if the abuse is added by ordinary people associated with the Church (priests, teachers in Catholic schools…). “These numbers are more than alarming,” said Souvet. “They are overwhelming and in no way can they remain without consequences.”

Until the early 2000s, he said, the Catholic Church displayed “a deep indifference, even cruelty (indifference) toward the victims.” From the 1950s to the 2000s, victims were neither believed nor heard, and were believed to have contributed to what happened to them to a greater or lesser extent.

Souve pointed out that the figures are the result of a statistical estimate with a margin of plus and minus 50,000 people.