The Episcopal Conference affirms that if necessary they will even ask for “a loan” to fulfill their “obligations” to repair the damage caused.
The French Catholic Church will sell part of its patrimony to raise funds to compensate victims of pedophile acts committed within its institutions, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the country’s Episcopal Conference, announced on Monday.
The French bishops were willing to sell “movable and immovable property” of the Episcopal Conference and their dioceses. And, if necessary, they will request a loan to “meet our obligations,” explained Moulins-Beaufort at a press conference in Lourdes, south of the country.
The Gallic Catholic Church needs “to raise funds superior to what we had imagined, given the extent of these abuses, violence and sexual assaults committed against the victims in our Church.” In order to compensate the victims of pedophilia, money from the institution’s “coffers” or “donations from the faithful” will not be used, but the money will come from its own fund, created at the end of September, Moulins promised. Beaufort.
The bishops’ announcement comes a month after the publication of a devastating report by the Independent Commission on Abuses in the Church. The document revealed that, between 1950 and 2020, some 216,000 Gallic minors were victims of sexual abuse – touching, assault or rape – by Catholic priests or religious.
The number of victims could reach 330,000 minors if the attacks committed by lay pedophiles who worked in other institutions, such as Catholic schools, catechesis or youth movements, are taken into account. This report has shown “a reality of the Church that we did not know how to see.” «It has been done wrong, much wrong has been done. It is necessary to assume it to free those who have suffered it, “added Moulins-Beaufort.
The Catholic Church in France has been “a place where acts of violence and sexual assaults on minors were committed in appalling proportions,” acknowledged the ecclesiastical official. “We have allowed an ecclesiastical system to develop that, far from providing life and promoting spiritual freedom, damages, tramples and shakes human beings and their most elementary rights,” he said in the closing speech of the Plenary Assembly of Bishops of the Gallic country.
The French bishops recognized this Monday “the institutional responsibility of the Church in the violence suffered by so many victims” and “the systemic dimension of these violence.” The Gallic Catholic Church considers that the sexual abuse of minors in its bosom “is not only the result of isolated individuals, but has been made possible by a global context. Operations, mentalities and practices in the Church have allowed these acts to be perpetuated and have prevented them from being denounced and punished.
Amounts without specifying
The ecclesiastical representatives also recognized that “this responsibility carries with it a duty of justice and reparation.” They did not specify the amount of compensation that they calculate that the identified victims of pedophilia could receive, since this will still have to be determined by a commission.
Moulins-Beaufort announced the creation of an Independent National Instance for Recognition and Reparation, led by Marie Derain de Vaucresson, a lawyer specializing in children’s rights, and which will be in charge of accompanying victims in their claims. They also decided to set up nine working groups, among which one stands out dedicated to analyzing sexual violence within the Catholic Church. The French bishops also asked Pope Francis to send a team to the country to address the protection of minors.
The Plenary Assembly of Bishops of France also reported that an external audit of the cells for listening to the victims will be carried out and promised to verify “in a systematic way the judicial records of all pastoral agents (laity, consecrated person, clergy) called to work with minors ”.
“They were not believed or listened to”
The report of the Independent Commission on Abuses in the Church (Ciase, for its acronym in French) was published on October 5, after almost three years of investigation. The Ciase was commissioned by the Episcopal Conference itself and the Conference of Men and Women Religious of France (Corref), after a series of sexual scandals. One of the best known cases was that of the priest Bernard Preynat, sentenced in 2020 to five years in prison for the abuse of dozens of minors for more than thirty years.
The ‘Preynat case’ splashed on Philippe Barbarin, then Archbishop of Lyon, convicted in the first instance and acquitted on appeal, for not having denounced the actions of this priest of his diocese in court.
The 485-page report and another 2,500 of annexes, reveals that 80% of the victims were children and most of them were between 10 and 13 years old. Much of it (56%) occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. They declined between the 1970s and 1990s (22%) and then stabilized (22%).
The researchers included 45 recommendations to improve the situation and act with justice towards the victims. They advocated in the document for compensating the victims. «It is necessary to repair, as far as possible, the evil that has been done. This implies a minimum of recognition ”, said Jean-Marc Sauvé, president of the commission, when the work was presented. For Sauvé, “the issue of compensation is not a donation, but a duty.” It was also considered necessary for the Church to reform some of its practices, such as the formation of priests and the secrecy of confession.
Although Ciase has noted a change in the care of the victims, who “until the beginning of this century were not believed or listened to”, the analysis concluded that “the Church did not know how to see, did not know how to listen, did not know how to capture the signals weaknesses issued by the victims “and did nothing to” take the necessary measures “to prevent and help them. “The Church can and must do whatever is necessary to restore what has been damaged and rebuild what has been broken,” the document says.
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