France - 6 de octubre de 2021

Decades Of Impunity And Child Rape At French Church Exposed

For 2 years, an Independent commission called "Ciase" under the lead of Jean-Marc Sauvé, president of the French Institute of Administrative Sciences, investigated rape and related crimes committed by the French Church that date all the way back to the 1950s.

The shocking numbers came up on Tuesday October 5 with an alarming total of at least 330,000 victims reported including 216,000 directly raped by clerics, all the victims were children or teenagers. The 2 years investigation concluded, through a 485 pages report, that between 2900 and 3200 priests and religious workers were involved in the criminal network. The French Church officially presented its allegedly sincere apologies to all their faithful betrayed believers who trusted the institution and let their children go to catechism for years with all confidence. Evidences show the church has voluntary hidden those crimes or deliberately slowed down the process of investigation for years with total impunity. Either by denying, lying, hiding facts to the justice, and even refusing to compensate the victims. François Devaux, the founder of the association "la parole libérée" said the "bishops are a shame for humanity" and that "they have to pay for their crimes". He is referring here to the Crimes of purposely covering up the child rape and assaults to avoid tarnishing the reputation of the Church.

For Jean-Marc Sauvé, "The Catholic Church is, after family or friends circles, the environment where the prevalence of assault (0.82%) is significantly the highest". In short, the Church is one of the most unsafe environments for children. The report also mentions a list of 45 actions that should be done in order to begin the long process of fixing and recovering from what is probably the most abject scandal the French church has had to face in years. One of the crucial points is the compensation of the victims, those who had their life ruined while being ignored or forced to remain silent during so many years. "The question of compensation is not a gift, it is due. We consider that the victims have a debt, and that the Church has contracted a debt towards them." said Jean-Marc Chauvé.

To understand to tremendous impact and consequences this report has and will have on Churches all over the world, let's simply quote the bible: Matthew 19:14, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” As this story continues to unravel, many questions remain, how will those who represent the Church handle this? How are those who hide the truth going to deal with their crimes? One thing is sure, it is time to end impunity.