Matteo Bruni, Director of the Holy See Press Office, reported today, October 5, 2021, that Pope Francis was informed of the publication of the Report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuses (ICASE) by French Bishops, with whom he met in recent days during their ad Limina visit and learned of its content with sorrow.”
“His thought goes in the first place to the victims, for their wounds, and gratitude for their courage in denouncing them, and to the Church of France so that, with the awareness of this terrible reality, united to the Lord’s suffering for His most vulnerable children, she undertakes a path of redemption,” states the text. “With his prayer, the Pope entrusts the People of God in France to the Lord, especially the victims, so that they are given consolation and relief, and so that, through justice, the miracle of healing is wrought,” it concludes.
Data of the Report
According to “Vatican News,” the data gathered over two and a half years of investigation and presented today in Paris by ICASE, estimates that there were 2,900 to 3,200 Priests and Religious implicated in crimes of pederasty in France between 1950 and 2020. Moreover, a large survey of the general population estimates that a total of 216,000 people in France today (with a margin of error of 50,000) have been sexually attacked by Catholic Priests and Religious, a third of whom were violated. On the other hand, if aggressions perpetrated by the profane are included (especially in schools) this estimation rises to 330,000 people.
According to the same source, Jean-Marc Sauve, the Commission’s President, remarked that in the whole of French society, five and a half million people (14.5% of women and 6.4 % of men) have suffered sexual aggressions before they were 18. Families and friends continue to be the main places of aggression, although the prevalence of aggressions in the Catholic Church continues to be high, including in recent times, and 80% of these abuses affect boys.
Press Release of Bishops and Men and Women Religious
The Conference of Bishops of France and the Conference of Men and Women Religious of France issued a joint press release in which they acknowledge that the Report gives “an atrocious reality that we could not imagine in regard to the number of victims, the percentage of Priests and Religious that committed these crimes, and the failures that have made possible that some of them be prolonged for decades and that so few have been hunted.”
“In face of so many destroyed lives and destroyed often, we feel ashamed and indignant. Our thought and our immense sorrow, as women and men, as Bishops and Superiors of Religious Institutes, go especially to the victims; to those that were able to speak out; to those that have not yet been able to do so, or will never be able to do so, and to those that have died. Nothing can justify the fact that they were nor listened to, believed or supported, or that the majority of the guilty were not denounced and judged,” reads the note.
“More than ever, we appreciate the courage of the victims that dared to speak and we express our profound gratitude to those that accepted to work with us. We reiterate solemnly our determination to apply the guidelines and decisions necessary so that such a scandal cannot be repeated. We are very grateful to all those that will help us to do so. We know that there is still a long way to go to earn for ourselves the forgiveness of the victims and that we must ‘test ourselves,’” continues the text.
The press release also points out that both Conferences “will each study this Report and the 45 recommendations of ICASE” and that, their respective Plenary Assemblies, which will be held in November, “will enable us to adopt the measures that seem just and necessary in the light of the decisions already adopted by each of our Conferences.”
“We strongly encourage the whole of the Catholic Church in France –parishes, Movements, Religious Communities, etc., to take note of the ICASE Report, no matter how painful it is, and to invite their members to talk about it among themselves. This is our moral duty vis-s-vis the victims and the members of their families and also for the coming generations: to look at this terrible reality to be able to address it together and to work for a Church more worthy of humanity and of the Christ she proclaims,” concludes the text.
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
