France: At least 3,000 child sex abuse victims in Catholic Church, says commission

A French commission made a startling revelation on June 17 saying at least 3,000 children have fallen victim of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church of France since 1950. Jean-Marc Sauve, the president of a commission set up to investigate the claims, said that around 1,500 clergy and other church officials carried out sexual abuse on minors in the past 70 years.

A series of paedophilia cases in the Church in France and around the world forced French bishops to request a comprehensive inquiry. The commission had set up a hotline urging the sexual abuse victims to come forward, which received 5,300 calls over the past year, said the president.

Speaking to reporters in a video conference, Suave said he is profoundly convinced that there are many more victims and the officials don’t know how to consolidate the hotline sources and commission’s independent inquiry. The overwhelming number of cases estimated by the commission represents more than 40 cases per year on average since 1950.

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Pope on sexual abuse

Last year, Pope Francis vowed that if even a single case of abuse emerges in the Church, it will be faced with the utmost seriousness. Pope said that the gravity of the scourge of the sexual abuse of minors is, and historically has been, a widespread phenomenon in all cultures and societies.

However, after the acquittal of Cardinal Geroge Pell on the charges of child sexual abuse, Pope Francis recalled the “persecution that Jesus suffered” and asked everyone to pray for those innocent people who faced injustice. A bench of Brisbane High Court quashed the child sexual abuse conviction on April 7 after a two-year legal battle fought by Pell.

The bench, in its summary judgement, said that it was not enough that the jurors to find the witness believable, reliable and thoroughly credible. The court said that there was a “significant possibility” that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof.

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