After two and a half years of investigation, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase) published its report this Tuesday, October 5, and the findings are damning.
The Sauvé report estimates that there have been 216,000 minors who were victims of priests or Catholic religious figures over the past 70 years. Furthermore, the report identifies between 2,900 and 3,200 predators between 1950 and 2020.
The number of victims rises to “330,000 when including lay aggressors working in Catholic Church institutions” (teachers in Catholic schools, chaplains, etc.), added Jean Marc Sauvé, president of the commission.
Regarding the PACA region, Ciase accounts for between 5 and 15 abusers per diocese in the Var and Alpes-Maritimes departments between 1950 and 2020. However, during the same period, there were only between 10 and 15 convictions of clerics on average.
The Pope expresses his shame
The day after the report’s publication, Pope Francis expressed “his shame“.
“I wish to express to the victims my sadness, my pain for the traumas they suffered, and also my shame, our shame, my shame for the Church’s inability for too long to place them at the center of its concerns”, he declared.
He calls on the French to take responsibility to ensure that the church becomes “a safe home for everyone“.
