CATHOLIC CHURCH IN FRANCE RAISES €20 MILLION IN COMPENSATION FOR CHILD SEX ABUSE VICTIMS

Thu 27 January 2022:

The Catholic Church in France has raised more than $22 million in compensation for priestly sexual abuse of children.

The dioceses had been facing intense pressure for turning a blind eye to the ”scourge” for too long.

Over the past 70 years, French clergy have sexually abused over 200,000 children, according to a major investigation.

The church had shown “deep, total and even cruel indifference for years,” protecting itself rather than the victims of what was systemic abuse, said Jean-Marc Sauve, head of the commission that compiled the report.

An initial sum of five million euros will be set aside for compensation claims that will be examined by an impartial panel established in the aftermath of the shocking abuse report.

Gilles Vermot-Desroches, the president of the Selam fund, said ”It’s a first step. The Church has followed through on its commitment.”

The head of the French conference of bishops, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, said the church was shamed. Calling the report a “bombshell”, he asked for forgiveness and promised to act.

The head of the Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF) has said the Church will sell off real estate and tap its financial holdings, and possibly take out bank loans to raise the money.

Critics accuse Francis of responding too slowly to the sex abuse scandals, of failing to empathise with victims and of blindly believing the word of his fellow clergy.

The revelations, which showed the problem in France was more widespread than previously thought, were the latest to rock the Roman Catholic Church, after a series of sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children.

The French findings came a year after Britain said the Catholic Church had received more than 900 complaints involving over 3,000 instances of child sex abuse in England and Wales between 1970 and 2015, and that there had been more than 100 reported allegations a year since 2016.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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