In Lourdes, the bishops have a week to reflect on the follow-up to the report on sexual violence in the Church

A week to heal wounds and provide solutions. The bishops of the Catholic Church meet on Tuesday, November 2 in Lourdes for their annual meeting, largely devoted to the follow-up to be given to the shock report of the Sauvé commission on the extent of child crime in the institution.

Initially scheduled for six days, the meeting therefore opens one day earlier for a “time and work of reception” of the report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase), one month after its publication. For seven days, these some 120 prelates will devote almost half of their work to “the fight against violence and sexual assault on minors”, according to the program released to the press.

Questions from “responsibility” of the Church but also of the financial device allowing to pay, in the future, a contribution to the victims, will be studied during this conference, and even among “the priorities” of this meeting, according to the episcopate.

After a week of work, several subjects – the content of which is still unknown – will be put to the vote of the bishops at the closing on November 8. To finance the compensation fund, the Sauvé commission dismissed the track of an appeal for donations from the faithful, recommending to finance the compensation paid to the victims “from the heritage of the aggressors and the Church of France”.