the bishops of France recognize the “institutional responsibility” of the Church and the “systemic dimension” of these crimes

The French bishops, meeting in Lourdes, have decided to “recognize the institutional responsibility of the Church” in the sexual violence suffered by thousands of victims and the “systemic dimension” of these crimes, announced Friday, November 5, the president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF), Eric de Moulins-Beaufort. These pedophile acts, the extent of which was revealed by the recent Sauvé report, “were made possible by a general context, operations, mentalities, practices within the Church, he stressed. This responsibility entails a duty of justice and reparation. “

In March, the bishops had already announced that the Church wanted “to assume its responsibility by asking forgiveness for these crimes and for these failures”. In the light of the Sauvé report, she says it now “in a stronger, sharper, more categorical way”, Bishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort insisted.

The meeting of bishops, which began on Tuesday, is to continue until Monday and “it is on this common basis that we are going to work” to examine the other recommendations of the report, he explained, without specifying the financial implications of this recognition of responsibility. The bishops voted on “this commitment to responsibility”, according to CEF spokesperson Hugues Woillemont.

The Sauvé report estimated at 216,000 the number of people over the age of 18 who were subjected to violence or sexual assault during their minority by clerics or Catholic religious in France from 1950 to 2020. The number of victims climbs to 330,000 if we add lay aggressors working in institutions of the Catholic Church.