After having recognized the collective responsibility of the Catholic Church of France in the pedophile acts committed in its bosom, the 120 bishops gathered in Lourdes raised the question of compensation for victims.
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The Catholic Church had already recognized its collective responsibility with the victims of pedocriminality within it. The 120 prelates gathered in Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées) also agreed on the terms of compensation. “individualized” victims, announced Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the Conference of Bishops of France, Monday, November 8, 2021.
As announced in March, the bishops meeting in Lourdes have decided to set up an independent national body for recognition and reparation, whose role will be to investigate the requests of victims of sexual violence. The name of the president of this body has been revealed: it is the lawyer Marie Derain de Vaucresson, former defender of children, who will constitute “his team at will on the model of the Sauvé commission”.
“We have started to replenish the fund [d’indemnisation], we bishops, by our own contributions, but it is obvious that we must raise sums much greater than those we had imagined. “ The bishops of France are therefore committed to “abound” this fund “by relinquishing property of the Conference of Bishops of France and the dioceses”, declared the president of the CEF. “We will not take money from the Church’s money” where the “gifts from the faithful”, said Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, and “all the bishops have agreed to try to identify in their dioceses the goods they could get rid of”. Moreover, he added, “We decided to take out a loan, if necessary, in order to be able to honor our obligations.”
Finally, the Catholic bishops asked the Pope to help them “by sending someone” of confidence “examine” the way they treat people who are victims of child crime and their attackers.
The commission headed by Jean-Marc Sauvé shook the whole institution by publishing its report last month revealing the extent of child crime in the Church for 70 years. It estimates that 330,000 people over the age of 18 have been subjected to sexual violence since 1950 in France, when they were minors, by clerics, religious or people in connection with the Catholic Church.