“We lack human resources”said Tuesday, June 14 on franceinfo Marie Derain de Vaucresson, president of the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation (Inirr), responsible for reparations for acts of pedocrime in the Church, while several collectives denounce the slowness of processing of files and even its “amateurism”. Eight months after the creation of this structure, the Inirr received this Tuesday the associations of victims. “You hear people who are unhappy, and there are people who are more satisfied”, emphasizes Marie Derain de Vaucresson. She explains the slowness by the fact that “Things are built as they go” and wishes to remain a volunteer of the body for “a matter of independence from the Church.”
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franceinfo: What can you say to these victim associations that you received in Paris?
Marie Derain de Vaucresson: The decision to create Inirr dates from mid-November 2021, seven months ago. You can imagine that, starting from scratch, we had to build absolutely everything with issues of securing information sharing. We had premises on January 7th. All things are built over time. At the request of the victims, we agreed to initiate the exchanges and the entire reparation process very quickly, in January, while finishing the construction of all the processes of the body. I can only understand the victims, their dissatisfaction, especially on the time it can take. Things are improving and will get better and better. We are working on it. That it takes time, I am the first to deplore it. I don’t believe that behind it is amateurism. Quite the contrary. It is rather a means of securing the way of intervening.
“We have more than 120 situations today which have been accompanied. It is necessarily very insufficient when we know that we are at 800 situations. But at the same time, things are progressing.”
Marie Derain de Vaucresson, President of the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation (Inirr)at franceinfo
We hear people who are unhappy with what is happening. Fortunately, there are people who are more satisfied and who can explain why it makes them feel good to exchange and why they are satisfied with the prospects that open up. I hope that will be the case for as many people as possible. The door is open.
Do you lack the human or financial resources to collect and process the hundreds of files that are still pending?
We lack human resources. But it is not because they are not given to us or taken. It is because we are on an exercise which is eminently new. The process of reparation is not, contrary to what we hear everywhere, a process of compensation. Perhaps it is a level of requirement that is too complicated to want to be on the implementation of restorative justice in the generic sense of the term, rather than on hardship compensation. The pecuniary dimension for some people is absolutely essential. And there is no difficulty in going on this ground. But carrying out this approach, it requires a requirement, it takes time, it requires solid processes. And you have to support referents, train referents. And today, it’s true, we lack it.
Does this take up 100% of your time and could the Bishops’ Conference help you more?
This does not occupy 100% of my time because I am like everyone else, I need personal balance, that this personal balance, in order to live my voluntary commitment well, goes through a family life, through a professional life. . What I also believe is that I cannot be an employee of this body. On the other hand, there is a secretary general. There are referents and three other profiles of professionals who arrive in September to coordinate the referents and to assist me more intensely than the secretary general. This question also guarantees the independence of the body because it guarantees my independence. I do not want to be an employee of the authority and even less of the Conference of Bishops of France to carry out this project. The question of voluntary work is a real question of distance and independence vis-à-vis the Church. And for me, it is essential in the way of assuming responsibilities.