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# In France, a shocking report has been published following almost three years of work by the Commission on Child Abuse in the Catholic Church
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/vo-frantsii-opublikovan-shokiruiushchii-otchet-po-rezultatam-pochti-trekhletnei-raboty-komissii-po-rassledovaniiu-sluchaev-nasiliia-nad-detmi-v-katolicheskoi-tserkvi/
- Published: 2021-10-06T10:18:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:40:19.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Faith, Society

The investigation included interviews with victims and witnesses, and the study of church, court, police and news archives going back to the 1950s.

The French report states that around 330,000 children have been subjected to sexual abuse in one form or another over the past 70 years by some 3,000 priests and an unknown number of other persons connected with the Church. Note the alarming ratio of victims to perpetrators: one hundred to one.

The total number of victims includes around 216,000 people abused by priests and other clergy; the rest suffered at the hands of such church and quasi-church figures as scout leaders or camp counsellors. Of all the victims, 75% are girls.

All these crimes were concealed by church officials for decades. The chairman of the commission, Jean-Marc Sauvé, described the situation in the Church before the early 2000s as one of “deep, brutal indifference towards the victims”. Sauvé is also convinced that the Church is in debt to the victims and must pay them compensation, especially those who are already elderly and will not be able to go to law.

The Church has not remained silent. The president of the Bishops’ Conference of France, Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, said that the French bishops were appalled by the report’s findings. Luc Crépy, Bishop of Versailles, who heads the department for combating paedophilia, said: “This is more than a shock. It is a deep feeling of shame.” Crépy reported that funds for compensating the victims are already being collected, and that the commission that will deal with their distribution is being formed.