A low estimate. There have been in France “between 2,900 and 3,200 pedophiles”, priests or religious, within the Catholic Church since 1950, declared the president of the Commission which investigates pedocriminality in the Church, Jean-Marc Sauvé.
“This is a minimum estimate”, based on the census and examination of archives (Church, justice, judicial police and press) and on the testimonies received by this body, he added. This is a figure to be compared to a general population of 115,000 priests or religious in total over this 70-year period.
After two and a half years of work, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase) makes the conclusions on Tuesday, in a report, which appendices included, will finally rise to “2,500 pages”, he said.
The report will give a quantitative inventory of the phenomenon, and in particular the number of victims. It will compare the prevalence of sexual violence in the Church with that identified in other institutions (sports associations, school, etc.) and in the family circle.
And the commission will also evaluate the “mechanisms, in particular institutional and cultural” which could support the pedocriminality and will list 45 proposals.
