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| Victims put up with isolation, shame and guilt |
PARIS, Oct 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Some 216,000 children and teenagers may have been victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in France since the 1950s, according to an investigative commission.
If victims in other institutions run by the Church are included, the total number may be 330,000, said the president of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE), Jean-Marc Sauve, in Paris.
Some 80 percent of the victims were boys between the ages of 10 and 13, while 20 percent were girls of different age groups. Almost one-third of the cases involved rape.
“The numbers are distressing and cannot be left with no consequences,” Sauve said.
In addition to their suffering from the abuse, the victims have put up with isolation and often shame and guilt, he said. Many are still suffering the consequences of what had been done to them.
After a decline in the number of sexual abuse cases in the post-war decades, the figures remained at a recently unchanged level. “One must not assume that the problem is behind us, it is still going on.”
Francois Devaux, who heads the victims’ group La Parole Liberee, said during the presentation of the long-awaited report that the church “will have to pay for all these crimes.” This will involve billions of dollars, he said. — NNN-AGENCIES
