A report published in France on Tuesday estimated that 330,000 children in France were sexually abused over the past 70 years, providing the country’s first accounting of the worldwide phenomenon.
The figure includes abuses committed by some 3,000 priests and an unknown number of other people involved in the church — wrongdoing that Catholic authorities covered up over decades in a “systemic manner,” according to the president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauvé.
The 2,500-page document was issued as the Catholic Church in France seeks to face up to shameful secrets that were long covered up. Victims welcomed the report as long overdue and the head of the French bishops’ conference asked for their forgiveness.
The report said the tally of 330,000 victims includes an estimated 216,000 people abused by priests and other clerics, and the rest by church figures such as scout leaders or camp counsellors.
The estimates are based on a broader research by France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research into sexual abuse of children in the country.
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The Vatican has sovereign immunity that protects it from being sued in local courts over sexual abuse cases
https://www.euronews.com/2021/10/12/catholic-church-sex-abuse-claims-vatican-has-immunity-rules-echr
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