The Sauvé Commission on Sexual Abuse of Minors Committed in the Church will report later than expected due to the coronavirus crisis. "Our report will be delivered a little later than expected, in late September or early October 2021," its president, Jean-Marc Sauvé, told AFP. "We have the very firm intention of not drifting any more."
The Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase), created in 2018 by the Catholic Episcopate to investigate pedophilia committed by the clergy since the 1950s, launched in June 2019 a call for testimonies from victims, via a telephone platform, which was initially scheduled to expire on June 2. "We will extend it until October 31," said Jean-Marc Sauvé.
Work undertaken on the perpetrators of abuse
Several activities of his commission, such as the hearings of victims in the regions, were suspended due to the health crisis and the confinement. They will resume gradually, as will the public meetings which could not be held in Lyon, Dijon, Aix-en-Provence, Rouen and Bastia (the latter will be digital). These activities and trips generating call flows to the platform, "it is necessary that it is always able to receive telephone calls".
In addition, "we are going to start work on the perpetrators of sexual abuse in the church," said Jean-Marc Sauvé. "The trajectory that may have been theirs, their entry into the church, whether it be a religious congregation or the diocesan clergy, their formation, what happened and the way in which they lived their own relationship with the Church, sometimes their exclusion. […] It is not possible to close our work without having started a reflection on what led, facilitated, or not, sexual abuse, seen from the side of the perpetrators, ”he added, explaining be "building a sample of authors".
The victims, mostly men
According to figures as of January 31, the Ciase had received 4,500 calls. The majority of the victims were men (62.7%), 80% of them currently aged over 50. The victims were elderly in 32% of the cases from 6 to 10 years old, and in 35.3% of the cases from 11 to 15 years old.
The acts were committed, for 59% of the cases, between 1950 and 1970. For a third, in schools (boarding schools), then in catechism or in chaplaincies (20%). The authors are men in 98% of the cases.
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- Pedophilia
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