Five hundred and twenty-six people have contacted the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation (Inirr), responsible for several weeks to respond to requests from victims of pedocrime in the Catholic Church, announced this Wednesday the president of this instance.

Marie Derain de Vaucresson spoke in Lourdes, and by videoconference to the press, after presenting the functioning of her structure to the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) gathered for its spring plenary assembly until Friday.

Of the 526 people who have contacted the Inirr since January 17, "68% are men" and "a majority are aged 56 to 70," said Marie Derain de Vaucresson.

In “70% of cases, sexual violence was experienced between 11 and 15 years old” and for almost a quarter “between 6 and 10 years old”.

Work on compensation scales in progress

With regard to their expectations, "23% only want to give their testimony, without asking for recognition or reparation", "46% want recognition - that the fact that they have been victims be formalized, by letter or by a meeting with a Church leader” for example, and “28% have no expectations” in terms of recognition, she detailed.

In addition, "57% of people talk about compensation, particularly financial compensation", 19% "do not want" compensation and 24% have no expectations on this topic.

Intended for the victims of priests or lay people in various places of the Church (excluding congregations), the Inirr was voted by the CEF last November, a decision responding to one of the recommendations of the shock report by Jean-Marc Sauvé published in October on the extent of sexual violence against minors since the 1950s. Of these 526 files, 54 situations are in the process of being settled, the President of Inirr further underlined.

“It is not satisfactory”, she said, underlining “the difficulty in recruiting in particular employees” for its structure.

Asked about the compensation scales, she stressed that work on the question of “a floor” and a ceiling was in progress, but “not settled”.

For his part, Gilles Vermot-Desroches, the president of the Fund for the relief and fight against abuse of minors (Selam), the structure responsible for collecting funds to finance the requests for financial compensation from the Inirr, underlined that " almost all the dioceses had given”.

In January, he announced that 20 million euros had been collected.

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