France .. The Catholic Church acknowledges responsibility for the sexual abuse of hundreds of thousands of children

French bishops on Friday acknowledged the responsibility of the Catholic Church in the country, as an institution, for the sexual abuse of hundreds of thousands of children in churches and their affiliated institutions in the country since 1950.

The head of the French Bishops' Conference, Eric de Moulin Beaufort, said in a statement, after a meeting in the city of Lourdes (southwest of France), that the priests recognized the responsibility of the Church as an institution for the sexual violence that inflicted on thousands of victims.

Commenting on the recent findings of the commission of inquiry into sexual assaults in the Catholic Church in France, he added that the sexual abuse of children was systematic.

The President of the French Episcopal Conference considered that these sexual crimes against children "fall within a general framework, work patterns, mentalities and practices within the Church that made them possible," stressing that this responsibility entails the duty to achieve justice and compensation.

A spokesman for the French Episcopal Conference, Auguste Walmon, said the bishops made the decision to "acknowledgment of responsibility" by vote.

Beaufort said that the recognition of this responsibility entails the duty to achieve justice and compensation (French)

The Commission of Inquiry headed by Jean-Marc Sauvier counted the sexual assaults of about 216,000 people under the age of 18 since 1950 at the hands of priests and clergymen in France, and estimated the number of abusers at about 3,000 during 70 years.

The commission's report indicated that the cases of sexual abuse committed by employees of schools and private institutions of the Catholic Church in France amounted to 114,000 cases, during the same period of time, bringing the number to 330,000 victims.

Among the 45 recommendations included in the report, the committee recommended determining the amounts incurred by each victim according to the “damage suffered,” calling for these compensations to be paid “from the property of the aggressors and the French Church.”