Louise Sallé 07h17, March 10, 2023

At the end of 2021, France discovered that in 70 years, 330,000 minors had been victims of sexual violence in the Church.

Shortly after, a victim reparation body was created, the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation (Inirr).

After more than a year of work, the Inirr takes stock in an annual report published on Thursday.

In all, 190 people received financial compensation.

A drop of water in view of the extent of the phenomenon of pedocrime in the Church?

190, that doesn't seem like much… But this body only received 1,200 claims for compensation.

Files are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Repeated rapes over several years in more than half of the cases 

Marie Derain is the president.

"It's rape in more than half of the situations, and rapes that have been repeated for several years," she says.

"What has been offered from the start is support that goes beyond simple financial compensation, and this individualized approach takes time," she explains.

The Inirr receives an average of eight requests per week, from two-thirds men and one-third women, aged around 60.

The request for Stéphane, raped at 13, was thus sent in March 2022. "I received a response from Inirr in October", he explains.

"I was afraid that they had forgotten me, but we were able to talk about everything I had experienced...", describes Stéphane.

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An amount collected, to be donated to psychological care

"I received some money in December, and I will continue to talk about what I experienced, the suffering and trauma, with a trauma psychologist," he continues.

"But it's quite expensive, so the money received may be useful for that."

The average amount received by victims is 37,000 euros.

And among them, 40 received the maximum sum of 60,000 euros.