Bishops in France have pledged to replenish the compensation fund in support of people who have been sexually assaulted in the church by giving up their movable and immovable property. They announced this at a conference of bishops, said conference leader Eric de Moulins-Beaufort. He also noted that the church will not use donations from believers to replenish this fund. “All the bishops agreed to try to determine the property in their dioceses that they could get rid of,” he added. “In addition, the bishops have decided to take out a loan, if necessary, to cover their obligations,” he said.
The report of the independent commission on sexual assaults in the church was presented in early October. According to the report, at least 216,000 minors were sexually abused by clerics and religious leaders in France between 1950 and 2020. Last week, French bishops decided to “recognize the institutional responsibility of the church” for the sexual assaults they committed. thousands were injured, as well as the “systemic nature” of these crimes. The head of the Conference of Catholic Bishops said on Monday that an independent national body for the recognition and compensation of victims would be established.
Bishops in the holy town of Lourdes have prayed on their knees in a penitential gesture to ask god for forgiveness for sexual abuse in the Catholic church.
“This morning, we did not ask the victims for forgiveness, this is a matter more for the interpersonal relationship between the bishop and the victim,” Bishop François Touvet of Chalons said on Saturday.
“We cannot ask forgiveness from people who are not yet able to give it.”
The commission’s report found that the “vast majority” of victims were pre-adolescent boys from a variety of social backgrounds.
It described the abuse as a “massive phenomenon” that had been covered up for decades by a “veil of silence”.
France’s 120 Catholic bishops began their annual conference where they will digest the report.
The gathering is taking place in Lourdes – considered by the Catholic church to be a holy site and one of the world’s top pilgrimage destinations.
“There is, unfortunately, a considerable number,” the Pope said in October, repeating the word “shame” several times.
“I would like to express to the victims my sadness and pain for the trauma that they suffered,” he added.
“It is also my shame, our shame, my shame, for the incapacity of the church for too long to put them at the centre of its concerns.”
Pope Francis also called on all bishops and religious superiors to take all actions necessary “so similar dramas are not repeated”.
The pope said that French Catholics must ensure that the church remains “a safe house for all”.
Photo: The news was announced by Catholic Bishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the Bishops’ Conference of France.
