Pope Francis has expressed sorrow and shame after an inquiry into sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in France revealed that some 330,000 children had been abused since 1950.
"I would like to express to the victims my sadness, my sorrow for the trauma that they have suffered. And also my shame. Our shame, my shame, for the Church's too-long inability to put them at the center of its concerns. I assure them of my prayers, and we pray together, all to you, Lord, the glory, and to us the shame," Pope Francis told an audience Tuesday at the Vatican.
The independent commission was set up by French bishops in 2018. Investigators went through court, police and Church records and interviewed thousands of victims and witnesses. The findings, which were published Monday, revealed that at least 216,000 children, mostly boys, were abused by up to 3,200 priests and other clerics since 1950. When lay members of the Church are included, the number of victims is estimated at 330,000.
Jean-Marc Sauvé, the president of the commission, said the scale of the abuse was overwhelming. "Above all, there was a series of neglects, failures, silence, an institutional cover-up, which were systemic in nature," he said at a press conference Monday.
Under French law, many of the offenses are too old to prosecute. The commission called for the Church to increase financial compensation to the victims, which is scheduled to begin next year. Some victims say the Catholic Church itself must undergo historic reform.
"This involves a process of profound change in the practices, relationships and governance of the Church," said Eric Boone, now 49 years old, who said he was abused by a member of the Catholic clergy when he was a teenager.
Boone said the commission had been a cathartic process. "This is really the most beautiful moment in this shameful story; it is the moment that helped me the most. I arrived trembling and I came out of it deeply appeased, because I had the feeling that I was really being listened to, over a long period of time, with people who knew how to listen to what I was saying, who rephrased it, who tried to understand without any judgment."
Earlier this year, Pope Francis changed Catholic laws to explicitly criminalize sexual abuse. Amicie Pelisse de Raussas, president of the group "Catholic Voices" in France, told VOA that progress had been made.
"I think this report is the first step of this rebuilding of trust. Because it's a report that was commissioned by the bishops and it shows that the Church, the institution, is really trying to dig out the truth and not hide, to be done with the sort of culture of cover-up that has been systemic until today.
"I think as long as you have one case left, one predator, one victim left, you need to do more," she added. "But Pope Francis, be that as it may, I think has really begun a culture of change."
The French commission follows similar investigations in other countries, including the United States and Australia. Pope Francis has described sexual abuse within the Catholic Church as a "worldwide catastrophe."
