Victims of abuse within France's Catholic Church welcome a historic turning point as new report estimates 330,000 children were sexually abused over the past 70 years
The revelations, which showed the problem in France was more widespread than previously thought, were the latest to rock the Roman Catholic Church, after a series of sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children.
Based on projections, the independent study estimates some 330,000 children overall were victims of sexual abuse linked to the church from 1950-2020. The revelations, which showed the problem in France was more widespread than previously thought, were the latest to rock the Roman Catholic Church, after a series of sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children."First of all his thoughts go to the victims, with great sorrow, for their wounds," a Vatican statement said.
The church must take responsibility for what happened, the commission said, and ensure reports of abuse were transmitted to judicial authorities. Many cases are covered by the statute of limitations, but state prosecutors have been alerted of more recent cases and the commission stressed that the church should provide compensation no matter when an offense was committed.
"In this hell, there have been abominable mass crimes ... but there have been even worse, betrayal of trust, betrayal of morale, betrayal of children."
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