Wednesday, October 06, 2021

French Catholic Church clergy sexually abused up to 216,000 children since 1951

Shocking! If this is corroborated, then this is horrifying and damning! Sounds almost incredible or is this perhaps sensationalism? Are the numbers exaggerated?

Kudos to the French Catholic Church to commission such an investigation!

I remember that there were occasional, isolated reports in Germany about such sexual abuse by Catholic or Protestant clergy. Now you have to wonder whether such sexual abuse in Germany was also much more systemic and widespread.

Is it possible that some of these sexually abused boys later went on to abuse women or to have some sexual disorders? I am afraid this is very likely!

"The inquiry found the number of children abused in France could rise to 330,000, when taking into account abuses committed by lay members of the Church, such as teachers at Catholic schools. ...
The report's release follows a number of abuse claims and prosecutions against Catholic Church officials worldwide.

The independent inquiry was commissioned by the French Catholic Church in 2018. It spent more than two-and-a-half years combing through court, police and Church records and speaking to victims and witnesses. ...
The report, which is nearly 2,500 pages long, said the "vast majority" of victims were boys, many of them aged between 10 and 13.
It said the Church had not only failed to prevent abuse but had also failed to report it, at times knowingly putting children in contact with predators. ..."

French Church abuse: 216,000 children were victims of clergy - inquiry - BBC News Some 216,000 children - mostly boys - have been sexually abused by clergy in the French Catholic Church since 1950, a damning new inquiry has found. The head of the inquiry said there were at least 2,900-3,200 abusers, and accused the Church of showing a "cruel indifference towards the victims".

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