Paris: About 3,000 pedophiles have been operating in the French Catholic Church since 1950, the head of the Independent Commission investigating the scandal to the AFP ahead of the release of his report.
The commission research is open between 2,900 and 3,200 priests of pedophiles or other church members, said Jean-Marc Sauve, adding that it is a “minimum estimate”.
The commission report will be released on Tuesday after two and a half years research based on the Church, court and police archive, and interviews with witnesses.
Sauve, senior civil servants, said the report, which operates to 2,500 pages, has tried to measure the number of perpetrators and the number of victims.
It also sees “mechanisms, especially institutions and culture” in the church that allows permanent pedophiles, and will offer 45 proposals.
The independent commission was founded in 2018 by the French Bishop (CEF) conference and the National Session Conference (Corref) in response to a number of scandals that shake the church in France and around the world.
The formation also came after Pope Francis issued an important step that requires those who know about sex harassment in the Catholic Church to report it to their superiors.
Consisting of 22 legal professionals, doctors, historians, sociologists, and theologians, in short is to investigate allegations of child sex harassment with scholars from the 1950s.
When he started working, it called on the witness’ statement and set up the telephone hotline, then reported receiving thousands of messages in the following months.
This report will be sent to CEF and Corref and released at a Tuesday press conference where representatives of the victim association were invited.
“It won’t be easy to anyone,” said Philippe Portier, a sociologist who is part of the commission.
“This will have a bomb effect”, add Olivier Savignac, from the victim association, Parler et revivre.
Bishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, President Cef, said he was afraid of the report would reveal “significant and frightening numbers”, during a meeting with the parish of his diocese.
Message from Church authorities to priests and parishes ahead of the weekend masses warn that reports will be “harsh and serious moments”, which calls for “truth and affection attitudes”.
Sauve said in November that the handling of alleged pedophile cases “in the past is often wrong”.
He said it was “very serious so there might be some institutions and some communities, in small amounts, where systemic violations can commit”.
However, in many cases, prosecution is impossible because the abuse occurs outside the Limitations of France, and remain unclear what the Church will take on the perpetrators.
This report is expected to be studied strictly at the Vatican, where this problem was raised by the Pope in September during a meeting with the French bishop.
“I hope that we will be forced to deal with this burden, secretly like that, so we can take the necessary steps,” said Veronique Margron, President of the Corref Conference.