October 5, 2021: PARIS (AP) By SYLVIE CORBET — Victims of abuse within France’s Catholic Church welcomed a historic turning point on October 5, 2021, after a new report estimated that 330,000 children in France were sexually abused over the past 70 years, providing the country’s first accounting of the worldwide phenomenon.

Report documents 3,000 pedophiles working within French Catholic Church over the last 70 years.
The independent commission examining sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in France believes of the 3,000 child abusers, two-thirds of them were priests — wrongdoing that Catholic authorities covered up over decades in a “systemic manner,” according to the president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauvé.

The 2,500-page document was issued as the Catholic Church in France, like in other countries, seeks to face up to shameful secrets that were long covered up. Victims welcomed the report as long overdue and the head of the French bishops’ conference asked for their forgiveness. Read More here

REUTERS REPORT By Tangi Salaün and Ingrid Melander: French clergy sexually abused more than 200,000 children over the past 70 years, was revealed in a major investigation released on October 5, 2021. Its authors said the Catholic Church had turned a blind eye to the ‘scourge’ for too long. Read More here