{"id":146003,"date":"2025-05-30T12:36:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T10:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/?p=146003"},"modified":"2025-06-03T10:32:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T08:32:15","slug":"victims-of-church-abuse-speak-part-1-whether-or-not-to-ask-for-reparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/146003-victims-of-church-abuse-speak-part-1-whether-or-not-to-ask-for-reparation.html","title":{"rendered":"Victims of Church abuse speak (Part 1): whether or not to ask for reparation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On October 5, 2021, France discovered the extent of sexual abuse in its Church. A commission (CIASE<\/a>) reported 330,000 victims of clerics and nuns since 1950. Two bodies were quickly set up: the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation (INIRR<\/a>) for victims of priests and laity within the Catholic Church; and the Commission for Recognition and Reparation (CRR<\/a>) for victims of abuse within religious congregations and institutions. Three and a half years on, victims spoke to Justice Info about their experiences with these commissions, in a three-part series of articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Claudine<\/a><\/strong>*,a retired nurse who was raped by a chaplain when she was young, is one of the pioneers. \u201cIn 2019, after the publication of an article about abuse at our lyc\u00e9e, we got together as victims. We were scattered all over France. We organized a meeting, which was very warm and involved a lot of listening. Our group of ten people was received by CIASE in February 2020. I was in Lourdes when the bishops acknowledged the Church had done wrong, and I went to Paris when CIASE issued its report. So I saw the birth of the INIRR, to which I decided to take my case in January 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michel<\/a><\/strong>* was abused at a very young age by a nun. He worked as a psychotherapist and was also one of the pioneers. \u201cWhen I first heard about the Sauv\u00e9 Commission [named after the head of CIASE], I said to myself that I was going to testify. I knew straight away that they were interested, because statistically there are fewer abusive women than men. I don\u2019t belong to any associations that demand things of the Church, but I thought that my testimony might seem symbolic and interesting. Reading my anonymous testimony in the CIASE report did something for me; your testimony is immediately recognized as being true. I found the people on the commission very respectful, so I decided to take my case to the CRR, which was just getting started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Fran\u00e7ois Devaux: \u201cI registered with the INIRR but didn\u2019t go through with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Fran\u00e7ois Devaux<\/a><\/strong> is well known to the French public. Along with other victims, he secured the conviction of a scout chaplain and a cardinal from the diocese of Lyon in a high-profile trial. \u201cIt was no doubt partly our victims\u2019 association \u201cLa parole lib\u00e9r\u00e9e\u201d that helped get Jean-Marc Sauv\u00e9\u2019s CIASE. Throughout the duration of the commission, I was in close contact with the chairman. He asked me to make a speech when the report was published, in which we victims called for the truth to be told. You could say that the two reparation bodies came into being as a result of \u201cDe la parole aux actes collective\u201d, which was set up after the CIASE report. We asked for the four Rs: recognition, responsibility, reparation and reform. We asked that the Church recognize the systemic responsibility established by CIASE. And once it had acknowledged this, it had to undertake reparation. We applied media pressure. A few months after the publication of the CIASE report, I registered with the INIRR, but I didn\u2019t go through with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

V\u00e9ronique Garnier<\/a><\/strong> was abused by two priests as a child. She is also one of the first wave of victims to come forward. \u201cIn 2010, at Palm Sunday Mass, I asked myself what I was doing there. I told myself it was time to come clean with the Church. Forty years after the events, I realized that the opposite of silence is dialogue, with the Church, even if it is complicated and painful. I worked with the French Bishops\u2019 Conference. I was one of the victims welcomed to Lourdes for the first time in 2018. As part of the Faith and Resilience Collective, I worked with CIASE and was interviewed. I was one of the first to submit a file to the INIRR.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gilbert: \u201cI wrote to the CRR to see if it was serious. To be honest, I didn\u2019t really believe in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Gilbert<\/a><\/strong>* was raped by a priest when he was 12. But it wasn\u2019t until the whole thing exploded publicly in France that he became aware of it. \u201cFran\u00e7ois Ozon\u2019s film Gr\u00e2ce \u00e0 Dieu, which I saw in the cinema in 2020, was a trigger. The next day, I went for a routine medical check-up at Nancy hospital. It was the first time I\u2019d spoken to an adult about what had happened to me. The Sauv\u00e9 report, which was published afterwards and mentioned 330,000 victims, brought out everything I had buried for over 55 years. It was a cataclysm. A year later, I told my children about it. I heard that the French Bishops\u2019 Conference in Lourdes had decided to release money to compensate the victims. What prompted me to write to the CRR on October 21, 2021 was to find out what it was all about and whether it was serious. To be honest, I didn\u2019t really believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yolande du Fayet de la Tour<\/a><\/strong>, a victim of rape and four years of sexual assault covered up by denial, didn\u2019t believe it at all. \u201cI heard about CIASE like everyone else, but I looked at it from a distance because I didn\u2019t trust it. I said to myself: in any case, this commission is appointed and paid by the Church, so it\u2019s just there to restore its image. It took me a year and a half to decide to go and testify. I did it because it was important for me to speak out for all the people who are silent. It\u2019s as if a pulse of resilience started, without me really deciding. A whole process of remembering and understanding began. The fact of bearing witness and being with others on social networks made me take on this societal and militant role, by creating a collective of victims. On a more individual level, I then decided to apply to the INIRR for recognition and compensation. I filed my claim in September 2023 and have just received compensation (April 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alain: \u201cI\u2019ve decided not to go to the CRR. As it comes from the Church, it can\u2019t work. We would need a Nuremberg trial, with the Church in the dock as an institution.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Alain<\/a><\/strong>*, who was molested as an altar boy and later became a psychotherapist, thinks that: \u201cAs it comes from the Church, it can\u2019t work. It\u2019s totally impossible. These commissions have the merit of existing, except that we see just how flawed they are. I don\u2019t say they are deliberately bad, but flawed. It\u2019s a way of washing dirty laundry in the family. It can\u2019t<\/em> work. For me to get reparation, there should be a separating third party, in particular a justice system that is independent of Church and State. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve decided not to take my case to the CRR. In my case, it was the system that allowed this kind of abuse to take place, and all the silence that goes with it. [In France] you can\u2019t attack the Church as a legal entity. It\u2019s highly protected. I think it is up to Parliament to legislate to regulate a certain number of religious practices, or maybe even hold a Nuremberg trial with the Catholic Church in the dock as an institution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why don\u2019t most victims seek compensation?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, it was time for the two commissions to take stock. As of May 6<\/a>, 2025, only 1,143 people had filed claims with the CRR<\/a>, 886 claims had been examined and 209 claims were pending. The INIRR has received 1,509 applications since 2022 and provided assistance to 1,235 people. There are a number of reasons why so few people apply to the reparations commissions, according to the victims interviewed by Justice Info.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a kind of collective amnesia,\u201d says Yolande<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cOut of 330,000 people, the vast majority don\u2019t realize they are victims. I\u2019ve known I was a victim since CIASE and MeToo Church. Secondly, after recovering from amnesia or denial, many victims tell themselves that if their attacker is dead, there\u2019s nothing they can do, that the statute of limitations has expired, and they don\u2019t think about making a complaint to the institution from which they\u2019ve been estranged for a long time. There\u2019s a link between the institution and the abuse, the systemic aspect, but a lot of people haven\u2019t understood that. I also think that we live in a society where many Catholics have left the Church and no longer have any connection to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrible that so few people [are seeking redress],\u201d says V\u00e9ronique<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cThe 330,000 people identified by CIASE didn\u2019t come out of nowhere. I think that for some people it\u2019s too difficult because they don\u2019t want to talk about it anymore. For example, a friend of mine was also attacked, but he didn\u2019t contact either CIASE or INIRR, he didn\u2019t want to. I am 64, he\u2019s 69. I think he has probably found some sort of fragile equilibrium, and that he knows very well that if he starts talking, everything in his life is going to go wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not dream: the 330,000 people won\u2019t come out of the shadows. There are all those who have died and all those who don\u2019t even know the commissions exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Alain<\/a><\/strong>* also believes that \u201cmany people don\u2019t want to stir up the past. They have more or less come to terms with what\u2019s happened in their lives. Among them are those who remain Catholic and don\u2019t want to leave the Church, compromise the future and not have a funeral one day, because you never know what happens after death. It\u2019s a form of denial, of downplaying things, of coping with reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe commissions are swamped with files,\" explains Gilbert<\/a><\/strong>*. \u201cI think a lot of people have gone to them, but it takes so long. Let's not dream: the 330,000 people won\u2019t come out of the shadows. There are all those who have died and all those who don\u2019t even know that the commissions exist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a strategy on the part of the commissions. These two bodies have been manoeuvring to ensure that the Church pays its bill as cheaply as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a strategy on the part of the commissions,\u201d says Fran\u00e7ois<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cThere is a deliberate lack of communication, but also a laborious and exhausting process. If CIASE has received so many testimonies from victims, it\u2019s because it has communicated and put in place tools to receive them. These two reparation bodies communicate very little, publish few if any reports, and express themselves only in response to media pressure. They do not really invite victims to testify, and they do not use the diocesan websites in an effective and relevant way, with a real desire to do so. What\u2019s more, too few people work for them, which creates unbearable waiting times. I think that from the outset, these two bodies have been manoeuvring to ensure that the Church pays its bill as cheaply as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe INIRR doesn\u2019t go out of its way to make itself known,\u201d adds Claudine<\/a><\/strong>*. \u201cCIASE did a tour of France. The INIRR remains fairly Parisian. It has taken steps to commemorate victims when asked for it, yes. But we\u2019re a long way from everyone coming forward. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve reached the optimum level in terms of what could be done to get more victims to approach the INIRR. Of course, there are all the counselling centres in churches, but from what I\u2019ve heard, they\u2019re not necessarily people trained to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dani\u00e8le<\/a><\/strong>* talks about her experience of a counselling centre. After suffering from traumatic amnesia, her memory of the violence she endured came back to her in flashes in 2020. \u201cI\u2019d see a church and try to get inside to understand what was going on, but every time I couldn\u2019t. At the time, I was feeling suicidal, and I was referred to a church counselling centre in hospital. I was taken into a diocesan office. It was the first time I\u2019d put everything that happened to me into words, and the conversation lasted several hours until the person asked me \u2018are you aware that you\u2019ve been raped several times?\u2019 I collapsed, and she was also in tears. She wasn\u2019t clear with me about the next steps, telling me only that the bishop was going to carry out a fact check and report back. She told me about the INIRR without saying that I had the right to contact it. It was a big mistake. When I left that office, I didn\u2019t know where I was, I could have gone under the first car. I waited several months without any news. And it was much later that this person called me back to say: \u201cYou need to call the INIRR\u201d. The compensation process began in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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* Pseudonym<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t
Recommended reading<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
\"Antoine<\/div><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\u201cRestorative justice is the very soul of justice\u201d\r\n\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2021, France discovered the extent of sexual abuse in its Church. A commission reported 330,000 victims. Two reparation bodies were quickly set up. Three and a half years on, victims spoke to Justice Info about their experiences with these commissions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":145999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[544,550,3717],"tags":[2927,2626],"ji_location":[2231],"class_list":{"0":"post-146003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-reparations","9":"category-reports","10":"tag-church","11":"tag-victims","12":"ji_location-france"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVictims of Church abuse speak (Part 1): whether or not to ask for reparation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2021, France discovered the extent of sexual abuse in its Church. A commission reported 330,000 victims. Two reparation bodies were quickly set up. 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