The associations of those affected criticize that only 40 of the 216,000 cases discovered between 1950 and 2020 have been compensated
The associations of victims of pederasty within the French Catholic Church criticize the slowness in the processing of files and in the payment of compensation. A year after an independent report revealed the extent of sexual abuse, barely 100 people have been compensated and there are more than a thousand cases that have not even been investigated.
Advising victims and determining compensation is the responsibility of the National Independent Recognition and Recovery Agency (INIRR) and the Recognition and Recovery Committee (CRR). The first institution treats child victims of sexual abuse committed by a member of the clergy in a diocese or lay staff in a school or Catholic movement, while the second deals with those whose aggressors are members of religious congregations. In both cases, the goal is “to provide reparation when justice is unable to intervene because of the prescription of the crime or when it has already ruled,” according to the INIRR website.
When a victim contacts this agency, a person is designated to be responsible for managing their report and contacting the bishop of the scene where the events were committed to confirm their ‘probable probability’. The INIRR then takes a joint decision. In the event that the decision is made to pay compensation, the Fund for Solidarity and the Fight against Sexual Violence against Minors (Selam Fund) will take care of the payment.
So far, 1004 files have been opened, but the Selam Fund, funded by the dioceses, has paid only 25 of the 45 agreed fees. Religious congregations, for their part, have received 500 requests and paid 15 of the 22 approved fees. The amounts per person vary between 8,000 and 60,000 euros.
In addition to the slowness of the process, victims’ associations criticize the lack of training of the case managers and the fact that the telephone lines are always saturated because they are open to the public for several hours. INIRR has pledged to hire more staff to speed up the process.
“The treatment and counseling (of the victims) is totally dysfunctional,” complains Olivier Savignac, founder of the organization Parler et Revivre (Speak and Relive) and victim of sexual abuse by a priest when he was a teenager. “Those who submitted their application in August will be reimbursed in 2024,” he explains over the phone. Savignac believes that “this delay is unforgivable”. “These are people who have suffered tremendously and cannot wait another year and a half. Most are older, with an average age of between 65 and 75,” he says.
The Independent Commission on Abuses in the Church published a report in October 2021 that shocked the country by revealing that 216,000 minors had been subjected to touching, assault or rape by Catholic priests or religious between 1950 and 2020. 330,000 if you take into account the abuses committed by lay people who worked in Catholic schools, catechesis or youth movements, according to the Sauvé report, which is named after Jean-Marc Sauvé, chairman of the commission.
Source: La Verdad
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