Nuns used crucifixes to rape girls during decades of abuse carried out by clergy in France's Catholic Church that saw attacks on 330,000 children covered up 'by a veil of silence', damning report finds PI

By Clare Mccarthy and Peter Allen For Mail Online and Associated Press

Published: 00:12 EDT, 5 October 2021 | Updated: 19:47 EDT, 5 October 2021

Pope Francis expressed to the victims his 'great sorrow, for their wounds'

An estimated 330,000 children were victims of sex abuse in France since 1950

Scale of the number of attacks was covered up for decades by a 'veil of silence'

Report was released Tuesday after after two-and-a-half-years of investigations

Nuns used crucifixes to rape girls during decades of abuse carried out by clergy in France's Catholic Church that saw attacks on 330,000 children covered up 'by a veil of silence', a damning report has found.

The 2,500-page landmark report was released Tuesday after more than two years of investigations by an independent commission, in France's first major reckoning with the devastating phenomenon.

A victim named 'Marie' testified that she was abused as an 11-year-old and that when she complained about the abuse to her parents they refused to believe a nun could do such a thing. The abuse continued for another year.

'I was truly [a gift] for this nun… because she knew full well that she did not risk anything,' Marie said.

Eighty per cent of victims were young boys between the ages of 10 and 13, however many girls also suffered abuse, not only by priests but also by nuns.

Pope Francis today expressed to the victims his 'great sorrow, for their wounds', adding that he was grateful for the courage they had shown in denouncing what they had been through.

The investigation found that an estimated 330,000 children were victims of sex abuse within France's Catholic Church between 1950 to 2020, with an estimated 216,000 people abused by priests and other clerics. Olivier Savignac, who was sexually abused by a priest in 1993, at the age of 13, has contributed to the report as a victims' representative.

'I perceived this priest as someone who was good, a caring person who would not harm me,' said Savignac. 'But it was when I found myself on that bed half-naked and he was touching me that I realised something was wrong.' He says the abuse, which carried on for years, damaged him for life: 'It's like a growing cyst, it's like gangrene inside the victim's body and the victim's psyche.'

'We can see how systemic it was … with an estimated number of 216,000 victims,' Savignac told Reuters, adding that the Church could not have ignored something of that magnitude.

'It's an earthquake, a hurricane, a tsunami … when you see these numbers, it's so damning that no one can stay in denial, whether the Catholic Church or society as a whole,' he added.

At least 330,000 children were sexually abused in France's Catholic Church over the last 70 years, a damning report has found. Pictured: The head of France's Catholic bishops conference, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort

A statement from the Vatican said: 'First of all [the Pope's] thoughts go to the victims, with great sorrow, for their wounds.'

'[His thoughts go to] the Church of France, so that, in the awareness of this terrible reality … it may embark on a path of redemption,' the statement added.

The President of the Conference of Bishops of France, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, said Tuesday 'we are appalled' at the conclusions of the report and the numbers of victims.

He said: 'This report is tough, it is severe. We have heard the voices of the victims, we have heard their numbers, they are beyond what we could imagine.

'It is truly unbearable. I express my shame, my dread, my determination to act. You, the victims, some of whom I know by name, I want to tell you that my desire on this day is to ask for your forgiveness.'

The commission that compiled the report urged compensation for victims and strong action from the church, denouncing 'faults' and 'silence'.

The president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauvé, said the estimate, based on scientific research, includes abuses committed by priests and others clerics as well as by non-religious people involved in the church.

The report says an estimated 3,000 'criminal paedophiles' - two-thirds of them priests - have preyed on hundreds of thousands of mainly young boys who were at Catholic schools and other institutions.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10059827/Major-report-expose-sex-abuse-Frances-Catholic-Church.html