a secret organized according to a report

The Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation was created by the episcopate in November 2021 shortly after the publication of the Sauvé Commission’s shock report on pedocrime in the Catholic Church since 1950. This structure offers reparations to victims of priests or lay people in Catholic dioceses, establishments or youth movements, etc. (with the exception of congregations).

As of December 31, 2022, 1,133 people had contacted theINIRR, of which 69% are men, according to the report, transmitted to the press, 404 people have been accompanied, for which 201 decisions have already been made. Victims whose lives have been profoundly changed following the sexual violence they suffered in particular.

► Also to listen : Regarding sexual abuse in the Church, the already great mistrust of the faithful is gaining ground

Marie Derain de Vaucresson, president of the INIRR, insists on the weight of the secrecy to which the victims were subjected, at the microphone of Lucie Bouteloupfrom the Company department.

“ What, for me, is very striking is that the weight of secrecy and the organization of secrecy by an institution at certain times in the Church has had extremely deleterious effects for the victims. When you have been carrying the secret of having been a victim for 57 years, because everyone around you – your family, the Church – tells you not to talk about it because it will hurt your institution, it creates effects that are extremely deleterious and lasting.

And the manifestation of these deleterious effects, for me, and that’s another observation, is how people find themselves in extremely degraded situations and have very few resources to get out of these situations. And I have the impression that this observation is reinforced by the leaden screed that has long been placed on sexual violence in the Church. »

► Also to listen: Eleven bishops or former bishops implicated in sexual abuse in the Church in France

(and with agencies)