On Monday, December 13, the leaders of the Church of France were received at the Vatican and handed over the report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Violence in the Church (Ciase) to the Sovereign Pontiff. A meeting which made it possible to resolve several ambiguities while the Sauvé report was questioned by certain voices in the Catholic world.
With our correspondent in Rome, Eric Sénanque
For more than an hour, the leaders of the Church of France were able to speak with the Pope, handing him the report of the Sauvé commission. It was for them to explain the work carried out by the Ciase and their measures taken in Lourdes a month later.
But this meeting also made it possible to remove doubts when François had canceled a meeting with the members of the commission scheduled for December 9. The Pope who, in the plane which brought him back from Greece, had also sown the disorder by taking again the criticisms which could be made on the report of Ciase.
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“The Pope listened to us”
On this point, the bishops were reassured, according to Bishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, the president of the Conference of Bishops: “ The Pope listened to us with a lot of attention, and then commented with a lot of encouragement and confidence, so that we continue on the path that we have started. And now we can affirm, if anyone doubts it, the support of the Pope. I say “if anyone doubts it” because, personally, I never really doubted it. “
The Sovereign Pontiff also expressed his readiness to receive the members of the Sauvé commission in the near future. During this visit to Rome, the French bishops also met two important cardinals, Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and João Braz de Aviz who oversees religious institutes around the world.
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