The amount of reparations will be assessed according to the seriousness of the acts of sexual violence, the seriousness of the “failures” of the Church and the “seriousness of the consequences on health”.
The Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation (Inirr) will offer victims of child crime in the Catholic Church financial reparations of up to 60,000 euros, announced its president on Wednesday June 1.
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“As of May 31, we have 736 victims who contacted us“, whose “a little more than half who, from the outset, ask for financial compensation, without necessarily having quantified it“, declared during a press conference Marie Derain de Vaucresson, president of this structure which is addressed to the victims of priests or lay people in various places of Church (except congregations). She presented the approach adopted by her structure to assess the financial compensation, when it is requested by the victim.
A “graduation scale of seriousness of the situation”
This repairdoes not include floor“, but can go as far as “maximum amount” of “€60,000“, an amount that is “is in the very upper range of civil justice compensation“, argues the instance. To refine its approach, the Inirr has built a “Graduation scale of the seriousness of the situationaccording to three axes, each ranging from 1 to 10. The first scale assesses the seriousness of acts of sexual violence, the second measures the seriousness ofshortcomingsof the Church, the third evaluatesthe severity of the health consequences(physical, mental and social).
In some cases, increases will be possible, if a possible behavior of influence or consequences on school or professional life have been observed, for example. After establishing a synthesis drawn up by a “referent» with the victim, it is a college of 12 experts (composed of specialists in care, law, medico-social and a victim priest specialized in supporting victims of abuse) who will decide on the request, before sending the file to the Fund for the relief and fight against abuse of minors (Selam), the fund created by the episcopate, which will make the transfer.
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Marie Derain indicated that on June 10, the Inirr would transmit to Selam the first ten files on which it will have ruled. The ceiling of 60,000 euros is the same as that proposed by the Recognition and Reparation Commission (CRR), which deals with cases between Catholic institutes and victims of these. On the other hand, this commission has provided for a different assessment and scale, comprising 7 levels, with a floor at 5,000 euros. These two commissions were created following the publication in the fall of the report by Jean-Marc Sauvé which documented the extent of pedocrime in the Church since 1950.