raped by priests from childhood, she tells

She is one of at least 216,000 victims since 1950 and speaks of a stolen childhood. Nanou delivers his testimony on the day of the release of the report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, chaired by Jean-Marc Sauvé.

Tuesday, October 5 is published the report chaired by Jean-Marc Sauvé, who looks at sexual abuse in the Church since the 1950s. To hear the words of victims, a call for testimony was launched in 2019. Witnesses who called the platform are predominantly men and more than 87% of assaults were committed against minors. Today, at least 216,000 people have been victims, since 1950, of clerics or religious. The first figures, communicated exclusively to AFP, show“between 2,900 and 3,200 pedophiles” men (priests or religious) which have plagued the Catholic Church in France since 1950.

At the microphone of France Info, one of the victims, Nanou, 65, agreed to testify. “They stole thirteen years of my life from me”, she said of her attackers. Child, she lives with an abusive grandmother. Often, three “friend” priests come to dine with her grandmother, at the same time attacking Nanou and her sister. “I remember sitting on their knees. He put his hand in my panties and he put my hand in her panties.”, she recalls. These men force the little girls to touch and blow jobs. Before sharing their story with the commission, Nanou and her sister, like many victims, lived this trauma alone, in silence. “From the moment I did not denounce what they were doing, I was the disgusting one, I was the culprit … To whom to tell what was happening to me, with this deep thought that I was guilty because I let them do it? “, she confides to France Info.

Read also : Pedocriminality: the Catholic Church explicitly condemns sexual crimes against minors in canon law

Systemic abuses in the Church, denounced for years

Nanou’s testimony is that of thousands of children around the world. The actions of pedophile priests have been vigorously denounced for many years. In the United States, in 2015, the Oscar-winning film Spotlight, inspired by real events, denounces the coverage by the Catholic Church of massive abuses within the diocese of Boston. In France in 2015, the association of victims The liberated word was founded in Lyon by former scouts supervised by the priest Bernard Preynat.

This man has sexually abused young boys, who are now 85 to have joined together in the association. At the time, the diocese of Lyon tried to cover up the case. In 2019, the film At the grace of God, by François Ozon, tells the story of three of these victims. As society as a whole grapples with systemic sexual violence against women and children, the Church must embrace the problem.

What is the use of the Sauvé report on child crime in the Church?

Quoted by AFP, Jean-Marc Sauvé, lay rapporteur of this commission on sexual abuse, translates the horror denounced: “The most terrible thing for me was to see the most absolute evil – the attack on the physical and psychological integrity of children – that is to say a work of death, perpetrated by people whose mission was to bring life and salvation “.

Apart from underlining the horror that occurred, what effects can this commission have? First, the people who have testified expect a form of symbolic reparation, in recognition of the wrong that has been done. It is also an opportunity for material reparation and for an overhaul of the system that has protected criminals. In this sense, the report lists 45 concrete proposals about listening to victims, prevention, training priests and religious, but also the subject of canon law and the transformation of the governance of the Church. .

Missions: Mathilde is an expert in subjects related to women’s rights and health. Addicted to Instagram and Twitter, never stingy with a good …

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