One of the specificities of the enormous work carried out in two and a half years by the independent commission on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church (Ciase) is the importance given to social science research. In this, it innovates compared to the commissions which preceded it in other Western countries. Under his aegis, two major investigations were conducted in record time. One, led by sociologist and demographer Nathalie Bajos with Inserm, focuses on the victims and the prevalence of these acts in the Church. The other, led by the historian and sociologist Philippe Portier in partnership with the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), explored the Church’s archives to study the profiles of the attacking priests and their victims as well as the way whose institution had managed this violence.
A third led to a study of the press coverage of these cases, on the initiative of the anthropologist Laëtitia Atlani-Duault with the House of Human Sciences. In total, the combination of approaches provides “An absolutely incredible look at the phenomenon of sexual violence in the Catholic Church in France since 1950”, assures Mme Bajos. “This very in-depth research work makes it possible to articulate the recommendations [de la Ciase] and the objectification of the facts, the reality ”, argues Philippe Portier. This research will be published Verbatim annexed to the Ciase report, Tuesday 5 October.
Even before the composition of the commission, Nathalie Bajos pleaded with Jean-Marc Sauvé so that, given the total absence of data, a scientific approach could identify the phenomenon of sexual assault in the Church. “From the outset, we had to provide for a quantitative approach supplemented by a qualitative approach with semi-structured research interviews. It was also necessary to be able to compare the extent of violence in this institution compared to what was happening elsewhere ”, explains the researcher. “I underlined the tension which would not fail to arise between the time of the research and the time of the commission”, she adds.
To support it in this heavy work, it is recruiting, with research contracts signed by Ciase, two sociologists, Julie Ancian and Josselin Tricou, and a demographer, Axelle Valendru.
Obtain an exact profile
Their research is based on three sources. The first is a questionnaire filled in by some (a little over 1,600) of the victims who answered the Ciase call for testimonies. Completed by Internet, it was set up by his team and discussed with associations of victims and with Véronique Margron, president of the Conference of religious men and women of France (Corref), which has a long association with abused nuns. The second source is taken from interviews conducted by the researchers with some of the respondents to the call for testimonials. On arrival, the analysis will be based on forty-five interviews of people assaulted when they were minors and twenty-four of people assaulted when they were of age considered as “Vulnerable” by Ciase – mostly nuns.
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