The figures had created a shock. Between 216,000 and 330,000 people were identified as victims by the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase), in the report it published in 2021. A tragedy to which the institution has tried to respond in part by setting up two reparation bodies: the Commission Recognition and Reparations (CRR) for victims of religious men and women and the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparations (Inirr) for victims who were minors at the time of the events. Two independent organizations each composed of a few dozen members exercising various professions and accustomed to welcoming victims, such as lawyers or psychologists.
They have both been working for a year. Twelve months that files are examined every day in an attempt to carry out a mission all the more delicate as the crimes are most often prescribed and that justice no longer has its place in the process. Thursday 1er December, the two made public the results of their activity.
On reading that of the CRR, the observation is most striking: the few cases processed and especially brought to the attention of the body, with regard to the number of people potentially concerned. Today, 450 victims are “recognized and supported” by the CRR and 80 recommendations for compensation, financial or not, were made by the body, out of 560 referrals, some of which did not fall within its jurisdiction. “70% of minor victims are men, while two-thirds of adults in vulnerable situations are women” for attacks mainly committed between the 1960s and 1980s, writes the institution in a press release.
At Inirr, the figures are also low at first sight: 1,098 requests have been received, 220 are being examined with the objective of 300 cases treated by the end of 2022. One hundred decisions have been taken, 71 of which have a financial component. A drop of water, of which the persons in charge who try to answer all the requests are well aware.
“We need to get to know each other better”
“It challenges us”, thus admits Antoine Garapon, honorary magistrate and former member of Ciase, today at the head of the CRR. For him, ” it is obvious “ that neither of the authorities can ” definition “ “to have access to all the victims”. “There are lots of mechanisms in the Church that make people inhibited, unable to come to see us, because they are destroyed”.
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