ROME (ITALY)
La Croix International [France]
October 1, 2021
By Loup Besmond de Senneville
The president of the Bishops’ Conference of France said that the extent of the phenomenon of sexual crimes in the Church was “greater than we could have feared”
As an independent commission in France prepares to release what is expected to be devastating report on the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests, the head of the national episcopal conference has urged his confreres to humbly accept the inquest’s findings.
“For us, priests, bishops, we should not focus on, nor contest, the first reactions. One thing is certain, we must accept it,” said Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF).
The archbishop made his comments on September 29 in Rome at an event hosted by the French Embassy to the Holy See.
De Moulins-Beaufort, who was in town for his “ad limina” visit, spoke with journalists about the report that the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) will make public on October 5.
He said there are “four areas of work” that await the Church in France, particularly the need for “pastoral transformation of the dioceses”, “ecological awareness” and the manner in which the Church expresses itself on moral issues.
But he stressed that “the reception of the CIASE report” is currently “the first work” of the Catholic Church in the country.
“Above all, I think of the people who are victims”
“This is an important moment, which crowns a first step, which we have been going through since 2018,” the archbishop said.
That was the year the French bishops entrusted Jean-Marc Sauvé, former vice president of the Council of State, with the task of forming an independent commission to work on sexual assaults and crimes committed within the Catholic Church.
“Above all, I think first of the people who are victims, of the faces, the names, the people I know. And through them, of all those I don’t know,” continued Archbishop de Moulins- Beaufort.
“There is a frightening cry that must be heard and listened to. It is important to realize that October 5 will be a difficult day for these people,” the CEF president admitted.
As he had previously stated, especially during meetings held in his diocese, the archbishop warned that “the magnitude of the phenomenon is greater than we could have feared”.
“This evil is there, we must face it, deal with it, try to get out of it, look it in the face,” he insisted.
“There is something very brutal that we must dare to listen to”
He said that once the so-called Sauvé Report is released the Church will have to undertake “an entire project” in the fields of “prevention, training of priests, follow-up, accompaniment of guilty priests”, as well as, “above all”, “relations with the victims”.
In particular, the archbishop spoke of the importance of developing a “way to support those who have been victimized and to be attentive to what may happen”.
“There is something very brutal that we must dare to listen to and to face,” he said.”The first to suffer are the people who are victims. What I would like for them is that there be an atmosphere that makes it so that (…) if they speak, they are listened to,” he continued.
By allowing such an opportunity for victims to express themselves, “a big step forward will be taken,” stressed Archbishop de Moulins-Beaufort.
“An investment in the future”
“In this work, it is apparent that there is a social evil, there is a human evil,” he went on.
“Our work must be beneficial for the whole of society,” the CEF president insisted.
He also urged Catholics to see “the time spent” by the Church in working on these issues as “an investment for the future”.
“It is a huge investment for the future, so that the Church in its sacramental structure can be a source of life and not carry deadly water,” he said.