VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
La Croix International [France]
April 5, 2022
By Loup Besmond de Senneville
The independent commission that wrote the landmark report on Church-related sex abuse in France still waiting to see the pope, four months after Vatican cancelled initial meeting
Catholics in France are beginning to wonder if Pope Francis is ever going to meet Jean-Marc Sauvé and the members of the independent commission he led in a major investigation into Church-related sex abuse in their country.
It has now been six months since Sauvé’s team – the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) – issued its shocking report. And four months have passed since December 9, the date CIASE members were supposed to have a meeting with the pope, until the Vatican abruptly canceled it.
“They shot themselves in the foot”
Truth be told, forces in the Roman Curia have never endorsed the commission’s work, which was actually contracted and authorized by the French Bishops’ Conference (CEF) and the Conference of Men and Women Religious of France (CORREF).
Certain Vatican officials have expressed displeasure with the bishops for giving CIASE too much independence and allowing it to publish recommendations for change in the Church.
“They shot themselves in the foot,” said a Vatican source who has followed the developments.
“They should have at least distanced themselves more from the recommendations, and not taken them as gospel,” this person said.
Rome has also been critical of two other points: the method used to arrive at the estimated number of victims and the use of the word “systemic” to describe the phenomenon of abuse inside the Church.
Such issues are what led the Vatican to cancel CIASE’s meeting with the pope.
Before the commission’s final report was published in October, the French bishops had already liaised with the prefecture of Pontifical Household – the office that organizes the pope’s official appointments – and had set up a meeting between Sauvè’s group and Francis.
But the prefecture had failed to get the appointment validated by the Secretariat of State, which is required for politically sensitive meetings.
The confusion is what led to the meeting’s cancellation.
Clarifications
Since then, the situation has not changed much, despite the continued request for a meeting from French bishops and religious, and certain attempts at clarification.
Nathalie Bajos, the researcher on the commission who developed the methodology for the survey that determined the number of victims, went to Rome in early December.
She met with Father Hans Zollner, the Jesuit who directs the Institute of Anthropology at the Gregorian University and who is a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
The French bishops were also in Rome in recent weeks and they took the opportunity to lobby for a rescheduling of the canceled meeting between the pope and at least the head of CIASE.
“I told the pope that, for France, it was extremely important that a meeting with Jean-Marc Sauvé take place,” explained one of the bishops.
Although a meeting has not yet been scheduled, sources insist that the pope fully intends to meet Mr. Sauvé.
He also plans to meet with some members of the working groups set up by the CEF and CORREF.
It is a way of encouraging the Church in France to resolve the problems the CIASE report raised.