The independent commission led by former vice president of the Council of State Jean-Marc Sauve was set up by the French Catholic Church in 2018 to study sexual crimes against minors within its ranks. After going through church archives across the country and conducting interviews, the commission, known by its acronym CIASE, will deliver a 2,500-page report on Tuesday.
Sauve told AFP his team had uncovered between 2,900 and 3,200 pedophile priests and other church members who operated since 1950. He added that it was “a minimum estimate.”
The most terrible thing for me was to see the most absolute of evils – an attack on the physical and mental integrity of children – which is to say a work of death perpetrated by people whose mission was to bring life and salvation.