Almost 216,000 children found victims of French clergy sex abuse since 1950 - report

An investigation into sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church has found that an estimated 216,000 children were victims of abuse at the hands of clergy since 1950, Jean-March Sauve, head of the commission that compiled the report, said on Tuesday.

The landmark report, released Tuesday after two-and-a-half years of investigations, follows widespread outrage over a string of paedophilia claims and prosecutions against Church officials worldwide.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH ROCKED BY SEXUAL ABUSE SCANDALS

The scandal in France is the latest to hit the Roman Catholic Church, which has been rocked by sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.

The commission was established by Catholic bishops in France at the end of 2018 to shed light on abuses and restore public confidence in the Church at a time of dwindling congregations. It has worked independently from the Church.

Sauve said at a public, online presentation of the report that the problem was still there. He added that the Church had until the decade of the 2000s showed complete indifference to victims.

FRENCH CATHOLIC CHURCH INDIFFERENT TO ABUSE VICTIMS UNTIL 2000S

The French Catholic church showed complete and sometimes cruel indifference to people who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of clergy for decades until the start of the new millennium, Jean-Marc Sauve, head of a commission investigating the abuse, said at a news conference.

FRENCH BISHOPS ASK FOR FORGIVENESS AFTER REPORT RELEASED ON CHURCH SEX ABUSE

A representative of France's Catholic's bishops on Tuesday asked victims of sexual abuse by clergy for their forgiveness, after a report was published on the scale of abuse in the French church going back decades.

Monsignor Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, head of the French conference of bishops, said he and his fellow bishops wanted to express to victims their shame at the abuse revealed in the report.

FRANCE CATHOLIC CHURCH NEEDS TO REFORM ITS APPROACH TOWARDS SEX ABUSE

The Catholic church's teaching on subjects such as sexuality, obedience and the sanctity of the priesthood helped created blind spots which helped allow sexual abuse by clergy to happen, Jean-Marc Sauve, head of a commission investigating the abuse, said on Tuesday.

He said the church needed to reform the way it approached those issues to rebuild trust with society.