France: Inquiry reveals 216,000 cases of paedophilia by Catholic priests since 1950

In a shocking development, an independent inquiry has found that sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests and other clergymen has had 216,000 victims between 1950 and 2020. This has been called a "massive phenomenon" that was hushed up by a "veil of silence".

The landmark report was released on Tuesday. The investigation took two and a half years. It was launched after widespread outrage over string of paedophilia claims and prosecutions against Church officials worldwide.

This is tip of an iceberg as when sexual abuse by lower members of the Church like teachers at Catholic schools are included, number of child abuse victims over seven decades climbs up to 330,000.

"Until the early 2000s the Catholic Church showed a profound and even cruel indifference towards the victims," the president of the investigative committee, Jean-Marc Sauve, said at a press conference.

He denounced the "systemic character" of efforts to shield clergy from paedophilia claims.

Meanwhile, French Catholic bishops have asked for forgiveness from victims of the sexual abuse.

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.

The report of the inquiry,at nearly 2,500 pages, found that the "vast majority" of victims were pre-adolescent boys from a wide variety of social backgrounds.

"The Catholic Church is, after the circle of family and friends, the environment that has the highest prevalence of sexual violence," the report said.

(With inputs from agencies)