‘We want justice’: Victims of sexual abuse by the French Catholic Church seek financial compensation

On October 5, 2021, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the French Catholic Church published its report. The revelations were horrifying.

From 1950 to 2020, no less than 330,000 minors were victims of sexual abuse by clergy or laity within the Church.

In response, two independent bodies were created to handle reparations: the National Recognition and Reparations Body and the Recognition and Reparations Commission. Have the victims been able to find peace more than a year later? On the contrary, says Nancy Couturier.

She was abused and raped as a child and was the first person to deal with the Recognition and Reparation Commission. For her, victims urgently need financial compensation.

In search of financial justice

“We ask for justice. Financial justice. We no longer have civil justice. We want recognition of what we’ve been through. [we demand] that victims are supported to the same extent as they have suffered … and are still suffering, mentally and morally,” Nancy Couturier told Euronews.

After feeling humiliated by the Commission’s compensation proposal, Nancy decided to form an association to help other victims assert their rights. She is not the only one who is angry: some were only informed of the proposal by email.

“You read the letter: the victim is known, the priests are known, everything that happened to her is known… And then you read € 37,000. I thought: that is not possible, € 37,000,” said Nancy. .

“To get those 60,000 euros you have to be bedridden, I don’t know… It’s disgusting, it’s off!”

€60,000 is the maximum reimbursement available. That is not enough for Mr. Sannier, the association’s lawyer. He told Euronews that the compensation should reflect the offenses committed.

“It will not exceed the amount I received in court in Saint-Etienne for a priest who put his hand on a boy’s buttocks,” explained Jean Sannier.

And that is the problem, he explains, because the costs of victim care are not charged by the committees.

“If you have spent more than €60,000 on therapy and you have a maximum of €60,000, you will not be reimbursed,” he added.

For Mr. Sannier, it’s about securing the Church’s money. Recognition and Restoration Commission President Antoine Garapon believes that no amount of money can restore these shattered lives.

“We think it would be unfair to hold onto the prospect […] full compensation that they will never get, because you just can’t make amends for what happened to these people,” he told Euronews.

Another cause for concern is the silence. To date, less than 1% of France’s 200,000 victims have begun a recovery process.