The French Catholic Church reportedly said Monday that it would sell real estate and other assets and, if necessary, would lend money to banks to set up a fund to compensate hundreds of thousands of people sexually assaulted by clergy.
In October, a major investigation found that clergy in the French Catholic Church had sexually assaulted more than 200,000 minors over the past 70 years.
Archbishop Reims, president of the Synod of French Bishops and supreme bishop of France, Eric de Moulins-beaufort, said senior clerics met in the holy city of Lourdes, acknowledged the "institutional responsibility" of the church and decided to "go down the path of confessing crimes and compensating the victims."
De Moulins-beaufort told reporters that the bishops would set up a fund "wherever necessary we will provide funds through the sale of real estate and other assets". He added at the end of the meeting: "We are also prepared to lend to banks if needed to fulfill our obligations." He also asked the Vatican to send an observer to help review the French church's handling of the matter, but he did not elaborate on the size of the fund or the properties that might be sold.
The 2,500-page report, released last month, details the mistreatment of 216,000 minors by clergy during this period, a number that would climb to 330,000 if church laypeople, such as teachers at Catholic schools, were included. The report shows that the French Church has for many years shown a deep, outright, even cruel indifference, in which they protect themselves and not from victims of systematic abuse.
Pope Francis reportedly called the findings a "moment of shame." This latest report shocked the Roman Catholic Church after a series of sexual abuse scandals around the world.
(Clergy kneel down and repent)
At a meeting in Lourdes over the weekend, several clerics knelt down to confess, but the Victims' Association said the initiatives were far from enough and demanded tens of millions of euros in damages from the church. In response, de Moulin-Beaufort said that the bishops decided to ask the Pope to send envoys to supervise the handling of individual cases of sexual abuse by each bishop and diocese.
At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, the archbishop said after meeting with Interior Minister Gerald Damanien that protecting children from sexual abuse was an "absolute priority" for the Catholic Church.
Wuhan Morning Post intern reporter Chen Mengting