Inquiry Commission indépendante sur les abus sexuels dans l’Église

Alternative Names
  • CIASE
  • Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (France)
Website
https://www.ciase.fr
Location
France

Key Dates

1950 - 2020
Period of investigation
November 2018
Announcement date
2019 - 2021
Period of operation
5 October 2021
Final Report

Details

The Commission's mission was to shed light on sexual violence in the Catholic Church since 1950; to analyse the way in which this violence was or was not dealt with; to evaluate the measures taken by the Church and to make recommendations.

The Process
The Commission's work was based on in-depth historical and sociological investigations carried out by research laboratories, in particular based on interviews with victims, the use of a questionnaire filled in by them, a survey of the general population on sexual violence and the exploitation of archives. Studies have also been carried out on the perpetrators of the violence.

Governing Authority
The Commission was established by the Conference of Bishops (CEF) and the Conference of Religious Men and Women of France (CORREF).

Inquiry Locations
Interviews were conducted across the major metropolitan areas of France.

Private Sessions
There were 153 hearings of testimony of survivors during meetings with CIASE members. 73 interviews were conducted during plenary sessions with specialists, experts, keynote speakers as well as victims - in individual and group contexts - and several interviews of representatives of CEF and CORREF.

Research
An archival and socio-historical research project; a socio-anthropological study; a series of 11 research interviews with members of the clergy having perpetrated acts of sexual assault; a series of 20 interviews with priests and seminarists, of differing profiles and from all over France.

Witnesses
174 victims were heard by representatives of the Commission, in pairs or one-to-one with the President of the Commission, in interviews usually lasting between two and four hours.

48 interviews led by the Commission’s four working groups heard 67 qualified persons from all walks of life (experts, representatives of the Catholic Church and other denominations, jurists, theologians, legal authorities, government services, members of diocesan and religious institutes’ support centres etc.).

Institutions
The Catholic Church of France

Findings
From a qualitative and quantitative analysis of sexual violence in the Catholic Church from 1950 to the present day based on collected data (summarised in the Final Report), the Commission found that sexual abuse in the Catholic Church was massive and over-represented in comparison with any other institution (excluding family and close friend circles).

While the Church's attitude has evolved over time, it has remained too focused on the protection of the institution, for a long time without regard for the victims.

The Church's manner of dealing with sexual violence over time is damning, and the legal response to the wrongdoings of members of clergy and religious orders has been blatantly inadequate. Canon law is focussed on the sinner and the Church, ignoring the fate of the victims, does not take onboard the seriousness of sexual violence, and sidelines State justice.

Church doctrine and teachings may have lent themselves deviations, distortions and perversions, with an almost exclusive emphasis in cases of sexual violence on the offence against chastity, to the detriment of the harm done to the person.

It is posited that Church bodies have been progressively strengthening their response to child sexual abuse since the beginning of the 21st century, with 2016-2021 the turning point in taking victims onboard, giving them a fairer place.

Recommendations

45 wide ranging recommendations were made (pp. 52–66 of the Final Report, pp. 32–45 of the English language version). These include practical policy: background checks of all who work with children and vulnerable people (1); collection and monitoring of data (2), reorganisation of Listening Units (15-22); recognition of Church systemic responsibility and institutional failure (24-25) including implementation of concrete measures of recognition and restorative justice (26-27); provisions for reporting incidents to the prosecutor's office and protocols for working with police and legal inquiries (28-30); survivor compensation (31-33), strengthening of prevention policies (45).

They also include more theological and internal Church concerns: the hero status, celibacy and distorted charisma of priests (3, 5), Church teaching and catechism (6-7, 10-11, 44), confession and other sacraments (8-9, 43), Church hierarchy and power (34, 36), definition of Canon Law (35, 37-42).

Cost
The cost of the CIASE’s work was met by CEF and CORREF, and was estimated to be €2.6 million (late 2021). It should be noted that the Commission President, the members, the associated members, some of the rapporteurs and the general secretary were all volunteers, and their 26 000 work may be valued at a further €1.2 million.

Commissioners

Countries

Publications

Final Reports

Acknowledgement: this summary was prepared by Katie Wright, La Trobe University