The French Catholic Church has had about 3,000 pedophiles since 1950

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After two and a half years of work, the independent commission on pederasty in the Church in the last 70 years, chaired by Jean-Marc Sauvé, is going to deliver its conclusions in a "2,500 page" report, including the annexes. The report will see the light of day next Tuesday in France.

This number of pedophiles is "a minimum estimate", based on the census and the analysis of files from the Church, the justice system, the judicial police and the press, as well as testimonies received by the commission, assured Sauvé.

The figure refers to a total population of 115,000 priests or religious in this period beginning in 1950.

The report will be publicly forwarded to the Episcopal Conference of France (CEF) and the Conference of Religious of Institutes and Congregations (Corref), which had commissioned it.

"It's going to be a deflagration," a member of the commission, known by her initials Ciase de Ella, assures AFP on condition of anonymity.

"It will have the effect of a bomb," agrees Olivier Savignac, from the group Talk and Relive (Parler et Revivre), which receives the testimonies of victims of sexual abuse.

prescribed facts

The commission also evaluates the "mechanisms, mainly institutional and cultural" that have been able to favor sexual abuse and will present 45 proposals, Sauvé said.

In most cases, the facts are now prescribed and the perpetrators of the abuses are deceased, making recourse to justice unlikely. The canonical procedures --the right of the Church--, when they have been activated, are very long and not very transparent.

The report will be closely examined at the Vatican, where the issue has already been discussed by Pope Francis and by a group of French bishops on the occasion of their visit to the Holy See in September.

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