This archive report was first published on 9 November 2019.
Published on November 9, 2019, the French Conference of Bishops (CEF) in Lourdes approved a plan to provide financial support to victims of sex abuse within the Church.
The payouts will be determined at a meeting in April, according to conference chairman Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, the Archbishop of Reims.
However, the Church emphasized that the payments are not intended as compensation or reparation, but rather a gesture of solidarity.
Some victims, including Jean-Luc Souveton, a priest and member of the working group on the issue, expressed disappointment with the statement, saying it did not acknowledge the Church's responsibility.
"The word 'responsibility' of the Church does not appear, that really bothers me," Souveton said.
De Moulins-Beaufort acknowledged the Church's "silence, negligence, indifference, an absence of reaction, bad decisions or dysfunctionality at the heart of the Church".
Meanwhile, an independent commission set up by the Church to investigate the scandal has received over 2,000 messages in its first three months, with most of the complainants being older than 50 and two-thirds being men.
