French independent abuse authority has compensated nearly 850 victims since 2021

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 26, 2025 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

France’s National Independent Authority for Recognition and Reparation (INIRR) has compensated nearly 850 victims of clergy sex abuse since 2021, according to its latest report released on Wednesday. 

The annual report for 2024 states that since 2021, the organization has resolved 852 cases, with 99% involving financial compensation. 

INIRR President Marie Derain de Vaucresson wrote in a statement accompanying the report that 350 cases are still pending. 

The French conference of Catholic bishops established INIRR in November 2021 after the explosive Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CAISE) report released in October of that year found at the time that hundreds of thousands of children were abused in the Catholic Church in France in the past 70 years. 

The almost 2,500-page report said an estimated 216,000 children were abused by priests, deacons, monks, or nuns from 1950 to 2020.

It added that when abuse by other Church workers was also taken into account, “the estimated number of child victims rises to 330,000 for the whole of the period.”

INIRR works to help provide financial compensation and pathways for legal justice to victims who come forward with credible claims of abuse. The organization can provide a maximum compensation of 60,000 euros (approximately $64,800). 

The organization’s latest report states that as of December 2024, 132 victims have received the maximum amount of compensation, while the average compensation package for 2024 was about $39,350. 

As of this month, a total of 1,580 people purporting to be victims of clergy abuse have contacted INIRR in the past four years, while “1,235 are being [currently] supported” by one of its staff. 

In 2024, the total number of new cases reported was 168. The report states that between the years of 2023 and 2024, “the number of referrals is almost equivalent,” though the organization saw an uptick in February 2024 due to increased media coverage of the issue. 

As the report noted, the average number of cases reported to the organization tripled from the usual 10 or so per month to 31 cases in February of that year amid heightened publicity surrounding two major sex abuse scandals in France involving a Catholic school near Lourdes, Notre Dame de Bétharram, and the late French priest Abbé Pierre. 

According to reports, over 150 individuals have filed complaints of sexual abuse at the Bétharram school, a scandal that sparked national interest not only on account of the scale of reported abuse but also due to widespread accusations that the country’s embattled prime minister, Francois Bayrou, turned a blind eye to the abuse. 

Bayrou’s children attended the school, located in the southwest city of Pau, where he is still mayor, and his wife once worked as a teacher there. 

As for Abbé Pierre, the Capuchin priest and founder of the poverty ministry known as Emmaus, the bishops of France requested in January that prosecutors launch a criminal investigation into the 33 sexual abuse allegations made against him. This came after nine new cases were reported. 

Allegations against the priest were first reported in 2023 when Emmaus France received a statement from a woman accusing Pierre of sexual assault. Further testimonies were released in July 2024 in an independent report commissioned by Emmaus. 

The documented allegations span multiple decades, from the 1950s through the 2000s, with victims including Emmaus employees, volunteers, and young women in Pierre’s social circle.

INIRR is set to continue its operations until June 2026, though there are talks among the French bishops of making the coalition a permanent fixture, according to a report from Le Croix. 

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/262971/french-independent-abuse-authority-compensates-nearly-850-victims-since-2022