Report Finds 333,000 Children Were Abused Within France's Catholic Church Since the 1950s

Report Finds 333,000 Children, Were Abused Within France's, Catholic Church Since the 1950s.

A report released on October 5 estimates that 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse within France's Catholic Church over the past 70 years.

According to NPR, the report includes abuses committed by approximately 3,000 priests and other people connected with the church.

The president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauvé, said it also shows that Catholic authorities covered up abuses over decades in a , "systemic manner.".

The victims have welcomed the report, calling it long overdue.

Francois Devaux, head of the victims' group La Parole Libérée (The Liberated Word), denounced the coverups that permitted, "mass crimes for decades.".

But even worse, there was a betrayal: betrayal of trust, betrayal of morality, betrayal of children, betrayal of innocence, Francois Devaux, Head of La Parole Libérée, via NPR.

According to the report, an estimated 3,000 child abusers worked in the church over that seven-decade period.

Sauvé said that the tally of victims includes an estimated 216,000 people abused by priests and other clerics.

Estimates were based on research by France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research into sexual abuse of children in the French population