Where is the implementation of the CIASse recommendations?
Like everyone, I thought that these violence was a residual phenomenon in the Church. At the time of the report of the independent commission report on sexual abuse in the church (CIASE), on October 2, 2021, Natalia Trouiller was frightened by discovering the figures put forward by the body presided over by Jean-Marc Sauvé: in seventy years, some 300,000 people were allegedly abused in the life of the church, in France.
The former journalist and communicating of the diocese of Lyon, who “believed that the Church did better than the others”, then questions himself. “I told myself that I had to be silent on these subjects, or recognize that I was wrong, and try to help.” She then listens to victims of different types of abuse committed in a ecclesial context, collects testimonies and is publicly committed to social networks. Since then, she has been contacted almost every day by people concerned. “My phone is almost a green number,” she says with humor.
Jérôme Guillement, on the other hand, was the victim of abuse committed by a priest. After testifying to the Ciase, he wrote a book* taking up his story. “I wanted to relate what a victim really experiences and how the consequences of abuse can interfere in all the sides of your life, says the thirty. But also to show how life can again make a way again. Since then, I have worked in the dioceses, before the bishops or even at the Catholic Institute of Paris. I try to act from inside the church. ”
The Franco-American theologian Katherine Shirk Lucas had also been touched by the saved report, and in particular by the testimonies cited. In response, she embarks on writing a way of the cross starting from these stories. “It is a prayer which honors the memory of people, and which gives way to their speech,” she explains, stressing that she previously checked with the latter that such an approach put “really their words in the spotlight”.
Some advances
Four years after the saved report was submitted, concrete actions have been implemented. “There was in particular a huge work on the question of assaults on children,” welcomes Natalia Trouiller. The French bishops have also established since 2021 an annual day of memory and prayer for people victims of sexual assault and abuse of power of the church.
However, Katherine Shirk Lucas warns, a unique date in the year is not enough. “Like any other institution, the Church risks amnesia and temptation exists to turn the page.” With other members of one of the post-Ciase working groups set up by the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF), she launched the association Memoirs of Sexual Violence and Abuse in Churches. “Forget itself at the expense of victims and the whole community,” insists the theologian.
The recurring revelations of abuse or negligence in their follow -up recall the need to fight against this amnesia. “We sometimes have the impression of an eternal restart, that there is always a manager who forgets the consequences of the abuses,” regrets Natalia Trouiller. “It seems necessary to always make reminders, for example that one does not appoint vicar general or chancellor a priest condemned for abuses,” she blows. She makes by these remarks a clear allusion to appointments that rocked ecclesial news this summer – a condemned priest was appointed Chancellor in Toulouse and an accused priest was appointed vicar general in Strasbourg.
Before both, in view of the controversy, give up these charges. “When we see these nominations, we can really wonder about the awareness that the Church has vis-à-vis us,” says Jérôme Guillement.
Work with the victims
How to avoid such situations? Both highlight the importance of collaboration with abuse victims. “There is a very important principle for these people: nothing about us without us,” explains Katherine Shirk Lucas. However, she notes, at the level of the CEF, the victims are institutionally absent from the instances of the fight against pedocrime.
“There could be advice made up of victims,” proposes the theologian. “You have to find a path to be able to talk to each other, especially between the bishops and the victims,” adds Jérôme Guillement. “We have knowledge acquired by pain,” he continues. The church would have to win by really working with us. ”
