Pope Francis has expressed his ‘shame’ at scale of French Catholic Church child abuse and ‘sadness’ over suffering of 330,000 victims after report found nuns used crucifixes to rape girls.
2,500-page landmark report was released on Tuesday October 5, after more than two years of investigations by an independent commission. The commission found that an estimated 330,000 children were victims of sex abuse within France’s Catholic Church between 1950 to 2020, with an estimated 216,000 minors abused by priests and other clerics.
Reacting to the damning report, the pontiff expressed his ‘sadness’ for the victims as it emerged that nuns used crucifixes to rape girls during decades of abuse which was covered up by a ‘veil of silence’.
‘There is, unfortunately, a considerable number I wish to express to the victims my sadness and pain for the trauma they have suffered,’ Francis said during his weekly audience at the Vatican on Wednesday.
‘And also my shame, our shame, my…
Source: Linda Ikeji
