People who were sexually abused as children by a priest or religious and who would like to receive financial compensation from the Catholic Church can now have an idea of what to claim. The Recognition and Recovery Commission (CRR), which was established by the congregations in the autumn of 2021 after the publication of the Sauvé report for the victims of religious, has, according to its chairman, completed the framework it has built to to make it possible. Antoine Garapon, a repair “honest and objective”† The Independent National Authority for Recognition and Rehabilitation (INIRR), established by the bishops for the victims of priests, will “inspired” and will have “great principles” similar, in May, indicates its president, the lawyer Marie Derain de Vaucresson.
The financial dimension is not systematically present, but it is taken into account in the requests of the majority of people who have already welcomed the CRR. The committee has set a scale of 5,000 to 60,000 euros. The assessment of each situation will be based on two elements. The first is the characterization of abuse by one of its members. He will determine together with the victim whether she has been touched, attacked, raped… The second element is entrusted to the victim. She must estimate on a scale of one to seven the consequences of this violence in various areas of her life since it was committed.
They are thus asked to situate the damage suffered in their intimate life, in their affective life, in their family relationships, in their social and professional life and finally in their spiritual life. Then comes the work with the victim and the concerned institution of consecrated life. “to converge to an amount that seems as fair as possible”, explains the former magistrate Antoine Garapon. In case of disagreement, some sort of “arbitration tribunal” consists. “It is very important to motivate as much as possible”specifies the chairman of the CRR.
A “comparative work” with other sources
To arrive at this scheme, that requires: “comparative work” and a little “ripening”the CRR has obtained best practice information from numerous sources – French courts, US attorneys familiar with these cases, committees that exist or have existed in other European countries. “We ruled that we were unable to establish compensation by post, as justice does on the model of restitution based on moral, material, sexual, professional harm, fear, etc.explains Antoine Garapon. It was too technical. We preferred to consider a global repair. †
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