France's Catholic Church had an estimated 3,000 sexual abusers since 1950s, investigator says
CBC
France's Catholic Church has had an estimated 3,000 sexual abusers of children in its ranks over the past 70 years, the head of an independent commission investigating the sex abuse scandal said in an interview published on Sunday.
The scandal in the French Church is the latest to hit the Roman Catholic Church, which has been rocked by sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.
The French commission is due to publish its findings on Tuesday, marking the culmination of 2½ years of work, probing allegations of abuse going back to the 1950s.
"We have estimated the number [of sex abusers of children] as standing at 3,000, out of 115,000 priests and religious officials, going back to the 1950s," commission head Jean-Marc Sauve told the Journal du Dimanche paper.
A spokesperson representing the French Catholic Bishops' Conference declined to comment on Sauve's remarks.
A Vatican spokesperson said it would wait for the full report to be published before deciding on whether to comment.
In June, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis was a worldwide "catastrophe."
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday promised a crackdown on hate speech in the wake of the attack on a Jewish holiday event at Sydney's Bondi Beach, which left 15 dead.
For nearly four years, the city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk has been a stronghold — a key logistics hub for the military, and for the population, a literal and symbolic fortress standing firm against a Russian push that continues to edge closer from the south and the east.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is ordering a blockade of all "sanctioned oil tankers" into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on the country's authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country's economy.
This story is no longer being updated. Please visit this page for live updates and reaction.
U.S. President Donald Trump sued the BBC on Monday for defamation over edited clips of a speech that made it appear he directed supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol, opening an international front in his fight against media coverage he deems untrue or unfair.
At least 11 people were killed and more than two dozen injured in a shooting by two gunmen at a Jewish holiday event at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday.
A shooting in the engineering building at Brown University on Saturday has left at least two people dead and eight critically injured, officials in Providence, R.I., said, as authorities continued to search for a suspect.
U.S. House Democrats released a selection of photos from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, including some of Donald Trump, former U.S. president Bill Clinton and the former prince Andrew.
As part of a continuing crackdown on U.S. borders, the Trump administration is now considering placing stricter requirements for entry on citizens of some visa-exempt countries.
The United States is preparing to intercept more ships transporting Venezuelan oil following the seizure of a tanker this week, as it increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, six sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The U.S. has seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, a move that sent oil prices higher and sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy appears to blow up some of the key principles behind 80 years of European collective defence, challenging the foundation of the continent’s relationship with the country.
The U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday in what appears to be the closest American warplanes have come to the South American country's airspace since the start of the Trump administration's pressure campaign.