French Catholic parishes have started selling real estate to contribute to a fund to help victims of sexual violence, created after the scandalous report on pedophile priests in France, writes the Paris newspaper Le Parisien.
For example, Dominic Blanche, bishop of the parish of Creteil, is selling a 250-square-meter house near the Marne where he has lived. People around him said that they expected to raise funds for the first installment of 200,000 euros in this way. euros in the general treasury to one million euros.
The largest contribution is being prepared by the Diocese of Paris - two million euros. However, this amount is already in the diocese's financial reserves and was obtained by renting out real estate belonging to its own civic association, which is not yet considering the sale. Other dioceses also intend to take funds from their own savings for now, but are already preparing an inventory of the property in case a new fundraising campaign is announced.
The newspaper draws attention to the fact that according to the law of 1905, the church has so far not been able to own any "investment property", ie generating income. However, some dioceses have found an opportunity to circumvent the restriction by creating civic associations that act in their interest and have the full right to dispose of and rent property. At the same time, in this form of government, when associations are subordinated to parish councils, it becomes much more difficult to coordinate the sale of each site, given that not all participants in the discussions want to pay for the crimes of priests from others. parishes.
The Fund for Victims of Sexual Assault by Priests and Citizens Associated with the French Catholic Church was established following the publication of a report by the Independent Commission on Sexual Crimes in the Church (Ciase), which found that 216,000 juveniles had been sexually assaulted since 1950. crimes by Catholic clergy or religious figures. That number rises to 330,000 if we add to the crimes committed by church-related laity.
The decision to open the fund was taken at a meeting of the Conference of French Bishops in early November. The Compensation Fund will be replenished, if necessary, through the sale of movable and immovable property owned by the Conference of Catholic Priests. The President of the Conference of Catholic Priests of the Republic Eric de Moulin-Beaufort noted that a special instance headed by a lawyer will consider complaints from victims of sexual violence. In total, the first stage, by the end of July 2022, is planned to raise 10 to 20 million euros.
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