A system that does not listen to children. Recent reports of violence shake France

“We have things right before our eyes, and we do not see them—this is the tragedy”.Once again, all of France is turning to Sister Véronique Margron in the wake of the shock caused by allegations of abuse said to have taken place at the Catholic school Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The president of the Conference of Religious Men and Women of France (CORREF) speaks plainly. Comme d’habitude.

In the face of over 150 accusations from the institution’s former students, the Minister of National Education, Élisabeth Borne, has announced a plan to combat violence in state-contracted private institutions, structured around three key points. The first, systematically reporting incidents of violence; the second, better collection of students’ opinions; and third, strengthening oversight of private schools under contract.  The goal, she stated, is to ensure that “such acts of violence can never happen again”.

The scandal is immense. Dozens of former students from the Catholic school in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques have reported incidents of mistreatment, be that sexual and/or physical violence carried out by staff members over the course of several decades. Marc Aillet, the Bishop of Bayonne-Lescar-Oloron, has acknowledged “the suffering of the victims”.

An independent investigative commission will examine the offenses committed at the Bétharram boarding school, by not only religious figures but also by lay staff, and its findings will be made public.

In the meantime, women’s voices are stirring consciences, pushing for the truth to be told in full.

For the past five years, Véronique Margron has devoted herself to listening to victims of sexual violence within the Church. Following the report by the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE), she has continued to raise public awareness about the issue of child abuse victims. When answering journalists’ questions on television, radio, and in newspaper articles, she emphasizes that the Bétharram affair was possible because “we saw without seeing, and heard without hearing—in short, we collectively downplayed, and euphemized. Either we look away as a society, while telling ourselves it is none of our business, or we minimize the gravity of the situation. I have seen this in many places beyond Bétharram, sometimes on a smaller scale, but it’s the same phenomenon; the children speak up, children have always spoken out, but when they did, they were not listened to”.

Lorraine Angeneau is a psychologist, a professor at the Catholic Institute of Paris (ICP) and former member of the board of the National Independent Authority for Recognition and Reparation (INIRR). She states, “It is our collective responsibility to acknowledge that what happened was criminal and terrifying, in order to ensure that speech remains free”.

By Federica Re David