Overview

Over the past twenty years, there has been a growing protest against the widespread sexual assaults committed within the Catholic Church. Yet, even today, few victims come forward to testify openly. In Germany, it wasn't until 2010 that the taboo was broken, when former pupils of a Berlin Catholic secondary school told of being assaulted by Jesuit priests. Suddenly, the "isolated cases" argument no longer held water, and numerous other cases came to light. In France, until recently, the Church has shown a profound indifference towards victims, as illustrated by the Bernard Preynat affair.