The president of the Conference of Religious of France (Corref), Véronique Margron, has been re-elected president of this body which represents Catholic religious institutes and congregations, Corref announced in a press release on Thursday. Véronique Margron, 63, a Dominican (Dominican Sisters of Charity of the Presentation) was elected for a second four-year term, after having been at the head of this institution for five years. The election had been postponed for a year due to the health context linked to Covid-19. A doctorate in moral theology, she was the first female dean of a theological faculty, the Catholic University of the West, in Angers. Before entering religious life, she worked for a time in the judicial protection of young people.
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During her first mandate, Sister Margron, very involved in listening to victims of pedocriminality, engaged Corref in a process of restorative justice in several stages, including recognition, before the dimension of financial reparation.
In April, six months before the bishops, the Corref recognized "the collegial and spiritual responsibility of the whole of religious life" in sexual violence.
La Corref was, with the Conference of Bishops of France, one of the two sponsors of the report by Jean-Marc Sauvé, which revealed the extent of the phenomenon of child crime in the Catholic Church for 70 years.
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Meeting since Tuesday and until Friday, the 300 major superiors (responsible) of Corref (which represents about 30,000 monks and nuns, brothers and sisters) examine the recommendations of the Sauvé report and must take measures of reparation for the victims.
In particular, they must decide on the creation of an independent Commission for Recognition and Reparation (Cirr), which will offer victims assistance - in particular mediation - in their process of reparation.