About 330,000 children were abused by Catholic clerics over the past 70 years, according to a report issued on October 5 by an independent investigating commission.

The commission estimated that at least 3,000 abusers had served as priests or other church officials in France during the period that it had studied: between 1950 and the present. Until recently, said Jean-Marc Sauvé, who led the investigation, Church leaders had shown “a deep, cruel indifference toward victims.”

The 2,500-page report called upon Church leaders to denounce the abuse, end the culture of silence, and provide compensation for abuse victims.