The investigation found that an estimated 330,000 children were victims of sex abuse within France's Catholic Church between 1950 to 2020, with an estimated 216,000 people abused by priests and other clerics.
Some 86 per cent of victims were male children - many of whom did not report the abuse they suffered for decades.
The independent commission, made up of 22 lawyers, doctors, historians, sociologists and theologians, worked for two-and-a-half years, listening to victims and witnesses and studying church, court, police and press archives starting from the 1950s.
A statement from the Vatican said: 'First of all [the Pope's] thoughts go to the victims, with great sorrow, for their wounds.'
If you are the Pope, isn't supposed to be prayers, or at least thoughts and prayers?