(La Roche-sur-Yon) A traditionalist priest was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in prison by the Assize Court of Vendée, in western France, which had been trying him behind closed doors since May 22 for rape and sexual assaults on a total of 27 minors.
The court accompanied its conviction with a two-thirds security sentence, in accordance with the requisitions of the general counsel, Emmanuelle Lepissier, who had demanded the maximum sentence on Thursday against Pierre de Maillard, priest of the Priestly Fraternity Saint -Pius X, not recognized by the Catholic Church.
Upon his release from prison, the religious will be subject to socio-judicial monitoring for 10 years, a period during which he will also be subject to an obligation of care. Any activity with minors will be prohibited.
“This maximum sentence does not remove your share of humanity,” the president of the assize court told him after the verdict was announced.
Before the jury retired to deliberate, the 55-year-old priest had said, in his words reported by the lawyers: “I apologize, sorry, I apologize, sorry”.
The victims, 16 boys and 11 girls, were mostly between 12 and 15 years old at the time of the events. Some of the rapes and assaults were committed against several children from the same family and in the parents’ home.
Pierre de Maillard was stationed at the Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire priory in Saint-Germain-de-Prinçay, in Vendée, when the case broke out in October 2020, three months after the first two complaints were filed.
Other victims then quickly made themselves known. The La Roche-sur-Yon prosecutor’s office mentioned 19 victims in 2020. Nearly a dozen others will be brought to light during the investigation.
The Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX) filed a civil action in this case. Founded in 1970 by Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), it rejects “Rome with a neomodernist and neo-Protestant tendency” born, according to it, from the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and celebrates its masses in Latin.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, in an assessment report published on Friday, refers to the sexual violence against children perpetrated “on a large scale” within the Catholic Church in France. The committee deplores “the low number of convictions” pronounced.