(Lourdes) The French episcopate revealed on Monday that 11 former bishops had had to deal with civil justice or the justice of the Church for sexual “abuse” or “non-denunciation”, including a former archbishop of Bordeaux.
Posted at 1:24 p.m.
To everyone’s surprise, the president of the Conference of Bishops of France Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, who was holding a press briefing on the subject of sexual abuse and its management on the eve of the closing of the CEF plenary assembly in Lourdes, read a message sent by Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard.
“35 years ago, when I was parish priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way with a 14-year-old girl. My behavior has necessarily caused serious and lasting consequences for this person,” the cardinal wrote.
“I have decided to put myself at the disposal of justice both at the level of society and that of the Church”, he added, affirming that he had asked “forgiveness” from this victim, still according to his remarks reported.
This confession by Cardinal Ricard, 78, who was notably bishop of Coutances, Montpellier then Bordeaux from 2001 to 2019, and who retired in October 2019, was welcomed “like a shock” by the 120 bishops gathered in the Marian city since Thursday, underlined the president of the CEF. Mgr Ricard has been a cardinal since 2006.
The president of the CEF also detailed the case of other prelates who had to deal with justice.
“Today there are six cases of[anciens, NDLR] bishops who have been implicated before the justice of our country or before canonical justice,” he said, stressing that these cases were “known” to the press.
One of them, however, has since “deceased”, the CEF later told the press, specifying that it was Pierre Pican, who died in 2018, sentenced for non-denunciation.
Added “now Mgr Ricardo,” he said. As well as M.gr Michel Santier, sanctioned in 2021 by the Vatican authorities for “spiritual abuse having led to voyeurism on two adult men” and whose sanction was revealed in mid-October by the press.
Two other retired bishops “are the subject of investigations today by the justice of our country after reports made by a bishop and a canonical procedure”.
A last “is the subject of a report to the prosecutor to which no response has been given to date and has received from the Holy See restrictive measures from his ministry”, added the Archbishop of Reims.
In total, ten former bishops are therefore concerned: “eight currently implicated for abuse, including Mr.gr Ricard and Santier, and two implicated for non-denunciation (one was convicted in 2018 and one released in 2020)”, according to the CEF.
“Insufficiencies” and “Dysfunctions”
On the Santier affair itself, whose silence on the sanction shocked Catholics, Mr.gr de Moulins-Beaufort acknowledged that in “November 2021, during the autumn assembly” of the episcopate, he had informed the bishops “that disciplinary measures had been taken against Mr.gr Santier, but without giving any indication of the acts he had committed”.
He admitted “on re-reading this story”, “serious shortcomings and dysfunctions at all levels”, regretting that a request for a “prior investigation” sent by the Vatican authorities to the then Archbishop of Paris , Michel Aupetit, in May 2020, was not carried out.
Olivier Savignac, for the collective of Victims to speak and relive, said he was “shaken” by the revelations about Cardinal Ricard and the “dizzying” number of bishops who had to deal with justice. “There are a lot of hidden things. How many more will come out? “, he questioned, deploring to AFP that “the Church only reacts once at the foot of the wall”.
“It is a great sadness to hear this”, added Alix Huon, of the collective of faithful Agir pour notre Eglise, waiting, on the management of affairs, “a real rudder” with “clear announcements” Tuesday, at the close of the assembly in Lourdes.
In a press release on Monday, the Archbishop of Bordeaux Jean-Paul James, returning to Cardinal Ricard’s revelations, expressed his “great compassion for the victim concerned”. And said to share “the pain of all those, in particular in the diocese of Bordeaux, who will be hurt by these revelations”.
These intervene a little more than a year after the publication of the shocking report of the Sauvé commission estimating at around 330,000 the number of victims of priests, deacons, religious or people linked to the Church of France since 1950. its outcome, the episcopate had recognized its “institutional responsibility” in this violence.