The accused has been discharged from his office since June, the date on which he requested his withdrawal after the revelation in the press of an investigation by the Paris public prosecutor’s office into “facts of a sexual nature”.
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The investigation continues. The bishop of La Rochelle Georges Colomb, discharged from his office since June, was indicted on Friday for attempted rape of an adult man which allegedly took place in 2013, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced Monday, November 20, confirming information from Mediapart. He was placed under judicial control, including a ban on coming into contact with the victim and witnesses, and appearing in certain places, said the same source. According to Mediapart, the man he is suspected of having attempted to rape was 40 years old at the time of the events.
The accused had requested his withdrawal after the revelation in the press, on June 13, of an investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office into “facts of a sexual nature” dating back to 2013, opened following a report made by the Paris Foreign Missions (MEP). George Columbus, yeargeneral superior of the MEP, had then expressed “his amazement and incomprehension in the face of these slanderous allegations”by denying them “vigorously”.
Gilles Reithinger, auxiliary bishop of Strasbourg, who succeeded George Colomb at the head of the MEP from 2016 to 2021, was cited in press articles as having been aware, as early as 2013, of the accusations of sexual assault which allegedly took place at the Parisian headquarters of the MEP. This case comes at a time when Recognition and Reparation Commission, contacted by more than 800 victims of sexual violence in the Church, has launched analysis work to better prevent this type of violence in the future.
