Among those being prosecuted are Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, who resigned and apologized to the victim, as well as Michel Santier, former Bishop of Créteil, who was sanctioned by the Vatican in October 2021.
Eleven French bishops and former bishops are under investigation by the French justice or canonical justice system for cases of sexual abuse, French Bishops’ Conference (CEF) President Éric de Moulins-Beauffort said in Lourdes (southwest of the country) on Monday. familiar.
The CEF has indicated that of the eleven religious who have been treated, one has died, eight are under investigation “for abuse” and two are already under investigation for “failure to denounce”. Of the latter two cases, one was convicted in 2018 and the other acquitted in 2020. These include Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, former Bishop of Bordeaux, and Michel Santier, former Bishop of Créteil, a city on the outskirts of Paris. .
“35 years ago, when I was a pastor, I behaved reproachfully with a 14-year-old girl. My behavior necessarily had serious and lasting consequences for this person,” Cardinal Ricard confessed Monday in a statement, apologizing to the victim and his family. French and Ecclesiastical Justice.
Michel Santier, for his part, was sanctioned by the Vatican in October 2021 for “spiritual abuse resulting in ‘voyeurism'” against two young adults. The events took place in the 1990s when he was a priest in Coutances (Western France). The former Bishop of Créteil, who resigned in 2020 “for health and other concerns”, pleaded guilty to “mental abuse for sexual purposes”.
The French press did not know until October of this year that Santier had been sanctioned by the Holy See. The silence that the bishops have maintained for a year about its adoption has sparked outrage among Catholics and associations in recent weeks. Following these revelations, three other victims have come forward.
France discovered with horror the extent of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in October 2021. According to a report by the Independent Commission on Abuse in the Church (Ciase, for the acronym in French), approximately 216,000 minors were victims of sexual abuse (touch, assault or rape) by Catholic priests or religious between 1950 and 2020.
The number of victims could reach 330,000 if we take into account the attacks by lay pederasts who worked in Catholic schools, catechesis or youth movements, the report said.
Source: La Verdad
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