The 120 members of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) will consider from Tuesday on reform proposals, the fruit of 18 months of work.
By LL with AFP
© Manuel Blondeau / MAXPPP / AOP PRESS/MAXPPP
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Ihe bishops are meeting in Lourdes from Tuesday with the aim of taking substantive action against sexual violence in the Church, after the publication of the Sauvé report in October 2021. The approximately 120 members of the Conference of Bishops of France ( CEF) have a meeting in the Marian city with 75 lay people, who have submitted to the episcopate a 270-page preparatory report containing several reform proposals, the fruit of eighteen months’ work.
These proposals relate to the training of seminarians, “accompaniment of bishops or priests” in their functions, the accompaniment of “responsible” in sexual assaults, or even the “sharing of good practices in the face of reported cases”. , etc. They will be examined and possibly amended in workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday. The bishops will retain some of them and will vote on Thursday and Friday morning.
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“Strengthening” the place of women
Among the proposals, several advocate “strengthening” the place of the laity and in particular that of women within the authorities of the Church or in the liturgy, in order, in particular, to limit the inter-self, a risk factor for abuses.
“We want, as in companies, regular evaluations of the exercise of the mission of priests and bishops”, specifies to AFP Pascal Wintzer, archbishop of Poitiers. Measures are aimed at combating their “loneliness” in business management and decision-making.
Two recommendations are innovative, but require the agreement of the Vatican: a working group suggests “requesting the Holy See” on the possibility of authorizing a woman to become a deacon (who assists the priest during celebrations) and to experiment the ordination as priests of married men.
Pascal Wintzer defends this last idea but considers it unlikely that these measures will be taken up by the bishops, most of whom remain “attached to the current framework”. “We expect courageous decisions” and “followed by effect”, warned Alix Huon, member of the lay collective Agir pour notre Eglise, very attentive to these subjects.
This is a second step, after the publication of the Sauvé Commission’s shock report on the extent of pedocrime in the Catholic Church for seventy years. During a first stage, in November 2021, the CEF had recognized the responsibility of the institution and the “systemic” nature of the pedocriminal acts. And voted the launch of a reparation body for the victims.
The fall 2022 session of the CEF was akin to a great unpacking: the “reprehensible” conduct of the former archbishop of Bordeaux, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, with a teenager, had been revealed. Since then, an investigation has been opened and then closed without further action, due to the prescription of the facts.