Eleven bishops or former bishops have been “implicated” before the civil justice or the justice of the Church for reports, announced Monday Éric de Moulins-Beaufort during a press point of the Conference of Bishops in Lourdes. “Today there are six cases of bishops who have been implicated before the justice of our country or before canonical justice (Church law, editor’s note)”, declared the president of the CEF.
Cardinal Ricard also concerned
“Two others, who are no longer in office, are the subject of investigations today by the justice of our country after reports made by a bishop and a canonical procedure; a third 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”, he further underlined.
He indicated that Cardinal (Jean-Pierre) Ricard, former bishop of Bordeaux, was also concerned. The latter admitted “reprehensible” conduct on a 14-year-old minor 35 years ago, added the president of the CEF, reading a message from the latter.
“The great diversity of acts committed or alleged”
Finally, there is Mgr Michel Santier, sanctioned in 2021 by the Vatican authorities for “spiritual abuse having led to voyeurism on two adult men” in the 1990s and whose silence around his sanction has provoked in recent weeks a lively anger among Catholics and victim groups.
Without going into details, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort insisted “on the great diversity of situations, facts committed or alleged”. The 120 members of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) have been meeting since Thursday in Lourdes for their autumn plenary assembly. Their objective, among other things, is to work on “concrete proposals” in order to improve communication and transparency in the canonical measures (of Church law) taken against clerics implicated in cases of sexual violence.