The already cloudy sky above the Catholic Church darkened further on Monday 7 November. Standing behind a desk, looking particularly serious and with a livid face, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, archbishop of Reims and president of the conference of bishops of France (CEF), reads a text in front of journalists. “The approach that I am now going to share with you at the request of the person who does it is unprecedented”he announces before a meaningful silence.
A press conference was organized in disaster since the plenary of Lourdes, an event which brings together the hierarchs of the institution twice a year, in spring and autumn. The speech was only scheduled for Tuesday 8. That of Monday, improvised, resounds like an additional clap of thunder in the middle of an endless storm. There, in front of the journalists present, the man of the Church announces having received a letter the day before, sent by Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop Emeritus of Bordeaux. The latter recognizes an assault committed against a minor girl at the time of the events, thirty-five years earlier.
” Today (…)I have decided not to conceal my situation any longer and to put myself at the disposal of justice. (…) Thirty-five years ago, when I was parish priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way with a 14-year-old girl. (…) I ask forgiveness. » The cardinal also indicates that he has put himself “at the disposal of justice both on the level of society and that of the Church”. Ironically, the former bishop of Bordeaux is a member of the dicastery for the doctrine of the faith, a sort of ministry of the Holy See, in Rome, in charge in particular of questions of sexual violence.
” A shock “
Alas, Cardinal Ricard is not an isolated case. According to Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, six bishops “have been implicated before the justice of our country or before canonical justice”. A figure to which we must therefore add Jean-Pierre Ricard and Michel Santier. The latter, bishop emeritus of Créteil, was sanctioned in 2021 by the church in the greatest of secrets. The case, which involved young adults, was only made public very recently by the press, causing a great stir in a Catholic community already widely tested by the incessant revelations of sexual violence within the church.
Two others are no longer in office and are under investigation, according to the CEF. Finally, another had his case reported to the prosecutor. In all, there are therefore eleven bishops, hierarchs of the Church of France, to be implicated or to have been implicated in one way or another for cases of sexual violence. A figure that is characterized by a certain diversity of situations: if some are directly accused of assault, others have been prosecuted for non-denunciation. André Fort, first, bishop emeritus of Orléans, sentenced in 2018 to an eight-month suspended prison sentence, and, more recently, Philippe Barbarin, archbishop emeritus of Lyon, who was released in 2020.
You have 57.77% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.