Eleven bishops or former bishops have been “implicated” before civil justice or the justice of the Church after reports, announced Monday Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the Conference of Bishops (CEF), during a press point, in Lourdes.
“Today there are six cases of bishops who have been implicated before the justice of our country or before the canonical justice”, declared Eric de Moulins-Beaufort.
“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 restrictive measures from his ministry from the Holy See”, he further underlined, a little more one year after the publication of the Sauvé report .
The ex-bishop of Bordeaux admitted facts
He indicated that Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, former bishop of Bordeaux, was also concerned. The latter recognized “reprehensible” conduct on a 14-year-old minor, thirty-five years ago, added the president of the CEF, reading a message from the former bishop.
Finally, there is Monsignor 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 , strong 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 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.
PAT SAYS
The news out of France is shocking in the extreme.
To have a cardinal and 10 other bishops accused of abuse and admit abuse is horrific.
Cardinal Ricard needs to be immediately removed from the college of cardinals.
He is still young enough to take part in the election of a pope.
The abuse crisis gets worse by the day.
The RCC is evil and doomed.
Anyone supporting the RCC, in any way is supporting evil!
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 