The representatives of the bishops of France met the pope and the cardinals to underline, in particular, the difficulties created by the secret of the canonical sanction, which does not allow to communicate and release the speech of the victims.
by Sarah Belouezane
The visit of the representatives of the bishops of France from December 12 to 14 at the Holy See may be a usual exercise after a plenary assembly, this year was of particular importance. A year after the report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE), the French episcopate again came to talk about these violence with the Pope and the Curia.
The plenary organized in Lourdes in November was an opportunity for the hierarchs of the Church to face several new scandals which moved the French Catholic community. First the Michel Santier affair, named after the bishop emeritus of Créteil found guilty of sexual violence and sanctioned by the Church in the greatest secrets before the weekly Christian family does not reveal everything. Then that of Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, who recognized in a letter having had a “reprehensible behavior” with regard to a minor girl at the time of the facts in the 1980s.
A succession of revelations on important members of the institution who caused a great excitement among the faithful and led the president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF), Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, to give the figure of eleven bishops implicated in stories of sexual violence in France, including two for non-denunciation.
“Who should we say what?”
On this Christmas Eve, Eric de Moulins -Beaufort, Dominique Blanchet, bishop of Créteil, Vincent Jordy, archbishop of Tours, as well as experts – including Alain Christnacht, president of the independent commission against pedophilia, created in 2016 by the CEF -came to Rome to evoke more precisely the dysfunctions they had identified and talk about the measures they had undertaken. The delegation thus met the Pope for a little less than an hour from Monday, before seeing Cardinaux Marc Ouellet and Luis Ladaria, respectively responsible for the dicasteries (kinds of ministries) for bishops and for the doctrine of the doctrine of the faith on Wednesday, respectively .
During a press conference on Wednesday December 14 in Rome, Dominique Blanchet detailed the dysfunctions that were discussed with the Holy See. Among them, one of the most significant subjects is that of the secrecy of the canonical sanction provided for in the texts: it prevents bishops from talking about business even though advertising allows more victims.
“The first dysfunction is that of communication, confidentiality”, thus points to Dominique Blanchet, who continues: “Who should we say what, when? And those implicated? “To this are added the question of the deadlines for processing procedures, deemed too long, and the lack of communication of information by Rome.
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