3,000 paedophiles in French Catholic church since 1950s - inquiry head
Days before publication of its report, Jean-Marc Sauvé said the commission’s investigations had uncovered between 2,900 and 3,200 paedophile priests or other church members, adding that this was “a minimum estimate”.
It also looked into “the mechanisms, notably institutional and cultural ones” within the church which allowed paedophiles to remain, and will offer 45 proposals, he said.
It remains unclear, however, exactly what actions the church will take against offenders, and in many cases prosecution could be unlikely because the abuse took place beyond French statutes of limitations.
Last year, a defrocked French Catholic priest, Bernard Preynat, 75, was sentenced to five years in jail for sexually abusing boy scouts aged between seven and 14 in his care between 1971 and 1991, following allegations his superior had covered up the abuse.
After he was first denounced in 1991, the priest was prevented from leading scout groups but was later allowed to teach children and held positions of authority in parishes until the scandal became public in 2015.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, was given a six-month suspended sentence in 2019 for not reporting Preynat’s crimes.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/o...lic-church
Days before publication of its report, Jean-Marc Sauvé said the commission’s investigations had uncovered between 2,900 and 3,200 paedophile priests or other church members, adding that this was “a minimum estimate”.
It also looked into “the mechanisms, notably institutional and cultural ones” within the church which allowed paedophiles to remain, and will offer 45 proposals, he said.
It remains unclear, however, exactly what actions the church will take against offenders, and in many cases prosecution could be unlikely because the abuse took place beyond French statutes of limitations.
Last year, a defrocked French Catholic priest, Bernard Preynat, 75, was sentenced to five years in jail for sexually abusing boy scouts aged between seven and 14 in his care between 1971 and 1991, following allegations his superior had covered up the abuse.
After he was first denounced in 1991, the priest was prevented from leading scout groups but was later allowed to teach children and held positions of authority in parishes until the scandal became public in 2015.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, was given a six-month suspended sentence in 2019 for not reporting Preynat’s crimes.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/o...lic-church
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
