French cardinal says he abused 14-calendar year-old girl 35 a long time back
PARIS — Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, 1 of France’s highest-position prelates of the Catholic Church, claimed Monday that he had abused a 14-12 months-outdated lady 35 many years back and is withdrawing from his spiritual duties.
The shift comes after a report issued very last calendar year discovered a big number of child sex abuse situations inside of the French Catholic Church.
“Thirty-5 several years back, when I was a priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way with a younger lady aged 14,” Ricard reported in a prepared assertion.
“My actions has inevitably prompted critical and lasting repercussions for this person,” he explained.
Ricard, 78, employed to be the archbishop of Bordeaux, in southwestern France, until eventually he retired from that placement in 2019 to provide in his home diocese of Dignes-les-Bains, in the south of the state. In the 1980s, he was a priest in the archdiocese of Marseille.
The announcement was manufactured Monday at a information convention by the president of the French bishops’ conference, Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort.
Moulins-Beaufort explained a complete of 11 bishops and former bishops, which includes Ricard, have been qualified by accusations in relation with sexual intercourse abuse in various scenarios investigated by French justice or church authorities.
Ricard reported he experienced talked to the sufferer and asked her for forgiveness, with out specifying when. He reported he was also inquiring for forgiveness “to all those I hurt” through his statement. He did not elaborate on that.
At instances when the French Catholic Church has just begun to pay back monetary compensation to victims of little one sexual abuse, Ricard mentioned he made the decision “not to remain silent anymore about (his) situation” and that he was accessible for the country’s justice and for church authorities.
The broad research produced previous calendar year by an impartial commission believed that some 330,000 little ones have been sexually abused in excess of 70 several years by monks or other church-connected figures in France.
The tally incorporated an approximated 216,000 men and women abused by monks and other clerics, and the rest by church figures these types of as scout leaders and camp counselors. The estimates ended up based mostly on broader analysis by France’s National Institute of Health and Professional medical Investigation into sexual abuse of kids.
The report described a “systemic” coverup by church officers and urged the French Catholic Church to regard the rule of regulation in France.
PARIS — Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, 1 of France’s highest-position prelates of the Catholic Church, claimed Monday that he had abused a 14-12 months-outdated lady 35 many years back and is withdrawing from his spiritual duties.
The shift comes after a report issued very last calendar year discovered a big number of child sex abuse situations inside of the French Catholic Church.
“Thirty-5 several years back, when I was a priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way with a younger lady aged 14,” Ricard reported in a prepared assertion.
“My actions has inevitably prompted critical and lasting repercussions for this person,” he explained.
Ricard, 78, employed to be the archbishop of Bordeaux, in southwestern France, until eventually he retired from that placement in 2019 to provide in his home diocese of Dignes-les-Bains, in the south of the state. In the 1980s, he was a priest in the archdiocese of Marseille.
The announcement was manufactured Monday at a information convention by the president of the French bishops’ conference, Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort.
Moulins-Beaufort explained a complete of 11 bishops and former bishops, which includes Ricard, have been qualified by accusations in relation with sexual intercourse abuse in various scenarios investigated by French justice or church authorities.
Ricard reported he experienced talked to the sufferer and asked her for forgiveness, with out specifying when. He reported he was also inquiring for forgiveness “to all those I hurt” through his statement. He did not elaborate on that.
At instances when the French Catholic Church has just begun to pay back monetary compensation to victims of little one sexual abuse, Ricard mentioned he made the decision “not to remain silent anymore about (his) situation” and that he was accessible for the country’s justice and for church authorities.
The broad research produced previous calendar year by an impartial commission believed that some 330,000 little ones have been sexually abused in excess of 70 several years by monks or other church-connected figures in France.
The tally incorporated an approximated 216,000 men and women abused by monks and other clerics, and the rest by church figures these types of as scout leaders and camp counselors. The estimates ended up based mostly on broader analysis by France’s National Institute of Health and Professional medical Investigation into sexual abuse of kids.
The report described a “systemic” coverup by church officers and urged the French Catholic Church to regard the rule of regulation in France.