[ad_1]
PARIS: Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, one in all France’s highest-ranking prelates of the Catholic Church, stated Monday that he had abused a 14-year-old woman 35 years in the past and is withdrawing from his spiritual duties.The transfer comes after a report issued final yr revealed a lot of youngster intercourse abuse circumstances throughout the French Catholic Church.”Thirty-five years in the past, once I was a priest, I behaved in a reprehensible manner with a younger woman aged 14,” Ricard stated in a written assertion.”My habits has inevitably induced severe and lasting penalties for this individual,” he stated.Ricard, 78, was once the archbishop of Bordeaux, in southwestern France, till he retired from that place in 2019 to serve in his dwelling diocese of Dignes-les-Bains, within the south of the nation. Within the Nineteen Eighties, he was a priest within the archdiocese of Marseille.The announcement was made Monday at a information convention by the president of the French bishops’ convention, Archbishop ?ric de Moulins-Beaufort.Moulins-Beaufort stated a complete of 11 bishops and former bishops, together with Ricard, have been focused by accusations in relation with intercourse abuse in numerous circumstances investigated by French justice or church authorities.Ricard stated he had talked to the sufferer and requested her for forgiveness, with out specifying when. He stated he was additionally asking for forgiveness “to all these I damage” via his assertion. He didn’t elaborate on that.At occasions when the French Catholic Church has simply began to pay monetary compensation to victims of kid sexual abuse, Ricard stated he determined “to not keep silent anymore about (his) scenario” and that he was out there for the nation’s justice and for church authorities.The broad research launched final yr by an impartial fee estimated that some 330,000 kids have been sexually abused over 70 years by clergymen or different church-related figures in France.The tally included an estimated 216,000 folks abused by clergymen and different clerics, and the remainder by church figures equivalent to scout leaders and camp counselors. The estimates have been based mostly on broader analysis by France’s Nationwide Institute of Well being and Medical Analysis into sexual abuse of youngsters.The report described a “systemic” coverup by church officers and urged the French Catholic Church to respect the rule of legislation in France.
[ad_2]
Source link
