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The Autumn Assembly of the Conference of Bishops of France opens this Saturday, November 2 in a busy context. ERIC CABANIS / AFP

In Lourdes, a city in southwestern France, this Saturday morning, November 3rd, is the traditional autumn assembly of the Conference of Bishops of France. This year she will be very focused on the sexual scandals that shake the Church. Eight victims will speak. A first.

It is in a particularly heavy climate that opens this autumn assembly of the Conference of Bishops of France. It is this year marked by the cases of sexual abuse, the recent suicides of two young priests and the condemnation last Tuesday to one year in prison of Bishop André Fort, Bishop Emeritus of Orleans, for failing to report a priest of his diocese accused of sexual abuse of minors.

This issue of sexual abuse in the Church was on the agenda of the last assemblies. But for the first time, there will be a small group of victims that the bishops will hear at an in camera meeting which will then be followed by a joint press conference at the end of the day.

It took several years for this official face-to-face to take place. Admittedly, reception and listening cells have been set up in the dioceses since 2017. But it took the revelation of new scandals abroad, especially in Chile and the United States, the pressure of associations victims and the media so that the bishops agree to take this new step.

"Not here to communicate the Conference of Bishops"

The main association of victims, The liberated Word, will not however be at the rendezvous. Its founder François Devaux hoped to intervene in the hemicycle before all the bishops; it is a much more discreet format that has been chosen, that of groups of speech.

" Many bishops have covered for a very long time the facts of pedophilia. And today, I have not heard any bishop speak at the height of the scourge that the Church of France is facing. Obviously, to make an intervention in front of the plenary of Lourdes creates enough dissensions so that they refuse it , regrets François Devaux.

Olivier Savignac, victim in his childhood of a pedophile priest, will for his part be present in Lourdes. He does not mince his words either. " Today, what we expect are acts and not just words. We are not here to serve the communication of the Conference of Bishops of France, he warns. We are here as victims to be recognized, to make the voice of those whose affairs are prescribed, but for whom the suffering is always there. I think we are really here to put all these people back in the center. "

Victims are also waiting for concrete prevention and reparation actions, including the creation of a compensation fund.