- Tried for sexual assaults on minors, the former priest of the diocese of Lyon Bernard Preynat acknowledged that his superiors had never asked him for the slightest detail.
- He thus pointed out the responsibility of the Church, silent for more than 30 years.
- Alerted to his impulses, the Church never demanded that he be treated.
"They could have helped me." This sentence speaks volumes about the disaster that could have been avoided. On the second day of the trial of Bernard Preynat, a former priest tried before the Criminal Court of Lyon for sexual assaults on minors, the accused returned to his journey and his attraction very early on for little boys. On the silence of the Church, in a certain way too. Because the former priest's sexual deviances were known. They had been spotted at the end of the 1950s when the young boy, then aged 14 and schooled at the Petit Séminaire de Montbrison, had been caught stroking the thighs of a boy shorter than him.
“When the prefect of the discipline summoned me to shout at me, he told me that I was abnormal, sick. Instead, he could have explained to me that these acts were serious. He could have offered me solutions to help me get out of it at that time, ”said the defendant. But the establishment preferred to close their eyes and dismiss the unwanted college student. After failing his exams, the young person is asked to study elsewhere. In Lyon this time. Which will not curb his impulses.
Therapy in 1967
Help, however, he had in 1967. At 22, the seminarian skidded. There again, his superiors learned of it and offered to go to Paris to consult a priest "specialist in cases like him". A priest who will then redirect him to the Vinatier psychiatric hospital where he will undergo therapy for a year. "I thought I was healed but I started again a few months later." And Bernard Preynat never again grabbed the few rare hands extended to him.
"It hadn't worked, I didn't see the point of taking a new therapy," he argues. Nothing will do. Not even the fear of being caught on the spot. Not even the anger of several Scout parents who came to find him. It was not until 1991 that the letter from the Devaux parents, indignant at the lack of reaction from the Church, landed in the hands of Albert Decourtray, cardinal of Lyon at the time.
For twenty years, Father Preynat's inappropriate gestures and sexual assaults were silenced. "All that remained between your directors of conscience and yourself," said the president of the court doubtfully. "Yes", conceives the former priest. Not one went to denounce him, not one went to find Bishop Decourtray, much embarrassed by the rumors. Did his line managers knowingly cover up the matter? Doubt is allowed.
"I have never been asked about the details"
“I have never been asked about the details. Never. The first time I spoke specifically about what I had done was before the police in 2015, says the defendant. When Cardinal Decourtray summoned me in 1991, I started by telling him that it was a long story. There, he made an arm gesture to express that he did not want to hear more. He made me promise never to do it again and said “Bernard, I trust you” ”.
His successors did not try to find out either. Cardinal Billé (1998-2002) will be no exception. “I saw him for 10 minutes, he asked me if the facts that I was accused of were prescribed. Since I did not know, he directed me to a lawyer to inform me. And that's it, ”says Bernard Preynat. Not all were prescribed. But nothing has changed. the priest remained in contact with children, swearing to anyone who wanted to hear him that he was standing by the window.
" Reassure me. They understood that these assaults were sexual, "questions the president of the court, denouncing" a culture of silence ". "Of course," concedes the former parish priest, who has never tried to write a confession letter to explain the details. "Shame," he explains. I lacked courage ”. And to conclude: "I am not accusing the Church. I don't use it as an excuse. ”
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