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  • The diocese of Strasbourg has embarked for two years in a real fight against sexual abuse.

    Tuesday, the archbishop of the city, Mgr Luc Ravel, presented a "code of pastoral relations" in this regard.

  • This text, of about fifteen pages and which will be promulgated in mid-November in the Catholic parishes of Alsace, imposes standards.

  • The diocese of Strasbourg has also signed a protocol with the prosecutors of Alsace and the university hospitals in order to "systematically report sexual offenses".

Since 2018, the diocese of Strasbourg has embarked on a real struggle.

With a clear slogan: "Zero tolerance vis-à-vis sexual abuse".

On Tuesday, the archbishop of the city, Mgr Luc Ravel, presented a “code of pastoral relations” as well as various measures to fight against sexual abuse in the Church.

In a period when the number of reports continues to increase.

On the diocese of Alsace, "I have 104 files for facts or reports between 1947 and 2020", he indicated, specifying that these files, which may concern several victims, "do not all present (have) the same character of seriousness and likelihood ”.

In the last eleven months alone, twenty files have been "opened or found", including six of sexual abuse of adults.

"The only thing that is important for me is that by one means or another, the civil justice is seized and can carry out its investigation", underlined Mgr Ravel, considering "difficult to affirm today that the diocese [of Strasbourg] is different from the others ”.

"Cancer from sexual abuse"

“Most of the victims have not yet reported, this is only the tip of the iceberg,” fears Sister Susannah Kelly, episcopal delegate for the fight against sexual abuse, stressing the importance of filing a complaint even when facts are prescribed before an investigation can be carried out and canonical proceedings initiated.

This American nun works with four other referents in Alsace to collect reports and support victims over the long term.

In 2018, Bishop Luc Ravel published a “pastoral letter” calling on the Church to “fundamentally change”, denouncing the “cancer of sexual abuse” committed by priests.

He then published a book on the subject in March 2019 and set up a whole collective work in the diocese to set up tools to support victims and prevent sexual abuse.

Agreements with justice and hospitals

Composed of about fifteen pages, the “code of pastoral relations”, which must be promulgated in mid-November to enter into force in Alsatian Catholic parishes, “is intentionally both a text which imposes standards and includes spiritual elements. », Explained Mgr Ravel.

In parallel with this text, the diocese also publishes a "directory for confessors" in the event of sexual abuse of minors admitted under the secrecy of confession, and a list of "warning signs" concerning the emotional, behavioral and consequences. physical activity on abused children and adolescents.

The diocese of Strasbourg has also signed a "protocol" with the four prosecutors of Alsace in which it undertakes "to systematically report sexual offenses", as well as two agreements with the University Hospitals of Strasbourg (HUS) for the taking into account. of the victims, but also that of the perpetrators of sexual violence.

It is also working to set up prevention modules within the framework of catechism teaching.

The Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, created in 2018 by the episcopate to shed light on the sexual abuse committed in France on minors in the Catholic Church, estimated in mid-September that since the 1950s it There were, according to a low range, at least 3,000 victims and 1,500 aggressors.

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  • Strasbourg

  • Church

  • Society

  • Sexual violence