Wilfried Devillers, edited by Solène Leroux with AFP 8:15 p.m., November 6, 2021, modified at 8:16 p.m., November 6, 2021
A month after the publication of the Sauvé report on sexual abuse in the Church, the bishops paid tribute to the victims in a ceremony in Lourdes.
Reflected with the victims, this time of meditation was organized in order to "never forget".
The death knell has sounded today in Lourdes in memory of the victims of child crime within the Church.
Yesterday, the bishops of France recognized the institutional responsibility of the Church in the sexual violence suffered by tens of thousands of children.
Lourdes will become next March a place of memory for the victims estimated within the Church by the Sauvé report.
The religious, without their liturgical clothes and a few faithful gathered in front of a photo and organized a prayer of repentance at the shrine.
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This ceremony had an important symbolic significance according to Father Hugues de Woillemont of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF).
The idea "was already to make a first gesture of memory for the victims", explained the secretary general at the microphone of Europe 1. The photo unveiled today "will now remain in the sanctuary of Lourdes" has t -He specifies.
A text accompanies the photo, "a stone statue in a church", which "represents a crying child".
A day thought with the victims
It is a question of "never forgetting" and "of leaving this memory for the victims who have suffered violence and attacks in the church", said Hugues de Woillemont, while assuring that "this morning was prepared with victims, and it was with them that it was lived ".
"I lived these moments with a lot of emotion," said a victim, Véronique Garnier, who regularly participates in the work of the CEF.
It was important to "do us justice".
On the contrary, a person presenting himself as the victim, child, of a priest of the congregation of the fathers of Betharram, established near Lourdes, has him, shouted his "anger".
"Repentance is a big deal," denounced Jean-Marie Delbos, 75 years old.
He demanded in front of the press, that his predator, "returned to his community, be sanctioned and defrocked".
Announcements for Monday
Strong decisions, in particular on the reparation of victims, including in its financial dimension, are expected Monday, when the CEF's work closes.
The Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, estimated at 330,000 people over 18 years of age who have been subjected to sexual violence in France since 1950, when they were minors, by clerics (priests or deacons ), religious or people linked to the Church (boarding school supervisors, youth movement leaders, etc.).