• Investigation The bishops have received 506 complaints of abuse in the Church in two years and offer "recognition and reparation" to the victims

  • Interview with an investigator of sexual abuse in the Church: "The victims suffered an institutional and a spiritual betrayal"

French and canonical justice

opened investigations against 11 bishops or former bishops in cases of sexual assault

, including a cardinal who acknowledged "reprehensible" conduct with a minor 35 years ago, the president of the Episcopal Conference announced on Monday.

Jean-Pierre Ricard

, archbishop emeritus of Bordeaux, acknowledged "reprehensible" conduct towards a minor under 14 years of age 35 years ago, according to Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, during a press conference in Lourdes,

where the prelates hold their annual meeting

.

"35 years ago, when I was a parish priest,

I behaved reprehensibly with a 14-year-old girl

. My behavior necessarily caused serious and lasting consequences for this person," the cardinal wrote in a message read by Moulins-Beaufort.

The 78-year-old cardinal also assures that he made himself available to justice, both civil and canonical, and that he asked the victim for "forgiveness."

Another of the bishops is

Michel Santier

,

who was sanctioned by the Vatican authorities in 2021 for "spiritual abuse resulting in 'voyeurism' of two adult men" in the 1990s. The silence about his sanction caused great anger in recent weeks between Catholics and victim groups.

In total, ten ex-bishops are accused,

eight of them for abuse, and two for not reporting the attacks

.

The eleventh, Pierre Pican, died in 2018 and was sentenced for not reporting the facts, according to the French Episcopal Conference (CEF).

Without going into details, its president pointed to the "great diversity of situations regarding the acts committed or of those he accuses them of."

The 120 members of the CEF have been meeting since Thursday in Lourdes to work on "concrete proposals" to improve communication and transparency on the canonical measures taken against religious accused of sexual assault.

A year ago, France learned of the devastating scope of pederasty cases within the Catholic Church.

An independent commission estimated that

some 216,000 minors were victims

of priests and religious in France between 1950 and 2020.

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