• The diocese of Besançon has launched an appeal to find "possible victims" of an abbot who died in 2021.

  • Raymond Jaccard had been sanctioned during his lifetime after suspicions of "sexual and spiritual abuse" of adults.

  • The diocese wishes to “express its involvement with regard to the victims and its determination to serve justice with clarity”.

Who are the victims of Raymond Jaccard?

The diocese of Besançon launched an appeal to find "possible victims" of this abbot who died in 2021. The man was known for his action with Cameroonian lepers, which did not prevent him from being sanctioned with his alive after suspicions of "sexual and spiritual abuse" of adults.

The diocese "invites any person or relative of a person concerned to contact the listening cell of the diocese by telephone, at 06.44.14.22.88" or via the website diocese-besancon.fr.

He had received in April 2020 “oral and written information implicating” this abbot, without specifying the nature of these abuses, the place or places where they would have been committed, or the number of potential victims.



Raymond Jaccard had notably designed, with his brother Pierre, also a priest, who died in 2018, a prosthesis "known throughout the world" under the name of "Jaccard prosthesis", explains the diocese, calling to "distinguish" the suspicions weighing on the abbot “of the works of the Jaccard Brothers (…), both priests of the diocese of Besançon”.

On May 5, 2020, the Archbishop of Besançon, Monseigneur (Mgr) Jean-Luc Bouilleret, reported these alleged facts to the Chambéry prosecutor's office, Father Jaccard then residing in Savoie.

A preliminary investigation had been opened.

Bishop Bouilleret had at the same time seized the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which receives reports of abuses committed by clerics, and suspended Father Jaccard from any ministry, continues the diocese.

Deceased eighteen months ago

The death of the abbot, on August 29, 2021 at the age of 89, had ended the judicial inquiry but "as the investigation stands, the facts denounced have been corroborated by numerous testimonies", insists the diocese.

He wishes to “express his involvement with regard to the victims and his determination to serve justice with clarity”.

The Catholic Church has been rocked for years by scandals of sexual violence.

Several retired bishops have thus been the subject of reports in recent months.

At the end of 2021, the report of the Sauvé commission had estimated at around 330,000 the number of victims of priests, deacons, religious or people linked to the Church of France since 1950. The episcopate had recognized its "institutional responsibility" in this violence .

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