Sexual violence in the Church: the investigation targeting Cardinal Ricard closed for prescription

Europe 1 with AFP 3:29 p.m., February 25, 2023

The French justice investigation for "aggravated sexual assault" targeting Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, who admitted "reprehensible" behavior with a teenager, was dismissed due to the prescription of the facts, but an investigation by the Vatican continues.

The former archbishop of Bordeaux, now 78, confessed last fall in a letter to the Catholic hierarchy of his actions towards a teenager 35 years ago, causing an earthquake in the Church of France already shaken by several cases of sexual abuse of minors.

“The procedure has been closed due to prescription,” the prosecutor of the Republic of Marseille, Dominique Laurens, told AFP on Saturday, confirming information from franceinfo.

Monsignor Ricard, retired since 2019 in a presbytery in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (South-East), was placed in police custody on February 2 by the gendarmes of the Marseille research section.

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A "reprehensible" behavior for 3 years

In front of the investigators, he admitted having "kissed" a young girl, who was "in his memory aged 13, having hugged her and caressed her over her clothes" but "there was no sexual intercourse ", said the Marseille prosecutor's office.

During his interrogation, and while he was confronted with his victim, the former archbishop of Bordeaux (2001 to 2019), president of the Conference of Bishops of France (2001 to 2007), appointed cardinal in 2006 by Benoit XVI , had recognized his inappropriate gestures and "asked him for forgiveness".

These facts would have lasted over time, three years according to the victim who had finally filed a complaint.

They took place when Jean-Pierre Ricard was stationed in Marseille and ceased after his change of parish.

On November 8, the Marseille prosecutor's office had opened a preliminary investigation targeting Monsignor Ricard who, the day before, had confessed in a letter to the Catholic hierarchy to having behaved "reprehensibly" towards a teenager.

“35 years ago, when I was parish priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way with a 14-year-old girl. My behavior necessarily caused serious and lasting consequences for this person,” the cardinal wrote, without give more details.

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"Institutional Responsibility" of the Church

On November 11, the Vatican in turn announced the opening of a preliminary investigation against the cardinal who, in the event of a conclave, has the right to vote.

Monsignor Ricard is also a member of the powerful dicastery (the equivalent of a ministry in the government of the Holy See) for the doctrine of the faith, responsible in particular for cases of sexual violence against minors.

A canonical trial is generally only opened once the file has been closed by the judicial authorities in the country concerned.

At the end of the civil trial, which will however not take place in his case, the Church can request the documentation from the judicial authorities in order to integrate it into his own assessment.

Jean-Pierre Ricard's confessions came the day after the surprise announcement by the French episcopate that 11 bishops or former bishops had had to deal with civil justice or the justice of the Church for sexual "abuse" or their " no denunciation".

Revelations which themselves were made official a little over a year after the publication of the Sauvé report estimating at around 330,000 the number of victims of priests, deacons, religious or people linked to the Church of France since 1950. issue, the episcopate had recognized its "institutional responsibility" in this violence.