Two Historic Child Abuse Cases Revealed in French Church
By Gauthier Vaillant
The need of victims for recognition has continued to cause historic cases of sexual abuse by priests to re-surface in the French Church.This has occurred once again over the last few days in the dioceses of Saint Etienne in the Loire region and Nancy in Meurthe-et-Moselle.In the Loire region, the priest involved is Fr Regis Peyrard, 84, a chaplain in an aged care home, who has admitted to events going back thirty years.At the time he was the parish priest in La Talaudiere, a commune near Saint Etienne.On Tuesday, the newspaper 20 Minutes published the testimonies of three of Fr Peyrard’s victims, who are now in their forties, leading Bishop Sylvain Bataille to make a statement at a press conference that evening.The three victims had already made themselves known to the diocese in 2000, 2014 and last March. Each time, the matter was referred to prosecutors but in each case, it was barred by the expiry of the time limit for prosecution.In 2000, Bishop Pierre Joatton had placed restrictions on Fr Peyrard. The bishop asked him to undergo psychological assistance as well as to live in an aged care home and carry on a restricted ministry without contact with children.On Monday, Bishop Bataille, who was appointed to the diocese in July 2016, indicated that he had “reinforced these measures by abolishing a mass that Fr Peyrard celebrated each Saturday at 5 pm and asked him to follow another round of psychological treatment".Bishop Bataille also recognized that Fr Peyrard had continued to accompany pilgrimages to the Holy Land in recent years, emphasizing that these only involved “adult persons".The bishop also indicated that he had “relaunched” the canonical process with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in relation to Fr Peyrard.In their testimonies to 20 Minutes, the victims had stated that they regretted that he was still a priest.In the Diocese of Nancy, Bishop Jean-Louis Papin revealed the case of Canon Paul Renard, 90, in a letter to his priests dated June 30, which was published on the diocesan website on Wednesday.The events date from the 1970s when two women, who were then adolescents, were sexually assaulted by Fr Renard during a summer camp organized by the Eucharist Movement for Young People (MEJ) of which Fr Renard was the national chaplain.The first victim, who is now deceased, came forward with her accusations in 2010 and the second in May 2016.Fr Renard conceded the facts in each instance and the bishop reported the matter to Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.However, he only alerted judicial authorities in the second case because in the former case “the victim wanted the matter to remain within the Church", he said.In each case, civil and Church authorities concluded that the legal limit for prosecution had expired.In his letter, Bishop Papin recognized that “this is a difficult conclusion for the victims of such events to accept” because “suffering never expires".He announced the suspension from all public ministry of Fr Renard, who was still celebrating mass and working with adult groups.These measures, which were adopted by the bishop a month ago, were made public at the request of the victims and the recommendation of the Pedophilia Fighting Unit of the French Bishops Conference.
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