The Barbarin affair: a trial of silences

By Béatrice Bouniol And Céline Hoyeau
La Croix International
January 09, 2019

https://bit.ly/2RQKdGL

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin told the court that he only found out about a priest's sexual abuse in 2014 when a victim contacted him.

A trial of silences. By day two, this seems to be the best description of the proceedings that have brought Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and his entourage against nine victims of Father Bernard Preynat's sexual abuse.

Silence is at the heart of the accusations brought by the civil parties against Diocese of Lyon officials. The victims had been locked in silence for decades, incapable even as adults to testify to the abuse they suffered as children.

They reproached officials for failing to report the former scout chaplain of Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, who now stands accused of having abused more than 70 children from 1970-80 and who was active as a parish priest up to 2015.

From the opening of the trial in Lyon on Jan. 7, the question of willful secrecy in the Church has been raised repeatedly during the hearings of the six defendants.

"These are serious social-rooted problems. We are dealing with the question of adult victims coming forward and reporting abuse, and the respect for professional discretion and secrecy," said Jean-Felix Luciani, the cardinal's lawyer, during Bishop Thierry Brac de la Perrière's hearing.

The bishop raised the confidential nature of his conversation with one victim, in 2011, to explain why he did not denounce the priest.

When asked why they did not turn to the legal system when they found out about Father Preynat's past, the defendants claimed that they had carried out their duty by following the order of hierarchy. For some this meant reporting to Cardinal Barbarin, all describing their "confidence" in the system and "loyalty" and "fidelity" to the Catholic Church.

In a revealing example of the chain of command, Cardinal Barbarin was asked why Father Preynat no longer holds ministerial functions. He replied after some reflection: "Because that was the decision that Rome asked me to take."

The defense's strategy has raised many questions. All defendants read out written statements in court and two of them refused to answer questions.

Pierre Durieux, former director of the cardinal's office, was the first to hold a stubborn silence when questioned by the presiding judge, who was visibly annoyed by the stranglehold on speech. Regine Maire, a former colleague of the cardinal, gave brief and illusive answers but was also largely silent.

While some defendants appeared to play the game, many, such as Xavier Grillon, replied that they "couldn't remember" their conversations with Father Preynat. Others such as Archbishop Maurice Gardès claimed that they "didn't know the details" of the rumors surrounding Father Preynat.

This prompted the judge's reply that "you have to seek to find out" … "to know about something, you have to investigate" … "knowledge comes by trying to find out" … "to find out, you have to investigate."

Is it a blind spot? Denial? Were officials so utterly shocked by such perversity they imagined inconceivable from a priest?

Cardinal Barbarin reminded the court that it would be unfair to judge him with all the information currently available, emphasizing that he only became aware of the problem in 2014, when the first victim, Alexandre Hezez, contacted him. He said he was "staggered" by what he was told.

Before that, he said there had only been "very, very, very vague rumors."

"I understood the seriousness of the matter when a victim came to me in 2014 and described what had happened," said Cardinal Barbarin, adding that "before that no one wanted to speak out, not even the parents." He said that he too was shocked by the "conspiracy of silence."

The presiding judge reiterated these words at the end of the first day of hearings. A letter was read out, written in 1991 by the parents of François Devaux, founder of the association La Parole libérée (Freed Speech), informing Cardinal Albert Decourtray, then archbishop of Lyon, of Father Preynat's "sexual perversions."

The letter was found in Cardinal Barbarin's desk during a police search in 2016. Devaux's parents ask in the letter: "How long will the Church maintain this conspiracy of silence?"