French Archbishop's Proposals for Fighting Sexual Abuse

By Celine Hoyeau and Gauthier Vaillant
LaCroix International
February 14, 2019

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Archbishop Georges Pontierat the General Assembly of Bishops in Lourdes Nov. 3, 2018. (Photo by Sanctuary of Lourdes/Frederic Lacaze/CIRIC)

Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille, president of the Bishops' Conference of France will take two ideas to Rome. One is the creation of a Specialized Ecclesiastic Court. The other is about reforming the management of diocesan archives.On Feb. 12, he met for two hours with four victims of sexual abuse, three of whom had had a discussion session with French bishops at their assembly in Lourdes past November. Pope Francis himself had asked the presidents of all conferences of bishops to hold such a meeting ahead of the global summit on sexual abuse in the Church at the Vatican he called Feb. 21-24.Archbishop Pontier met the press on Feb. 13 to brief them on summit. The Archbishop of Marseille, representing France, will attend the summit, together with 114 other chairs of episcopal conferences worldwide.At the Feb. 12 meeting the victims discussed with Archbishop Pontier a report that they had sent to him beforehand, in which they listed 13 proposals.They noted that these "need...