FRANCE
Crux
By Associated Press
April 26, 2016
A French cardinal said his diocese has made “some mistakes” in the management and nomination of certain priests amid allegations that he had covered up child sex abuse cases.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin stressed the “importance” for the victims “to see their right to truth and justice recognized” in a statement issued Monday following a meeting on the issue with 220 priests from the Lyon region.
Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon and one of the highest-ranking church officials in France, is among six church officials targeted by complaints for not reporting child sex abuse cases to judicial authorities.
The French Catholic Church has decided this month to set up a new independent commission made up of secular experts in charge of advising bishops and helping them handle child sex abuses cases.
Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille, president of the French bishops’ conference, announced in mid-April a series of measures to fight pedophilia inside the French church, amid growing concerns over newly-revealed child sex abuse cases, especially in the Lyon diocese run by Barbarin.
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