FRANCE
La Croix
By Anne-Bénédicte Hoffner, with Loup Besmond de Senneville, Clémence Houdaille and Céline Hoyeau
The atmosphere is likely to be tense. Even more than in November when sexual abuse by priests overtook the agenda, informal discussions are set to reveal that Catholics, and to a greater extent bishops, have not been spared the sense of disarray that pervades society.
The publication by the Mediapart website of the results of a year-long inquiry into pedophilia in the Church, and the simultaneous broadcast by the France 2 TV station of a documentary on the same subject feed into this.
Some clerics see the coverage as just an umpteenth episode in a hostile media campaign, one characterized by dishonesty, the conflation of 30-year-old incidents with new ones, and a lack of objectivity.
But others admit that the questions being raised are valid. “We no longer hear this idea of having it in for the Church,” said one recently appointed bishop. “This media pressure, which forces us to go further, more quickly, is not so bad.”
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