FRANCE
La Croix
Bénévent Tosseri, Lyon
France
Almost a year after the French justice system decided to drop criminal proceedings against Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, and six others for failing to report sexual abuse of boy scouts committed by a priest, the case has been reopened.
The abuses took place between 1978 and 1991.
“If we stop now, who will bring the debate into the public domain?” said François Devaux, the head of La Parole Libérée (“Lift the Burden of Silence”) an organisation of former Saint-Luc Scout Group members, many of whom who were allegedly sexually abused by the priest who led the group, Bernard Preynat.
After a preliminary investigation, it was decided in August 2016 not to pursue a case against Barbarin and the other six.But the priest’s alleged victims have now come together to bring a civil action against that decision.
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