FRANCE
The Tablet
September 11, 2018
By Tom Heneghan
The cardinal has denied wrongdoing but admitted his reaction to abuse accusations he learned about in 2007 was “belated”
A French court has ordered Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, to face trail in early January on charges of failing to denounce a sexually abusive priest, without the presence of co-defendant Vatican Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
The twice-delayed trial of Cardinal Barbarin, who denies wrongdoing in an abuse case tormenting his archdiocese, should go ahead on 7-9 January despite the Vatican’s failure to respond to a summons issued to Cardinal Ladaria, it decided.
‘La Parole Libérée’, the victims’ association that brought the charges in a private prosecution after judicial authorities closed an earlier case against Barbarin, said it preferred to delay the trial again so that all involved -– including the Spanish-born Ladaria – could be tried. Barbarin’s defence opposes any further delays.
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