PARIS (FRANCE)
Associated Press
February 14, 2019
By Thomas Adamson
The spokesman for France’s Catholic bishops’ conference told lawmakers Tuesday the French church is working with authorities to uncover and eradicate child sex abuse after allegations made in recent years revealed the scope of the country’s problem with pedophile priests.
Senators questioned the Rev. Olivier Ribadeau Dumas of the Conference of Bishops of France for a Senate commission that is preparing a report on pedophilia across French institutions.
It is being compiled as senior churchmen from every bishops’ conference around the world are preparing to attend a Feb. 21-24 Vatican summit convened by Pope Francis to try to develop a universal response to the problem.
The commission’s work also takes place as the trial of a prominent French cardinal accused of protecting a pedophile priest nears its end next month.
The Rev. Bernard Preynat confessed to abusing French Boy Scouts in the 1980s and 1990s, and his victims allege clergy in positions of authority covered up for him for years. One of the church leaders they accused of allowing Preynat to continue working with children until his 2015 retirement is Cardinal Philippe Barbarin.
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