FRANCE
Anthem Magazine

October 20, 2019

By Kee Chang

This past March, a French archbishop was found guilty of covering up child sexual abuse by a priest in his diocese in what has been dubbed “the trial of silence” by the French media in yet another crushing blow to the Catholic Church. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, was handed down a six-month suspended prison sentence for failing to report to the authorities accusations made against Father Bernard Preynat. This is the subject of François Ozon’s most politically engaged and incendiary film of his career, By the Grace of God, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival—where it won the Silver Bear (the Grand Jury Prize)—a month prior to the verdict being delivered. The film’s title comes from a now legendary press conference given by Barbarin in 2016 (portrayed in the movie) when he shocked France: giving…