LESTELLE-BéTHARRAM (FRANCE)
Los Ángeles Press [Ciudad de México, Mexico]
April 14, 2025
By Rodolfo Soriano-Núñez
François Bayrou, French Prime Minister will testify on May 14th, before the commission probing clergy sexual abuse at the Catholic school in Bétharram.
Bayrou’s son was a student; his wife taught religion at the Our Lady of Bétharram Catholic school where 200 now adults claim to be survivors of abuse.
In a development that could reshape the French political landscape and is the most significant development in the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church over this year, French Prime Minister François Bayrou is set to testify before a congressional commission investigating decades of abuse at a Catholic school in Bétharram—where his family had close personal ties.
A former judge, a former policeman, and a former professor allege, during a congressional probe, that they warned Bayrou of the abuse as far back as the 1990s. Bayrou, given the peculiarities of the French political system, is the Prime Minister, the district representative, the mayor and, overall, the political boss, a chieftain of sorts, of the region where the school, officially known until 2009 as the Institute of Our Lady of Bétharram has been located, at least since 1837.
Bétharram has been a key site of French Catholicism at least since the late 13th century, although the first reference to Bétharram as a major site of Catholic devotion comes from the early 17th century, at bit over two centuries before the devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes emerged in 1858.
What is now the Catholic school Le Beau Rameau (The beautiful branch) was, back in the 18th century, a Catholic seminary, and before that a monastery used at least by two different Catholic religious orders. By the mid-19th century was the cradle of the order behind multiple accusations of clergy sexual abuse, the priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Bétharram.
Located less than 9 miles or 14 kilometers West of the Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes, Bétharram lies at the very core of the French Catholic heartland. The old town of Lestelle-Bétharram has been a reliquary of sorts of all kinds of Catholic monuments, including the school where many students were victims of abuse at least since the 1950s.
Bétharram and abuse in France
The order owns and operates the school there, and in other countries in the Catholic world, most notably, as far as Latin America is concerned in Argentina, Uruguay, and other countries in South America, on top of being missionaries in countries where Catholicism is a minority, as the installment of this series linked after this paragraph proves.
Back on April 3rd, 2025, French MP Paul Vannier set at 200 the number of plaintiffs linked one way or the other to the abuses at Bétharram, as his message over Twitter after this paragraph states.
Vannier has been one of the leading voices calling for a probe on the many abuses at Bétharram, but also at a handful of other institutions whose former students are reporting violence since late 2024.
Back on March 20th, 2025, the Education and Culture committee of the French National Assembly held a collective hearing with representatives of eight Catholic schools who offered details of the kind of violence they and their peers at the schools were subject to.
Their names and the schools they attended are Alain Esquerre, Notre-Dame de Bétharram. Bernard Lafitte, Notre-Dame du Sacré Cœur de Dax. Michel Lavigne, Notre-Dame de Garaison. Didier Vinson, Saint-Pierre de Relecq-Kerhuon. Constance Bertrand, Saint-Dominique de Neuilly-sur-Seine. Evelyne Le Bris, Bon pasteur d’Angers. Gilles Parent, Saint-François-Xavier d’Ustaritz, and Ixchel Delaporte, Riaumont de Liévin.
Violence took different forms in each school, and not all the students suffered sexual abuse. In some cases, they are reporting cases of violence among the students, dismissed by the headmasters and professors at the schools, but at least in Bétharram and Garaison there are cases where the perpetrators were either authorities or professors at the schools, religious or laypersons. In any case, there is a chance that more testimonies can emerge over the coming weeks from those or other schools, in France and elsewhere.
Some of the cases go back to the late 1950s, and it is possible to assume that there were abuses, sexual or otherwise, before that time, but it is impossible to prove it.
Up until the late 1950s, the school operated as a Minor Seminary for the so-called Bétharramites, but not all the students were there as “scholastics”, as some religious orders call their novices aspiring to enter religious life. Although there were some changes up until the 1990s, the culture of violence was still there.
Some of the stories of violence follow a similar pattern where the authorities seem to encourage the use of violence as normal. Over the French-speaking Wikipedia page on the issue one can find a story from 1995, where breaking a glass ends up leaving a student with a 40 percent loss of his hearing.
Later that year, another authority at the school sent a student to stand, wearing only a t-shirt and briefs in the cold of the Pyrenees during the month of December, so the student ended up with hypothermia. It was a punishment for a minor issue at the dormitories.
As far as it is possible to know, key figures in the order, the diocese, and the local and national governments were aware of what was happening at Bétharram, and they simply let it happen.
Prime Minister Bayrou’s role
The national and local authority who allegedly let it happen is none other than François Bayrou, already then, a major player in the local politics and at the time the French minister of Education during the last months of François Mitterrand’s and the first years of Jacques Chirac’s (1993-7) terms as Presidents.
We know now that Bayrou had, at least, some informal knowledge of the situation because his son, Calixte, was as a student there, and his wife Élisabeth was in charge of teaching Catechism to the students.
Bayrou has been doing his best to limit the scope of his knowledge following a formalist approach, as there were no formal complaints then, during his days as minister of Education.
That strategy seems to be unsustainable now that a former judge and a former policeman, who used to work with him, used their time before the congressional committee dealing with the case to tell their stories about how they told Bayrou about the violence, and how he seemed to be concerned about the well-being of his son Calixte.
Christian Mirande, a former investigative judge, provided testimony regarding the Bétharram case. Part of his testimony included recalling a meeting with François Bayrou, during which Bayrou expressed concern about his son attending the school.
Mirande’s testimony is significant in the context of the investigation into Bayrou’s knowledge and actions related to the Bétharram school. He recalls a meeting lasting approximately two hours and mentions that his daughter, who was at home with a friend at the time, went upstairs so as not to disturb them.
According to the former judge, during this meeting, François Bayrou “was very concerned about his son, who was a student at Bétharram” and “couldn’t believe the reality of the events” with which Father Pierre Silviet-Carricart, then headmaster of Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram, was charged: “Bayrou kept saying, ‘It’s incredible, it’s incredible.’”
The congressional commission dealing with this case was called also the former local policeman Alain Hontangs, who was in charge of the local probe, and he confirmed that it was, already then, a scandal, and that key figures of the local and national political scene as Bayrou were aware of the violence at the Catholic school.
Congressional testimonies
Hontangs explained his involvement in the probe, specifically with the task of presenting Carricart to the investigating judge. At the time, Carricart was facing charges of rape.
During the congressional hearing, Hontangs stated that the judge informed him that the General Prosecutor’s delayed Carricart’s presentation of after requesting to “review the file.”
The decision to “review” came from Bayrou himself who was, at the time, both minister of Education of the national government and, due to the unique structure of French governance, Bayrou simultaneously held national and local roles, including that of minister of Education and chair of the Departmental Council of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and a member of the French National Assembly.
Hontangs testified he was not the only investigator aware of François Bayrou’s intervention in the case, while stressing the anger it caused to him knowing, about Carricart’s release a few days after his arrest, Hontangs told the congressional hearing that him and other police officers arrested Carricart on May 26th, 1998. The authorities released Carricart two weeks later, on June 9th, 1998.
If one is willing to believe the congressional testimony of both a former judge and a former policeman, then it is clear that François Bayrou was aware about the kind of violence Pierre Silviet-Carricart, the priest in charge of the school in the mid-1990s, was willing to either exert of tolerate at the school.
In public statements, Bayrou has been adamant in limiting the scope of his relation to Carricart. He has told French media that Élisabeth, “my wife knew Father Carricart, but I do not know everyone my wife knows.”
The lone predator, again
Carricart, born in 1941, died two years after his brief arrest, at 59 in 2000, so there is no way to confront him or to charge him. French local authorities and Catholic leaders have been using Carricart’s death to dismiss a potential probe on what happened at Bétharram. For the French Catholic leaders it was, after all, yet another iteration of the “abominable lone predator” tale.
That has been, ever since the probe on Marcial Maciel, the standard preferred explanation of the Catholic Church. However, as the McCarrick Report proved, it is almost impossible to exert the kind of violence at Bétharram, at the Legion of Christ, or at the Sodalitium, for a “lone predator”.
Evidence from multiple cases—including Theodore McCarrick and Marcial Maciel—suggests that systemic abuse often involves broader institutional complicity rather than isolated actors.
Theodore McCarrick: Dead dogs don‘t bite?
In summary, both Mirande’s and Hontangs’s statements before the French congressional hearing suggest that Bayrou knew about Carricart’s role in the violence at Bétharram. Hontangs’s stress Bayrou’s potential intervention in the legal process concerning Carricart, as to help him avoid prosecution.
Christian Mirande, went further stating during the congressional hearing that it is hard to believe Bayrou when he says that he was unaware of Carricart’s violence in Bétharram, as he assured the victims in February 2025.
The Legion of Christ admits ‘serious incidents‘ at Highlands School
Former judge Mirande said that “Everything points to the fact that he knew him. His wife, who was a teacher, his children, who were students, the fact that he could not believe he had committed the acts of abuse, which suggested that he knew this man and his personality.” Mirande added: “It’s hard to believe, indeed”.
Up until now, Élisabeth Bayrou, the Prime Minister’s wife, has not yet made any statements on the matter. Several survivors and whistleblowers have Madame Bayrou as knowing and participating of the cover up of the violence, sexual and otherwise, at Bétharram, as some testimonies claim the entire Bayrou family was aware of the scale and reach of the institutional violence at the Catholic school at Bétharram.
After Mirande’s and Hontangs’s congressional testimonies the commission probing the case decided to call Bayrou to hear his take on the issue. This will happen on May 14th, 2025, as the chair of the commission Fatiha Keloua Hachi states in the video from the French congressional network account at what used to be Twitter linked after this paragraph.
The commission dealing with this probe has a micro website of its own available here, with all their documents and other materials as video and audio in French.
At the center of it all
Sadly, Bayrou has been using the very testimonies of violence emerging now from the school as the excuse to dismiss the accusations that he was aware of the violence.
According to Mediapart, a French medium, Bayrou asked a journalist “do you believe that we would have educated our children in schools where it was suspected or claimed that things of this nature were happening?” So, it should not be surprising if he uses his hearing to insist on that idea as to dismiss the accusations.
Bayrou’s take as reported by Mediapart is only available over at Franceinfo’s summary here, as Mediapart keeps its stories behind a paywall.
Bayrou’s long-standing personal and political ties to the institution, place him at the center of the controversy, as he has been more than willing to state during congressional debates his alleged unawareness, as the message posted after this paragraph proves.
There, Bayrou claims in French to “have never been informed about what was happening at Bétharram.”
The alleged abuse, spanning over several decades, from the 1950s up to the 2010s, the reputation of the school, and the type of violence, including physical assaults, sexual abuse (including rape), and institutionalized mistreatment, and the fact that the perpetrators include priests, supervisors, and other individuals within the educational institution, make it harder to allow for the possibility that Bayrou was actually unaware of what was happening there.
On top of former judge Mirande’s and former policeman Hontangs, retired professor Françoise Gullung, testified before the same congressional commission about the violence she witnessed and reported at Notre-Dame de Bétharram.
Gullung had been teaching for nearly 20 years at another school before joining Notre-Dame de Bétharram in 1994 to potentially become headmaster of the school.
She initially joined as a math teacher, but she left two years later after witnessing the level of violence happening there, in July 1996. Among the many instances of violence, Gullung told the members of the French National Assembly about witnessing an adult yelling at and hitting a minor. She also noticed students who were constantly tired in class. When asking about the reasons for it, she learned that authorities and other senior students forced them to stand for hours as punishment at night.
Gullung reported these incidents in writing to Mr. Berou, the school nurse, and the tribunal, but received no response. She also went to the police, who said they were aware of the issue. Gullung’s testimony is available in French after this paragraph.
Gullung goes during her testimony as far as to say that he warned Bayrou himself who simply dismissed her.
As relevant as Gullung’s testimony is to provide a third example of people telling Bayrou about the situation, her deposition is relevant because she goes over how a representative of the diocese of Bayonne-Lescar et Oloron, headed at the time by bishop Pierre Jean Marie Marcel Molères, now 92 and retired, warned her against pursuing the matter, implying that her career in the Catholic education system would be jeopardized if she persisted (look around minute 19 of her testimony).
What is worse, after leaving Bétharram, Gullung faced difficulties in her subsequent career, which she believes were a consequence of her whistleblowing. She experienced professional obstacles, including issues with her employment records.
During her testimony she stressed the many efforts to report the abuse at Bétharram and the lack of adequate response from the civil authorities and the religious leaders.
In that regard it must be noticed that the diocese of Bayonne, now headed by bishop Marc Marie Max Aillet was the only one unwilling to participate in the probe leading to the Sauvé Report.
This series has used the findings of the Sauvé Report (available here at Scribd) at different points in time, as it is the most comprehensive report available on clergy sexual abuse, far more recent than the John Jay College report commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose 2004 version is available here.
As it is usually the case, it is unclear why Marc Aillet, decided either on his own or with the Vatican’s approval to exempt himself from the CIASE probe, but it could be that it was a way to either protect the order behind the school or the already then emeritus bishop Molères.
More so, since before the Sauvé Report there was an “apostolic visitation”, an inspection of sorts from Rome aimed at examining the diocese’s operations, particularly concerning governance. More so, since French media and observers of the religious field perceive Aillet as leaning to the right and in some issues aligning himself and the diocese with the “Tradi” or Traditionalist pole in the French Catholic Church.
Aillet’s refusal in 2021 to allow the opening of archives for the Sauve Report highlights his systematic defiance of efforts to address the issue of sexual abuse within the Church and a lack of cooperation with investigations into past wrongdoings.
As published back in 2024 by Charlie-Hebdo, the audit initiated by the Vatican also raises concerns about Aillet’s links with the so-called “Alliance des cœurs unis,” or Alliance of the United Hearts for which Aillet is a religious advisor. This community claims to focus on charitable work and the so-called “new evangelization,” an approach to recruit members that was behind the approaches at Marcial Maciel’s Legion of Christ in Mexico, Luis Fernando Figari’s Sodalitium in Peru, among other orders affected by sectarian tendencies.
According to Charlie-Hebdo’s piece (available here), their website refers to rituals that are not part of traditional Catholic practices. They call their members “roses” and “buds” and their superior is a self-proclaimed “seer” named Virginie. However, at the same time members of the Alliance pledge personal obedience to Aillet, the bishop of Bayonne.
Their take on said obedience is very close to what used to be the understanding of that vow, present in all Catholic religious orders, but key in orders with sectarian attitudes as the Mexican Legion of Christ, the Spaniard Opus Dei, or the Peruvian Sodalitium of Christian Life.
What comes next
For the time being, at least until May 14th, when the congressional commission will depose Prime Minister Bayrou examining the state’s role in overseeing and preventing violence in schools, highlighting inconsistencies in how different institutions deal with violence and abuse, sexual and otherwise.
On top of the congressional probe, there are one from the French judiciary and another from Elisabeth Borne, ministry of National Education to probe the facts and potential failures in oversight, as to open the door for a solution. Without it, Bétharram could be the cause of the end of Bayrou’s tenure as Prime Minister.
There is also a healthy social movement supporting the efforts of survivors. They have formed collectives to raise their concerns and demands regarding the abuse and/or violence they suffered at Bétharram and, as mentioned before, there are survivors from at least another seven schools following a similar path.
As the previous installment of this series told last week, survivors of Bétharram are actively seeking testimonies from other potential victims, including those who may reside outside of France due to the missionary nature of the Bétharramite order.
The scandal at Bétharram has raised questions about the responsibility of the Catholic clergy and the institution itself in allowing the abuse to occur and potentially covering it up, but also about the role of the French police, the system of justice, and other institutions who were unable to deal with the issues before.
The strong connection of current Prime Minister François Bayrou to the school and allegations of his family’s knowledge have created a significant political controversy. More so in an international context of increased pressure on European governments to confront the challenges raised by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the tariff’s war launched by Donald Trump.
François Bayrou, a prominent political figure, has been brought into the matter, due to his personal and political ties to the institution. There are questions about what he knew and what actions he took, particularly given his roles as Minister of Education and Mayor of Pau, but Emmanuel Macron has no political capital to spare on rescuing him.