FRANCE
National Catholic Reporter
Catholic News Service | Feb. 22, 2016
LYON, FRANCE
French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon is facing questions about how he dealt with a priest who faces abuse and rape charges.
On Jan. 27, proceedings opened against Fr. Bernard Preynat, charged with “sexual aggression and rape of minors” between 1986 and 1991 at Lyon’s Saint-Luc parish, where he ran a large Catholic Scout group over two decades.
French newspapers said the priest had been moved to a new parish in Neulise after his crimes were reported to Lyon Cardinal Albert Decourtray, who died in1994. Preynat was removed from parish work last August.
In a Feb. 14 statement, La Parole Liberee, an association set up to aid victims at Saint-Luc, said 45 victims of the priest had now come forward, adding that the group had filed charges against Barbarin for failing to report abuse. Under France’s penal code, failure to report abuse carries a three-year jail term and a nearly $50,000 fine.
The group said it was also suing Cardinal Gerhard Muller and Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, respectively prefect and secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, for failing to act.
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