FRANCE
Reuters
By Paul Taylor June 10, 2016
French police questioned the Roman Catholic cardinal-archbishop of Lyon on Wednesday for over 10 hours in an inquiry into the activities of a pedophile priest in the early 1990s and why they were not reported to the civil authorities, lawyers said.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 65, who has denied covering up the activities of Father Bernard Preynat, was questioned as a witness by officers of the child and family protection brigade at a police station in the central city.
“He’s been dragged in the mud for numerous months and he wanted to respond,” Barbarin’s lawyer Jean-Felix Luciani told journalists after the cardinal emerged from questioning.
Several victims of alleged pedophile abuse have filed complaints against the prelate, who holds the honorific title of Primate of the Gauls, for failing to report the incidents to the justice authorities and leaving the accused priest in place.
Preynat was placed under judicial investigation in January for alleged sexual abuse of Catholic boy scouts in 1991 and released on bail. His lawyer said he had admitted the facts of “sexual abuse on minors under 15 years old by a person in a position of authority” to an investigating magistrate.
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