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Appeals court acquits French cardinal of sex abuse cover-up Appeals court acquits French cardinal of sex abuse cover-up
(about 2 hours later)
Philippe Barbarin convicted in March and given six-month suspended sentence for failing to report predator priest Court finds no ‘intentional element’ in Philippe Barbarin’s failure to report priest
An appeals court in France has acquitted a French cardinal of covering up the sexual abuse of minors in his flock. A French cardinal accused of covering up the sexual abuse of minors has had his conviction overturned after an appeals court found no “intentional element” in his failure to report a predatory priest to the police.
The appeals court in the south-eastern city of Lyon gave no explanation on Thursday for its ruling. Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon and the most high-profile French Catholic cleric to face trial in relation to sexual abuse, was convicted last year and given a six-month suspended sentence. He offered his resignation to Pope Francis, who refused to accept it until the appeals process was complete.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, had been convicted in March and given a six-month suspended sentence for failing to report a predator priest to police. But Pope Francis refused to accept the cardinal’s decision to resign until the appeals process was complete. Jean Felix Luciani, one of the cardinal’s lawyers, said the appeal court’s decision was “logical”. Barbarin had faced down “public rumour and calumny,” Luciani said outside the appeals court in Lyon.
The prosecutor’s office had sought the acquittal accorded by the court. The verdict and accompanying 38-page document detailing the court’s reasons will dismay abuse survivors, who had hailed Barbarin’s conviction as a victory for child protection.
“This decision is logical,” one of Barbarin’s lawyers, Jean-Felix Luciani, said outside the courtroom. He said the cardinal had faced down “public rumour and calumny”. At the time, François Devaux, who leads a victims’ group in Lyon, said: “We see that no one is above the law. We have been heard by the court. This is the end of a long path.”
Barbarin, 69, said at his appeals trial in November that he filed an appeal because “I cannot see clearly what I am guilty of”. At his appeal hearing in November, Barbarin, 69, told the court: “I cannot see clearly what I am guilty of.”
The verdict comes at a time of increasing scrutiny around the world of the Catholic church’s role in hiding abuse by its clergy. The acquittal will come as a relief to the Vatican, which has been engulfed by sexual abuse scandals over recent years. Officials will now be watching closely the appeal by Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic figure in the world to be jailed for child sexual abuse, which is expected to be heard in the coming weeks.
The court had ruled that Barbarin, “in wanting to avoid scandal caused by the facts of multiple sexual abuses committed by a priest … preferred to take the risk of preventing the discovery of many victims of sexual abuse by the justice system, and to prohibit the expression of their pain”. The Vatican is preparing to release the results of an internal investigation into Theodore McCarrick, a former cardinal and archbishop who was defrocked last year after the church found he had sexually abused minors.
Bernard Preynat, the now-defrocked priest at the centre of the scandal, described to a court at his trial this month how he systematically abused boys over two decades as a French scout chaplain. Preynat said his superiors knew about his “abnormal” behaviour as far back as the 1970s. At the end of Barbarin’s trial last March, the court ruled that the cardinal, “in wanting to avoid scandal caused by the facts of multiple sexual abuses committed by a priest … preferred to take the risk of preventing the discovery of many victims of sexual abuse by the justice system, and to prohibit the expression of their pain.”
“Had the church sidelined me earlier, I would have stopped earlier,” he said. Bernard Preynat, the now defrocked priest at the centre of the scandal, described to a court at his trial this month how he systematically abused boys over two decades as a French scout chaplain. Preynat said his superiors knew about his “abnormal” behaviour as far back as the 1970s. “Had the church sidelined me earlier, I would have stopped earlier,” he said.
Preynat, now 74, faces up to 10 years in prison in what is France’s biggest clergy sex abuse trial to date. He is suspected of abusing about 75 boys, but his testimony suggests the overall number could be even higher. The verdict is expected in March. Preynat, now 74, faces up to 10 years in prison in what is France’s biggest clergy sex abuse trial to date. He is suspected of abusing about 75 boys, but his testimony suggests the overall number could be even higher. That verdict is expected in March.
The case against Barbarin hinges on a 2014 discussion with a victim, Alexandre Hezez, who told the cardinal about the sexual abuse he had been subjected to by Preynat during scout camps in the 1980s. Hezez felt the priest should no longer lead a parish. At Preynat’s trial, survivors testified about how much power the priest held over them and the lifelong damage that his abuse caused. “I saw this community that admired this man, and I was his protege, his pet,” said Devaux.
Barbarin told the appeals hearing that he followed Vatican instructions after that discussion with Hezez. He suggested he could not have done more.
At the trial of Preynat, victims testified about how much power the priest had held over them and the lifelong damage that his abuse caused.
“I saw this community that admired this man, and I was his protege, his pet,” said one victim, François Devaux.