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The French charismatic movement, the Community of the Beatitudes, has admitted that its founder Gerard Croissant was a sexual abuser.
“The Community is deeply ashamed of Ephraim’s behavior and expresses its sympathy with all the people who have been abused by him,” a statement on its website says.
The Beatitudes Community says Croissant’s crimes were against the morality of the Church and involved a number of ‘sisters’ that lived in the community as well as an underage girl.
“His prestige as a charismatic founder, together with the seduction of his words, led most of his victims to be taken in by supposedly mystical arguments, which covered grave violations of morality with spiritual themes,” the community’s statement noted.
“The new information about the gravely culpable acts committed by several of its members, in particular its founder, has led the community to move further ahead in the process of repentance and purification of its memory.”
The Community of the Beatitudes was founded in France in 1973 by Croissant and his wife Jo along with another couple.
At the time Croissant was not Catholic but converted in 1975 and was ordained a deacon in 1978.
In 2008 he was expelled from the community and ordered to live a life of silence and penance by the Church.
The movement gathers together priests, nuns, married couples and single people – some consecrated and others not – into local groups who then share a common prayer and community life. It has a presence in 60 dioceses across the globe.
The statement comes just ahead of the trial of one of its senior members – Pierre-Etienne Albert – who stands accused of sexually abusing more than 50 children, aged between 5 and 13 years old, from 1985 to 2000. His trial begins in the French town of Rodez on Nov. 30.
It also claims that abuse was committed by Philippe Madre, Croissant’s brother-in-law, who was also expelled from the community in May 2010.
“The Community intends to acknowledge, with humbleness, lucidity and repentance, these serious crimes committed within it by a narrow circle of people,” it says.
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