Like any modern Catholic official, Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of France’s Catholic bishops’ conference, realises clergy sexual abuse is a systemic problem, one that calls for serious reform of the church’s uncertain rules and ingrained secrecy. But recent revelations of sexual misconduct by a cardinal and a bishop on Moulins-Beaufort’s watch show how complicated, Read more
Hans Zollner, one of the Catholic Church’s leading figures in the effort to prevent sex abuse, has commended the French Bishops’ Conference (CEF) for revealing that 11 of its members are currently under investigation for such abuse or its cover-up. But the 56-year-old Jesuit priest, who is director of the Institute of Anthropology at the Read more
Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, 78, admitted Monday to sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago when he was a parish priest in France. Cardinal Ricard is a member of the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; the department charged with investigating abuse cases in the Catholic Church. “I have decided not to remain Read more