Burnt-out cars in the Northern suburbs of Paris, Sarcelles . . . “Throughout the past 40 years in France, urban revolts have been dominated by the rage of young people who attack the symbols of order and the state: town halls, social centres, schools, and shops.” Although they never fail to take us aback, French Read more
French President Emmanuel Macron made a promise last Monday while visiting Mont-Saint-Michel for the millennium celebration of the iconic hilltop abbey in Normandy. He said the State would help villages and municipalities throughout France finance the upkeep and restoration of their empty churches. As part of his commitment, the president intends to launch a new Read more
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
The French Catholic Church is much diminished. Yet French Catholicism remains a powerful creative force. The Lazarus Association is one expression of its continuing inventiveness. The organization is pioneering a new approach to homelessness that has transformed the lives of hundreds of people, won papal approval, and spread across Europe. It began in 2006, when Read more
Last October, Jean-Marc Sauvé gave the French Bishops’ Conference the report he and members of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) had compiled. Then in November, the French Catholic Academy published a 15-page critique of the report. The Academy has about 70 members. “The most serious defects of the CIASE report, Read more
It’s a figure that has gone largely unnoticed. In the flood of information and disturbing statistics published earlier this month by France’s Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE), too little attention has been paid to an important detail in the commission’s report – an estimated 115,000 minors and vulnerable adults were sexually Read more
Early Tuesday morning, I opened my laptop to work. But first, I meandered over to Twitter, expecting to read a few comments on Krysten Sinema before diving into my Persian presentation. Instead, I started crying. I don’t cry easily. And these were not tears borne of sadness but of frustration. On Tuesday morning, an independent Read more
Around three thousand paedophiles have operated inside the French Catholic Church since 1950. The numbers were released, Sunday by Jean-Marc Sauvé, the head of an independent commission examining church sex abuse. The commission has been investigating for 2 1/2 years. 22 cases of alleged crimes have been forwarded to prosecutors and more than 40 cases Read more