After a cardinal publicly admitted to “reprehensible” conduct with a 14-year-old girl in the 1980s, French prosecutors announced Tuesday that they had launched an investigation into the abuse of children by the cardinal.
In a statement released by the French Catholic Church on Monday, it was revealed that 11 senior clergymen are accused of sexual assault, including retired bishop Jean-Pierre Ricard, who Pope Francis made a cardinal in 2016.
Ricard said that in a message read aloud to a gathering of bishops that “When I was a priest 35 years ago, I treated a 14-year-old girl in a despicable manner. There is no question that my actions had significant and enduring effects on that person.”
The statute of limitations for the most serious sexual offences in France, such as rape, is typically 30 years, although if the victim was a minor at the time of the offence, the deadline to file charges may be extended.
In the southern city of Marseille, where Ricard claimed the abuse occurred, prosecutor Dominique Laurens told AFP that “a preliminary inquiry has been initiated to verify the facts of this discovery.”
The bishop of Nice notified prosecutors on October 24 after Ricard informed him that he had “kissed” a juvenile girl, according to judicial authorities in Marseille.
At a meeting on Monday in the town of Lourdes, the chairman of the French Bishops’ Conference, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, told reporters that the 78-year-confession old’s was “like a shock” to his fellow clergy members.
From 2001 until 2019, when he retired, Ricard served as a bishop at Coutances, Montpellier, and most recently in the western city of Bordeaux.
When questioned for her opinion, Martine, 70, a parishioner in Bordeaux, said, “It’s a wonderful thing that he confessed and acknowledged it.”
“It’s a pity that we don’t allow priests, archbishops, and other persons in the Catholic religion to be married,” she remarked.
