The parish at the centre of France’s largest sexual abuse scandal has said many families were still living in denial of the hurt that admitted abuser Fr Bernard Preynat had inflicted on its children and the Church.
The pastoral council of Sainte Foy lès Lyon, where Preynat served for two decades, said the parish “has been on the front line of the Church’s suffering for the past three years”.
It "has not yet realised how its clericalism was abusive, almost sectarian. For the victims and their families, we will always bear the shame of what was hidden or may still be,” the council said in a statement on the parish website.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, was tried in January for failing to denounce Preynat to the police and the verdict is due next month. Preynet, who is accused of abusing dozens of young scouts, is set for a civil trial later this year.
"We realise this immense injury is far from being healed and the wall of silence has not been totally broken down,” the council said. “We think of the many parishioners who still go through this drama in solitude, incomprehension, questioning and anger.
“We know there have been many who've left the parish and the Church, and that today some of the faithful still ask themselves if they should."
The council criticised the local hierarchy for delaying a canonical trial of Preynat, which could result in his defrocking. Preynat has been suspended from mission but remains a priest.
“By the Grace of God,” a film about the Preynat scandal, won the second-prize Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday 16 February.
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