Nine clerics now in prison, 26 under investigation for sexual abuse

The French Bishops’ Conference has said that nine priests and deacons are currently in prison for sexually abusing minors and 26 more clergy are being investigated by judicial authorities in such cases. A further 37 have served their sentences and been released, writes Tom Heneghan.

The results of a recent survey of French dioceses with their 15,000 priests were released as the bishops presented an updated edition of “Combating Paedo­philia”, their 72-page guidebook for dealing with sexual abuse.

The survey and the guidebook reflected the bishops’ efforts in recent years to reflect better the suffering of victims. The failure to do so in the past led to the current abuse scandal in Lyon, where Cardinal Philippe Barbarin has admitted he was slow to react in the case of a priest now awaiting both civil and canonical trials for repeated abuse in the 1980s.

The survey noted the current 26 civil investigations were half the total reported in 2010. Since then, 137 claims of clerical sexual abuse of minors have been made to judicial officials. Some 222 victims have come forward in recent years, some with accusations against priests now dead.