First amazement, then “shame”: in Reims and Rennes, religious and believers said they were upset Sunday by the conclusions of the edifying Sauvé report on child crime in the Catholic Church since 1950.
In the grandiose choir of Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral, at the foot of the flamboyant blue stained-glass window of the crucifixion, painted by Chagall, Father Jean-Pierre Laurent begins with these words: “Ask for forgiveness!”
It is 9:30 a.m. Some 200 faithful face him. They listen, in silence, to his words echoing in the imposing Gothic building, the historic site of the coronation of the kings of France.
Taking up the words of Pope Francis, Father Laurent, rector of the cathedral, expresses his “shame” at the final assessment drawn up by the Sauvé commission: 216,000 minors victims of priests, deacons and religious since 1950.
“I was stunned,” says the priest. The institution “could not understand the extent of the harm suffered”. He continues: “The abuses have damaged and destroyed the victims”.
“We must not focus on ourselves, but on the victims,” he insists. “May they receive justice, may they rebuild themselves, may they find peace”.
“Disaster”
At the end of mass, under a great icy sun, Claire Schwartz, 67, said she was “deeply shocked and saddened”. “The figures revealed by the report are extremely important and unexpected. We are in the dark, ”sighs this gray-haired lady.
At her side, her husband Pierre also confesses a “great sadness”. “The Church must take measures so that all of this does not happen again”. But that “will take time,” he adds.
“The Church will take several decades to recover,” says Sibylle Paillot, 36, a bright red down jacket facing the morning cold.
“We are surprised by the scale of the disaster and above all ashamed to imagine that all this could have happened”, continues this mother of four children. “People will have to pay. This is the job we have left ”.
There was no question, however, she said, of “touching the secret of confession”, the object of a lively controversy since the president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF), the Archbishop of Reims Mgr Eric de Moulins-Beaufort , asserted that it was “stronger than the laws of the Republic”.
“Disgusting”
“If a pedophile comes to confess, the priest will tell him + go denounce you + because in confession there is an essential criterion which is contrition. If a child confides, it is not for crimes he would have committed and the priest is therefore not bound to secrecy in this case ”, explains, 500 km away, David Bévillard, 60 years old. .
He has just attended a mass in the Sainte-Jeanne d’Arc church in Rennes… where the Sauvé report was not mentioned. But he is worried, he says, to see “all priests assimilated to pedophiles”.
“We knew that it existed but I did not think it would take on such a scale, it highlights major governance problems,” said this man in a navy blue jacket.
A little further on, Benoit Perrin, 36, carries one of his four children on his shoulders. He says he entrusted them “with great confidence for several years for activities in the church because the awareness exists”.
“Where children have their activities, closed doors are always glazed and adults are never alone with children,” he says.
“The results of this report are overwhelming and disgusting”, but also “salutary”, considers for his part Nicolas Guillou, priest of the parish of Notre-Dame de Bonne Nouvelle, in the city center of Rennes. “The institution must do its aggiornamento.”
–
