Former bishop of Créteil Michel Santier sanctioned for abuses by the Vatican

RELIGION – The sanction dates back to a year ago, and without revelations in the press it could go unnoticed. The former bishop of Créteil Michel Santier was sanctioned in 2021 by the Vatican for acts of voyeurism on two adults in the 90s in the context of spiritual training. Facts that he has since recognized him.

Retired in 2021, the pastor was sanctioned a year ago by Rome for spiritual abuse which led to voyeurism on two adult men “, The entourage of Monsignor Dominique Blanchet, bishop who succeeded him last year, declared to AFP on Friday evening 14 October.

The facts unfolded in the 90’s “, Said Dominique Blanchet, who is also vice-president of the Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF), in a statement released in the evening on the site of his dioceseconfirming the information previously disclosed by the weekly Christian family.

Victims who did not want to file a complaint

They have been engaged in the field of spiritual accompaniment, according to his following. The two victims did not want to file a complaint, adds the same source. When the events occurred, Michel Santier was a priest in Coutances, in the English Channel, and director of the School of Faith, a year-long prayer training school for young people aged 18 to 30.

The victims presented themselves to the Church authorities during the year 2019, he indicates Christian family on its website. A report dossier was sent to Rome in December 2019 by Monsignor Michel Aupetit, archbishop of Paris and head of the province to which the diocese of Créteil belongs.

But Monsignor Aupetit would seem to have preferred that this story be dealt with behind the scenes, without being made public. In a tweet, he apparently questioned the revelations in the press: Why do so many people like to rummage through garbage cans? “

After the start of the procedure, Michel Santier ” he submitted his resignation, in a letter in which he evokes the facts of which he is accused, and which he acknowledges “, According to the entourage of his successor. The priest then resigned just over two years before the legal age required by the Vatican (75 years) to authorize a bishop to ask for his retirement.

The context of the Sauvé report

Pope Francis accepted this resignation on June 6, 2020, but Michel Santier officially left his office only on January 9, 2021. He had previously been bishop of Créteil since 2007. The measures taken against him by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are disciplinary . They were served to him in October 2021.

According to the bishop of Coutances, Laurent Le Boulc’h, in a press release on Friday, the former bishop of Créteil assures a ” restricted ministry “. In other words, it must lead a life of prayer and penance “And he lives separated, in a religious community, according to Dominique Blanchet’s entourage. This is the abbey of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, also in the Manche, where he particularly exercises the function of chaplain. He is not forbidden to celebrate Mass with this community.

In their press releases, Bishops Blanchet and Le Boulc’h each assured the victims their own ” compassion “.

In October 2021, the Catholic Church in France was shaken by the publication of the Sauvé Commission’s shock report documenting the extent of juvenile crime within the institution over the past 70 years. This report also denounced the sexual assaults suffered by nuns, adults but more easily subject to abuse of power, spiritual or sexual, due to their isolation. In Lourdes, in November 2021, the episcopate recognized its “ institutional responsibility “As well as the character” systemic of this violence.

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