In Le Havre, justice and the Church want to better handle cases of sexual abuse

No black lawyer’s dress for the interlocutor of the day of the public prosecutor, but a sober Roman collar matched with a cross. Tuesday June 28, 2022, Bruno Dieudonné received the bishop of Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) in court. A meeting to formalize their respective signatures on a protocol that should facilitate the transmission of cases of sexual abuse reported within the Church.

Commitment to full transparency

Local application of the work and investigation of Ciase (Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church), this text frames the procedure to be followed between the two institutions. As soon as the information is known by the bishop, the prelate will therefore pass the baton to justice, in order to allow a work of investigation in complete independence.

An approach “important because for a long time, the problem of sexual abuse in the Church was precisely the management of the facts which had been brought up to the bishops”, estimates Monsignor Brunin. “We kept things quiet, we sent the problem elsewhere… This procedure, which allows the relay to be handed over to the public prosecutor’s office very quickly, is a healthy measure, which would have avoided many problems of silence and compromise if it had existed in the past. »

Having this transmission protocol can also facilitate the release of victims’ speech. The Church has a reputation as an institution which did not budge in the face of denunciations, which wanted to settle its affairs… Today, the victims know that if they testify, there is treatment through a procedure and sanctions. .

This concerns “cases received on minors but also adults, either by a member of the clergy or by lay employees or volunteers exercising functions in the Church”, specifies the prosecutor. It is indeed “the facts as revealed, without filtering” that will reach its services. “It is then up to the prosecution to qualify these facts, to assess the likelihood of them, to check whether there is a prescription or not. Thereafter, “the diocese is informed of any opening of an investigation, indictment or prosecution”.

Beyond prescription, recognition of the status of victim

Thus formalized, the collaboration was gradually implemented between the two institutions. Within the diocese of Le Havre, where five victims have come forward thanks to the listening unit set up four years ago, the bishop notes this. Even in the prescribed cases (those of which he was aware date back to the 1960s), “we realized that being heard by the courts and recognized as a victim makes it possible to begin a path of reconstruction”. Each case, even a priori prescribed, will also systematically be the subject of judicial information, specifies the prosecutor.

Beyond that, Monsignor Brunin specifies that he has set up a team of six people who are in charge of “the prevention and training of all those who intervene with young people in the context of pastoral care”. The diocese also works with Reprenvis, an association which helps victims of sexual violence with “psychologists who serve as resource persons on these subjects”.

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