A French judge has opened a preliminary investigation into “failure to report a crime” after the alleged victims of a paedophile priest said top Catholic officials covered up for him, judicial sources said Friday, reports FRANCE 24.
The victims alleged that senior figures in the diocese of Lyon, in eastern France, including Archbishop Philippe Barbarin failed to report the priest, who has been charged* with sexually abusing minors between 1986 and 1991, to police.
A formal investigation was opened on January 27 after Bernard Preynat, the priest, admitted he sexually abused young Scouts over 25 years ago.
His lawyer, Frédéric Doyez, said Preynat told the judge that “the facts had been known by the church authorities since 1991”, when he was expelled from the independent Scouts group he had led for nearly 20 years.
In an interview earlier this year, Barbarin, 65, said he had been made aware of the priest’s behaviour “around 2007-8” and the Vatican earlier gave the cardinal its backing, saying it had confidence he would deal with the matter “with great responsibility”.
Pope Francis, however, has previously said that any bishop who moves priest knowing him to be a paedophile is reckless and should resign.
“This comment does not in any way target Cardinal Barbarin who quite rightly suspended Father Preynat after meeting a first victim and taking advice from Rome, and this, even before a first official complaint was made,” a source close to the cardinal said.
The probe comes a day after Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell admitted he should have done more to follow-up on claims a priest was abusing boys.
Pell was giving evidence on Thursday to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney via videolink from Rome.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.
* Editor's note: Under a change to the French legal system introduced in 1993, a magistrate can decide a suspect should be 'placed under investigation' (mise en examen), which is a status one step short of being charged (inculpé), if there is 'serious or concordant' evidence that they committed a crime. Some English-language media describe this status, peculiar to French criminal law, as that of being charged. In fact, it is only at the end of an investigation that a decision can be made to bring charges, in which case the accused is automatically sent for trial.