France Link

French cardinal suspends four paedophile priests

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin said that the four had been working in the Lyon region while other priests were also the 'object of special measures'.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

The Roman Catholic cardinal-archbishop of Lyon said on Thursday he had suspended four priests accused of paedophile activities and said their cases were known to French judicial authorities, reports Reuters.

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin said in a statement that the four had been working in the Lyon region in central France but gave no further details about them.

He also said other priests were the "object of special measures" without elaborating or saying how many were involved.

The Roman Catholic Church has been rocked in the past two decades by sexual abuse scandals involving its priests in a number of countries worldwide, including France.

Earlier this month police questioned Cardinal Barbarin for more than 10 hours over the activities of a paedophile priest, Father Bernard Preynat, in the early 1990s and why they had not been reported to the civil authorities.

Read more of this report from Reuters.