A day of prayer and fasting for the victims of sex abuse is celebrated today in all dioceses across France, in response to Pope Francis’s request. The French Bishops will hold it in Lourdes, where they have been convened for their plenary meeting. Mass will be officiated this morning at 11.45 am, and this afternoon, from 04.35 pm to 05.10 pm, the Bishops will be informed about the “stock” of measures that in April this year were taken by the French Bishops Conference to fight paedophilia. The work session will be open to the press as well.
In an interview with Catholic newspaper “La Croix”, Monsignor Luc Crépy, bishop of Puy and President of the “Permanent cell” that has been recently set up by the French Bishops to coordinate all anti-paedophilia measures taken across the dioceses, explains that today’s Day of prayer and fasting is a response to the call that Pope Francis made to all of the world’s Bishops Conferences, asking them to celebrate such a Day on a date of their choice. The French Bishops and Churches will do it today. “All bishops – Bishop Crépy explains – praying together and making repentance by fasting feels powerfully symbolic. They want to ask God for forgiveness for the sex abuse committed by priests on children in the Churches as well as within families and institutions. This is about publicly acknowledging that some church leaders have committed breaches, and that supervision has been poor. We must be able to admit our responsibilities and ask for forgiveness. This is what leads us to feel the victims’ pain”.
In April, following some cases of paedophilia that had been found out in the dioceses (the most impressive one involved cardinal Barbarin, archbishop of Lyons), the president of the French Bishops, mgr. Georges Pontier, had presented to the press a number of measures taken for widespread supervision all over the area. They included the setting up of a local supervisory “cell” in every diocese and in every ecclesiastic province; the development of a website specially made to enable the victims to contact the local “cells”; the opening of an email address – paroledevictimes@cef.fr – available to anyone who wants to report a case or ask for information. The French Bishops intend to enable the victims to be “welcomed, listened to, and supported”, said monsignor Pontier, wishing that, in this way and with such means, “the victims may easily contact the people in charge of listening to them”. The outcome of the efforts that have been made so far, in the light of the reports received during such time, will be presented in the afternoon.