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	French Priest Charged with Sexual Assaults IOL April 2, 2010 http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=24&art_id=nw20100402121406827C910404 ROUEN, France - French police and church authorities were carrying out parallel investigations on Friday after a Catholic bishop revealed that a priest had been accused of child sex abuse. France has not seen the sort of large-scale paedophile scandals that have rocked the Irish, German and US churches, but there have been cases and the archbishop of Rouen was quick to confirm the latest charges. "My first thought is for the victim, who had to build their life and character while their suffering was hidden for many years," Archbishop Jean-Charles Descubes said Thursday. Father Jacques Gaimard, director of a Christian radio station in the northern region of Upper Normandy, was charged in court on Wednesday with sexual assaults on a minor in 1992 and 1993 and released on bail. A parish priest, Father Philippe Richir, was interviewed under caution as part of the investigation under suspicion of possessing paedophile pornography, the Rouen state prosecutor's office said. Archbishop Descubes said both men had been suspended pending the results of probes by French state authorities and the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the body formerly known as the Inquisition. Last week, French Catholic bishops expressed "shame and regret" over child sex abuse by priests but complained that paedophilia accusations were being used in a slanderous campaign to attack the pope. Pope Benedict XVI was formerly -- while still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and has been accused of failing to act against several suspected predator priests.
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