Bishops’ Assembly in Lourdes, a Meeting Long Awaited by Abuse Victims

By Celine Hoyeau
La Croix International
November 2, 2018

https://international.la-croix.com/news/bishops-assembly-in-lourdes-a-meeting-long-awaited-by-abuse-victims/8762?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=e-mail&utm_content=02-11-2018&utm_campaign=newsletter_crx_lci&PMID=0993ce75a05e850a9ee6d7668f102aad


The victims will not speak in front of all the bishops but in four forums. (Photo by Jeoffrey Guillemard/CIRIC)It took many years, but their request was finally heard: Eight victims of sex abuses committed by clerics will be received by the bishops in Lourdes on Nov. 3, Day One of their Plenary Assembly.“I hope we’re going to be able to look each other in the eye. May this meeting not be a conclusion, but the beginning of joint work to make the house safe.”Fifty-seven-year-old Veronique Garnier, abused for two years as a teenager by a priest who was a family friend, was one of the first people — along with fellow abuse victim Olivier Savignac — to call for victims to be received by the bishops...