FRANCE
Inquirer (Philippines)
AFP
LOURDES, France — French bishops pleaded for forgiveness Monday for the “guilty silence” of the Catholic Church following months of damaging revelations over the sexual abuse of children by priests.
The church has been rocked by allegations that the Archbishop of Lyon, Philippe Barbarin, covered up the abuse of scouts and failed to remove a priest despite being aware he had sexually abused the boys a quarter of a century ago.
The scandal was the worst to hit the Church in France since 2001, when a bishop was given a three-month suspended jail sentence for failing to inform authorities about a pedophile priest.
Barbarin, who has protested his innocence, remains in his post, but the scandal has tarnished the image of one of the church’s most media-friendly figures.
Archbishop of Paris Andre Vingt-Trois told worshippers at a “time for prayer and penitence” during the bishops’ autumn conference in the southwestern pilgrimage town of Lourdes on Monday that the Church had failed in its duty to victims of abuse.
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