LYON (FRANCE)
La Croix International
January 8, 2019
By Béatrice Bouniol and Céline Hoyeau
Victims of French priest’s sexual abuse accuse six defendants of failing to report him to authorities
On one side of the courtroom, the victims’ faces are lit up by the lights of the cameras. On the other side, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and his entourage painfully await, shoulders bent, the start of a trial that has attracted the attention of the world’s media.
The confrontation with Diocese of Lyon officials had been long awaited by victims of Father Bernard Preynat, the former scout almoner of Sainte-Foy-Lès-Lyon (Rhône) accused of abusing at least 70 children in the 1970s and 1980s and kept on in his post until 2015. They made it happen through a rare procedure of private prosecution.
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