LYON (FRANCE)
Associated Press via U.S. News and World Report
March 7, 2019
By Nicolas Vaux-Montagny
French cardinal offers to resign after court convicts him of failing to report known pedophile priest to police.
In a surprise ruling, France’s senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, was convicted Thursday of failing to report a known pedophile priest to police, the latest high-ranking churchman to fall in the global reckoning over clergy sex abuse and cover-ups.
Magistrates in Lyon found that Barbarin had an obligation to report the Rev. Bernard Preynat to civil authorities and gave the cardinal a six-month suspended prison sentence. Barbarin offered to resign.
Preynat, who is scheduled to be tried on sexual violence charges next year, has confessed to abusing Boy Scouts in the 1970s and 1980s. People who said they were among the victims accused Barbarin and other church officials of covering up the priest’s crimes for years.
Nine victims brought the case to trial. A group of Preynat’s victims hailed the unanticipated conviction as a victory for child protection and a strong signal that church leaders will be held accountable.
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