A French court has set a date in 2019 for the criminal trial of a French Cardinal and a high-ranking Vatican prelate suspected of covering up a child sex abuse scandal in the eastern diocese of Lyon.
Victims of a Priest who has confessed to assaulting them have summoned Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), and five other Catholic Church officials in court for allegedly being informed of the Priest’s past abuses and not reporting them to authorities.
The Vatican has invoked diplomatic immunity in refusing to deliver a French court summons to Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer.
The Holy See informed the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs that it would not notify Cardinal Ladaria of an order to testify before the Lyon court regarding a letter he sent while secretary of the CDF.
A Vatican court ruled that the summons was not valid, since the letter was sent in Ladaria’s capacity as a minister of the Holy See and is protected under international law.
A Lyon court on Wednesday set the trial for January 7-9th.
Cardinal Barbarin is accused of covering up for Father Bernard Preynat, a Priest charged with sexual aggression and rape of a minor and accused of abusing boy scouts in the 1980s. The Cardinal has said he was convinced the Priest reformed in 2007-2008 when they met.
Father Preynat retired in August 2015 after being relieved of his duties by the Archdiocese. He was charged in January with sexual aggression of minors for a person in a position of authority.
Cardinal Barbarin has admitted some “mistakes” but denied any attempt to cover up the case.
The upcoming trial will be the most prominent Church sex abuse case in France.
And it seems no place on the face of the earth is immune to this plague of the sexual predation of young people by Catholic Clergy.
Dear God, have mercy on us!
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