France's Catholic church on Monday revealed that 11 former or serving French bishops have been accused of sexual violence or failing to report abuse cases, including a cardinal who confessed to assaulting a girl decades ago.
In a shocking revelation, the president of the Bishops' Conference of France, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, told reporters that some of the high-ranking church officials faced criminal prosecution, or a church tribunal, or both.
Among them is Jean-Pierre Ricard, a long-standing bishop of Bordeaux who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2016, and who had admitted to a "reprehensible" act on a 14-year-old, de Moulins-Beaufort said.
"Thirty-five years ago, when I was a priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way towards a girl of 14," Ricard wrote in a message to the Conference read out by de Moulins-Beaufort.
"There is no doubt that my behaviour caused serious and long-lasting consequences for that person," the cardinal said, adding that he had since asked the woman for forgiveness.
French bishops are meeting in Lourdes in southwestern France for their autumn conference to discuss ways to improve their communication and transparency regarding historical sex crime...
