French Court Overturns Cardinal’s Conviction for Failing to Report Child Sex Abuse
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin’s conviction was the first of such a high-ranking Catholic Church official
PARIS—A French appeals court overturned Thursday the conviction of a cardinal who had been found guilty of failing to report child sex abuse—a case that has become a barometer of Pope Francis ’ efforts to police the Catholic Church’s highest ranks.
The ruling potentially removes one major concern for the Vatican, which is still beset by abuse scandals involving high-ranking prelates and a larger crisis of confidence fueled by decades of clerical sex abuse of minors.
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon and France’s highest-ranking Catholic prelate, was found guilty in March of failing to report child sex abuse, the only conviction of such a high-ranking Catholic Church official for covering up instances of a crime that has deeply marred the church’s image.
Judges ruled that Cardinal Barbarin failed to report an allegation in July 2014, when a man notified the prelate that he had been abused as a child by the Rev. Bernard Preynat, a priest in the archdiocese. Cardinal Barbarin was given a six-month suspended jail sentence.
On Thursday, appellate court judges ruled that Cardinal Barbarin wasn’t obligated to report the 2014 allegation because the victim was an adult by then and capable of alerting authorities himself. If Cardinal Barbarin were to be held responsible, the judges said, then friends and parents who also knew could face similar charges.
There is also no evidence that Cardinal Barbarin tried to dissuade the victim from filing a complaint against the priest, the judges said.
“I’m happy to see a man, whose reputation has been dragged through the gutter, clean his name,” Jean-Félix Luciani, a lawyer for Cardinal Barbarin said.
The Vatican didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday.
After the initial ruling in March, Cardinal Barbarin, 69, tendered his resignation to Pope Francis. But the pontiff declined to accept it, a decision that drew fire from victims and their advocates in France and abroad.
The cardinal said the pope had cited the “presumption of [the cardinal’s] innocence” in declining to accept his resignation. Cardinal Barbarin said the pope suggested he go on leave and entrust leadership of the archdiocese to his vicar general, the Rev. Yves Baumgarten.
The cardinal is still shy of 75, the age at which bishops are required to submit their resignations. The pope could choose to reinstate him as the active leader of his archdiocese, though such a move would likely provoke controversy.
Pope Francis has proved reluctant to remove bishops under fire for their record on sex abuse. His defense of a Chilean bishop accused of covering up abuse led to one of the biggest crises of his pontificate in 2018. That same year, the pope accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington following criticism of the cardinal’s handling of sex abuse cases in a previous post. But the pope praised the cardinal’s leadership and left him in place as acting archbishop for six months before appointing a successor.
Father Preynat, 74, worked in the Lyon archdiocese from 1971 to 2015. He allegedly raped or sexually assaulted several dozen boys aged six to 18 during church camps in the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s before Cardinal Barbarin became archbishop. In August 2015, the archdiocese removed him from parish work. Father Preynat has admitted wrongdoing to police.
On Thursday, the judges said it was morally questionable that it took the archdiocese nearly a year to remove Father Preynat from parish work and bar him from contact with children after it was contacted by one of his victims.
The ruling overturning Cardinal Barbarin’s conviction was a blow to those who brought the case against him using a special provision of French law that forced him to stand trial after prosecutors decided not to investigate.
François Devaux, one of Father Preynat’s victims, said he regretted the ruling. “But this case has raised awareness,” he added.
Several victims plan to pursue the case against Cardinal Barbarin as a civil action, seeking symbolic damages, according to a lawyer.
Since March, Pope Francis has taken high-profile measures against sexual abuse. He tightened the laws against abuse within Vatican City State; published new legislation making it easier to punish bishops who commit abuse or cover it up; and relaxed secrecy rules for clerical documents related to abuse, a move victims’ advocates say could facilitate the church’s cooperation with police and prosecutors.
However, some major abuse-related matters involving high-ranking Catholic prelates remain unresolved.
Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s former finance chief, was convicted by an Australian court in 2018 of sexually abusing minors. He has begun serving a six-year sentence. If Australia’s high court declines to overturn his conviction on his final appeal, the pope will have to decide whether to discipline Cardinal Pell, the highest-ranking Catholic cleric convicted of sex abuse by a criminal court.
Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, a longtime protégé of Pope Francis, is facing charges of sexual harassment in their native Argentina. He denies the charges.
And the Vatican still hasn’t released a long-expected report on former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked in 2019 for the sexual abuse of minors and sexual misconduct with adults.
The report is expected to explain how Mr. McCarrick rose to power despite widespread rumors of misconduct going back years. A former Vatican envoy to the U.S. has accused Pope Francis of having known about the misconduct, which the pope denies.
Write to Noemie Bisserbe at noemie.bisserbe@wsj.com and Francis X. Rocca at francis.rocca@wsj.com
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