Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, was found guilty today of failing to report to authorities the alleged sexual abuse of a priest in his diocese. He was given a six-month suspended prison sentence.
French tribunal president Brigitte Vernay declared Cdl. Barbarin guilty on March 7 “of non-denunciation of ill-treatment” of a minor. Cdl. Barbarin was not present in court for the verdict.
Five other archdiocesan officials on trial with the cardinal were acquitted today. Cdl. Barbarin was also expected to be acquitted after even the prosecutor of the case argued there was no proof of the cardinal’s legal wrongdoing and therefore no grounds for conviction.
The cardinal will appeal the verdict. Cdl. Barbarin’s lawyer, Jean-Felix Luciani, said about the conviction that “this is a decision that is not fair at the juridical level”. Implying hope in the success of an appeal, he stated: “We hope that at the next step, justice will be done.”
In a press conference after the verdict March 7, Cdl. Barbarin told journalists that he will soon meet with Pope Francis and intends to submit to him his resignation as archbishop of Lyon.
Cdl. Barbarin also said that “after the decision of the court, regardless of my personal fate, I want to reiterate first of all compassion for the victims and the whole place that they and their families have in my prayers”.
The trial against Cdl. Barbarin began in January on charges he did not report facts of abuse to judicial authorities between July 2014 and June 2015, in a case involving Fr Bernard Preynat, who has been accused of abusing dozens of minors in the 1980s and early ’90s.
In 2017, the cardinal told Le Monde that he did not conceal allegations against Fr Preynat, but said that his response to the allegations had been “inadequate”. He said he opened an investigation against Fr Preynat after becoming aware of the allegations against him.
Allegations against Fr Preynat became public in 2015. Prosecutors dropped the case the following year after an initial investigation, but a victims’ group with more than 80 members who say they were abused by Fr Preynat led to a reopening of the case, the Guardian reports.
Fr Preynat was banned from leading boy scout groups in the early 1990s, but remained in ministry until being removed by Cdl. Barbarin in 2015.