A file photo of Bernard Preynat with some of his victims France’s Catholic Church pronounced a priest guilty of sexually abusing multiple Boy Scouts over several years and defrocked him last week, an unusually strong move that reflects France’s growing reckoning with clergy sex abuse.
The ruling by a Church tribunal was the latest development in a case with repercussions that reached the highest levels of French Catholic leadership and the Vatican itself. The priest, Bernard Preynat, already confessed to abusing boy scouts during the 1970s and 1980s.
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Preynat is believed to have abused as many as 85 boys and faces trial in a French court next year. The Church tribunal said its internal investigation found he committed “criminal acts of sexual character against minors under 16”.
The tribunal gave the maximum punishment allowed under Church rules, stripping the priest of his clerical status.
Citing repeated abuse and the large number of victims, it said Preynat abused his Church-conferred authority as a Scout leader. He has a month to appeal the decision.
“This is a great decision,” said Alexandre Hezez, who was abused by Preynat and sought to have the priest defrocked for years. “Experience shows that often (abusive priests) are just displaced to other dioceses. By preserving their capacity to celebrate, they retain their power over people.”
Noting the exceptionally firm language in the Church ruling, he expressed hope it would set a precedent.