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Bishop on trial in pedophilia case
Judgment expected in September
During a court trial in June, a French bishop admitted in a court that he had been more concerned with helping an accused pedophile priest than with the victims and their families.
Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux-Lisieux was on trial on charges that he covered up for a pedophile priest who was later jailed for 18 years for the rape of one boy and the sexual abuse of 10 others between 1989 and 1996. He is the first bishop to face prosecution for failing to turn in a priest when such charges arose.
Bishop Pican said he confronted Father Rene Bissey in 1997 after learning of one charge, but failed to follow up on other stories of abuse the priest admitted to him. “The failure to investigate what had happened to other victims was a lack of vigilance on our part,” said the bishop, who was later visibly upset about having to discuss sexual acts in court.
The bishop said he sent Father Bissey on a retreat and referred him to a psychiatrist, choosing not to inform police. He also transferred him to another parish in 1998, but Father Bissey was arrested a few days later.
Bishop Pican’s lawyers argue that France’s professional secrecy laws give him the right to remain silent on information that Father Bissey gave him during a private conversation. French law respects the secrecy of information divulged to a priest by a Catholic confessing sins. But lawyers for families of Father Bissey’s victims argue that Bishop Pican cannot use this justification, since the conversation took place outside the confessional.
Bishop Pican said on the second day of the trial, “In a similar situation, I would take the risk of contacting the families directly—a risk I didn’t take when I learned of the number and nature of the cases.” But the victims of the crime later said they were not impressed with the bishop’s expressions of regret. “Pican preferred to help the author of the crime,” charged Yann Rebillard, who was sexually abused by Bissey at the age of 11. “If the perpetrator of the crime was depressed, what state did Pican think his victims were in?”
A French prosecutor recommended a suspended six-month prison sentence for the bishop. The court’s ruling is not expected until September.
Ban advanced on “therapeutic” cloning
Bill contrasts with British position
The French government has proposed a bill to ban human cloning for research purposes: a move which contrasts with the British decision to allow such human cloning as long as it does not lead to the birth of a cloned human.
The French proposal would still allow experimentation on frozen embryonic unborn children “left-over” from fertility treatments if the researchers received parental permission.
Please: no more June weddings
Dash to altars prompts bishop’s plea
Bishop Michel Dubost of Evry-Corbeil-Essonnes has asked Catholic couples to avoid marriage dates in June, citing the crowded schedules that face priests during that month. Bishop Dubost lamented, in public, that “there are too many in June.” The crowded schedule caused by a traditional desire for a June wedding takes a toll, he said, because “priests are not machines.”
Back to Catholic World Report August/September 2001 Table of Contents