Accused of sexual assault, a Catholic chaplain at the Cochin hospital in Paris, Guillaume Seguin, was suspended from this post as a precaution, AP-HP said on Tuesday. “The suspension process is underway,” said the organization, confirming press information and stating that the person concerned had not appeared at the hospital since Friday.
Last week, The world and the Catholic newspaper Golias had revealed that Guillaume Seguin, who is also one of the spiritual advisers of the billionaire Vincent Bolloré, had been implicated, via the testimonies of two people with the diocese of Paris, in 2015 then in 2018, for sexual assaults. This earned him a canonical investigation, ending in a sanction in 2020: the Church prohibited him from confessing for a period of five years, a decision which applied “outside his function (started in the summer 2021) as chaplain at Cochin Hospital,” the diocese told AFP.
A closed procedure without follow-up
The facts were also reported by the diocese to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The latter, questioned by AFP, however indicated that “the procedure was dismissed on December 7, 2020 for insufficiently characterized offense”.
According to a source familiar with the matter, “the management of the Cochin hospital was alerted at the end of 2022” by an individual of the situation of the abbot, before having it confirmed by the diocese. On Tuesday, a dozen demonstrators gathered in front of the entrance to the Cochin hospital, responding to the call of the Be Brave France association (fight against pedocrime) raised awareness among caregivers by distributing leaflets and called to go as far as to the “dismissal of Father Seguin”.