2015, Friday, October 23. Permanently at the Lyon office, I was the only journalist in the team to work that day. 6:30 p.m. Closing time is approaching, when a dispatch from Agence France presse, written from a press release published on the website of the Diocese of Lyon. The press release? “Complaints against a priest of the diocese”.
The text begins as follows: “The Archbishop of Lyon has learned with seriousness that several complaints have been lodged against a priest of his diocese. The facts prior to 1991 implicate a diocesan priest accused of sexual assault on several people, then minors. (…) Today this priest no longer has any pastoral responsibility and all contact with minors has been forbidden to him. »
No name, no other details. As if it were an old affair that should already be forgotten.
A desire to keep the matter quiet?
I quickly write a small article with the little information distilled. But the process intrigues me. The Church is generally not used to displaying so much transparency, nor to communicating spontaneously on this type of affair. It smells of rush. At that time, I don’t know it yet, but the weekly Grandstand of Lyoncontacted by François Devaux [l’un des futurs fondateurs de la Parole libérée], was preparing to release what would later be called the “Preynat Affair”. The diocese got wind of it and wanted to take the lead.
That Friday, I have the feeling that the religious authorities are trying to hush up the affair despite a declared desire to bring the truth to light. “Cardinal Philippe Barbarin expresses his unreserved condemnation of the acts which have affected young people in their intimate lives”, insists the press release. And yet, the Archbishop of Lyon will find himself entangled in a scandal that will lead him to court and tarnish his reputation forever.
On January 16, 2016, the birth of La Parole Libérée
A few months later, on January 16, 2016, former victims of Father Preynat summoned the Lyon press. Again, the approach is new. They have chosen to break the silence, to put the Church before her responsibilities. It is the birth of the Liberated Word that will shake up the institution to the top and raise awareness. Testimonies from former victims are pouring in. The tidal wave is on. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The months follow one another, the revelation of cases of pedocrime in the French Church, too. In November 2018, the conference of bishops of France proposes to create an independent Commission on sexual abuse in the Church. It will be launched on February 8, 2019. The Sauvé report, submitted after two and a half years of investigation, freezes. The figures are staggering: an estimated 216,000, the number of victims of pedophile acts between the 1950s and today, within the French Catholic Church.