Victim of sexual assault when he was a minor “in the Catholic Church”, Father Patrick Gorce, pastor-dean of Morez (Jura), announced his resignation on Friday in a press release.
“I am one of the victims of sexual assault on minors in the Catholic Church,” the 41-year-old priest said in the statement, dated December 2.
A “goodbye mass”
“This reality rebounded in me almost two years ago” and “today prevents me from continuing to properly exercise my ministry,” he continues. He invites his parishioners to a “farewell mass” on January 2.
The announcement of this resignation comes two months after the publication of the report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase).
A report to justice
This report caused a shock wave in the institution by estimating at 330,000 the number of people having been subjected to sexual violence since 1950, when they were minors, on the part of clerics, religious or people in connection with the Church.
Patrick Gorce’s “testimony” “upsets us. He comes to give a face to this terrible reality ”, reacted Mgr Jean-Luc Garin, bishop of the diocese of Saint-Claude (Jura), who thanked Father Gorce“ for his courage ”. Bishop Garin “sent a report to the public prosecutor”.