Cardinal Barbarin, March 7, 2019 in Lyon, when announcing his resignation. – JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP
Did Cardinal Barbarin have the obligation to denounce the sexual violence against minors of which he was aware, even if the victims are now adults? The decision rendered this Wednesday by the Court of Cassation closes the debate. It rejected the appeal of the eight civil parties, even though the Advocate General of the highest French court had requested last January a “partial” cassation of the judgment of the Lyon Court of Appeal, rendered on January 30, 2020.
On March 7, 2019, the Lyon Criminal Court sentenced the Archbishop to a six-month suspended prison sentence, considering that he should have gone to the public prosecutor in 2014, when a first victim came to confide in him for evoke the past actions of Father Preynat against him.
The magistrates of the Lyon Court of Appeal then released him, judging that he did not have to denounce the assaults (prescribed for some) since the victims, now adults, could have done so themselves. A decision confirmed this Wednesday by the highest French court.
The release of Cardinal Barbarin being final on the penal level, the civil parties would have been founded only to claim possible damages if the Court had given them reason.