It had been a request from victims for a year and a half. The first removal of stained glass made by the former pedophile priest Louis Ribes, who died in 1994, has just been carried out, in Dième, about fifty kilometers from Lyon.
The dioceses of Lyon, Grenoble and Saint-Etienne, which jointly revealed the affair in January 2022 by calling on the victims to come forward, had assured that all the works of the man nicknamed “The Picasso of the churches » would be dismantled and put away, that the books devoted to the paintings or photos of the artist would be withdrawn from sales.
Forty stained glass windows designed by the child criminal in six churches in the Lyon region
However, the group of victims of Louis Ribes regrets not having been associated with this moment of removal. In a press release, relayed by Progress, the members of the collective write to be, “once again”, “humiliated and despised” by the Catholic Church and its functioning. Questioned by the local newspaper, the diocese justified itself by a concern for the calendar, ensuring that it had heard and understood the requests of the victims. “There are four other sites [Charly, Sainte-Catherine, Caluire-et-Cuire, Loire-sur-Rhône] outside of Dième and this will be done outside of holiday periods, ”supported Christophe Ravinet, from the diocese, with the daily.
Forty stained glass windows designed by Father Louis Ribes adorn six churches in the Lyon region. Several town halls, owners of the buildings, had “quickly made known their desire to file”, confided the diocese last April. With the exception of the mayor of Givors, Mohamed Boudjellaba, who had announced “not to have taken any final decision” on this subject. Last January, he had defended the idea that it was necessary to dissociate the man from the work.
At least 49 people revealed to have been sexually assaulted by Louis Ribes, in particular during drawing or photography sessions, and were recognized as victims by the archdiocese. Facts, now prescribed, which have been confirmed thanks to the help of investigators from the Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (Ciase).