CEF´s President Éric de Moulins-Beaufort informed the press about this issue without further details.

According to CEF, Jean-Pierre Ricard, a long-standing bishop of Bordeaux who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2016, has admitted to a “reprehensible” act on a 14-year-old, the president of the Bishops’ Conference of France, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, told reporters.

In the context of the annual meeting of the 120 prelates in Lourdes, de Moulins-Beaufort read a message from Ricard who regretted his behavior caused “serious and lasting consequences to that person”.

On October 5, 2021, a commission in charge of investigating sexual abuse committed in France by priests and religious estimated there were over 200,000 victims of sexual abuse.

After a two-and-a-half investigation, 216,000 minors had been abused by clergy over the past seven decades, a number that climbed to 330,000 when claims against lay members of the Church are included.

pll/oda/wmr