Assembly of Bishops in Lourdes, a meeting eagerly awaited by victims of sexual abuse

“I hope we can look in our eyes. That this meeting will not be an end but the beginning of a common work to make the house safe. “ With Olivier Savignac, Véronique Garnier, 57, abused by a priest who was a friend of her family for two years as a teenager, is one of the first to have pleaded for the victims to be received by the bishops in Lourdes. Request taken over two years ago by the association La Parole libérée. In vain until then. “” The bishops are not ready, “we were told” …

Are they more so today? This is affirmed by the Permanent Cell against Pedophilia (CPLP), which organizes a meeting Saturday afternoon, on the first day of the Plenary Assembly of Bishops in Lourdes, with eight victims, to raise awareness of the episcopate, and also “Initiate a process for a common work”.

Bishops face the crisis

An inevitable encounter

However, there were still many in the French episcopate, to be reluctant to this meeting … Media pressure has however made it inevitable. Just like the meeting organized between victims and superiors of congregations and monasteries by the Conference of the religious men and women of France (Corref). A few days later, three victims were contacted by the CEF. Including Véronique Garnier and Olivier Savignac, who agreed to come to Lourdes, provided that the representatives of the liberated Word are also on the guest list. But, in his turn, the president of the Lyon association of victims of Father Preynat, François Devaux, finally threw in the towel, having made a meeting in the hemicycle, the sine qua non of his presence …

In fact, this is not the formula adopted by the bishops. They opted for “A format that promotes empathic listening and opens up an expected dialogue by ensuring confidentiality for a freer voice of all participants”, explains the CPLP.

“A synergy”

The victims will be two per thematic workshop, with about thirty bishops. They will have an hour and a quarter for a time of presentation, testimony, prayer and work on three subjects of study – the spiritual attack and possible ways of restoration and repair; accompaniment of people and their entourage; the place and use of rights; the very old cases and the sanitation of the past …

“We wanted to express ourselves together in front of them, underlines Véronique Garnier, because a group of eight victims scores more, where some want to make us believe that we are isolated cases … It is also a way of saying that it is a structure of collective sin that requires a collective response. ” She still hopes that this meeting will “touch some hearts”.

“My reconstruction is of the order of the resurrection”

Victims will, however, read a common manifesto at the beginning of each workshop about their expectations and goals. “This meeting must create a synergy between bishops and victims who also have in-depth expertise on the issue and an essential sensitivity”, Olivier Savignac hopes.

A joint press conference

At the end of their meeting, bishops and victims will give a joint press conference. In parallel, this Saturday, November 3, the association ECA (Ending Clergy abuse) calls all victims of pedophilia in the Church in the world to gather in the afternoon near their nearest cathedral.

This meeting comes as one of the priests, who pleaded the most behind the scenes for the bishops to receive the victims, has just been thanked, 1^st November … Father Pierre Vignon, author in August of a petition calling for the resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, has not been renewed in his functions of judge at the interdiocesaine officiality of Lyon.

Father Pierre Vignon, a freedom of tone at the service of the victims

Céline Hoyeau