Priests have "the imperative obligation" to alert the authorities when their crimes are confessed, Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti told LCI this Friday.
A response to the controversial comments of the President of the Conference of Bishops of France Eric de Moulins-Beaufort who had judged the secrecy of confession "stronger than the laws of the Republic" in the wake of the publication of the Sauvé report on child crime in the Church.
"I asked the prosecutors of the Republic to investigate even the prescribed facts, under the law of April 21 that I brought and which creates a new mechanism of limitation", also announces the minister in an extract of interview which will be broadcast in the evening.
Eric de Moulins-Beaufort was also "invited", Thursday noon, by the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin and at the request of Emmanuel Macron, to "explain" the day after his controversial remarks on the secrecy of the confession.
See you in Beauvau
The meeting will allow exchanges "on the meaning of the sacrament of confession for Catholics and on the theological, spiritual and canonical foundations of the secret of confession", he underlined.
This will be for him “the opportunity to recall that today, the secrecy of confession, imposed on priests by canon law, is not contrary to French criminal law, as underlined by the circular of the chancellery of 11 August 2004 ”(on the professional secrecy of religious leaders), continues Eric de Moulins-Beaufort.
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"The secrecy of confession is imposed on us and will be imposed on us and, in this sense, it is stronger than the laws of the Republic because it opens up a space of speech, free, which is before God, ”he said Wednesday morning on Franceinfo, the day after the publication of the Sauvé report on child crime within the Catholic Church.
Nearly 30 hours later, government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said that there was "nothing stronger than the laws of the Republic in our country, (...) it is very clear".