Bishops, priests, heads of religious orders and a few faithful "remembered" the victims of pedocriminality, this Saturday in Lourdes, by meditating in front of a photo and by organizing a prayer of repentance at the sanctuary.
“Here, together, gathered to receive the report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase), we want to mark this place of Lourdes for a first visual testimony that will remember so much violence, drama and death. 'aggressions', declared Hugues de Woillemont, spokesperson for the French Bishops' Conference (CEF).
A photo showing a sculpture of a crying child's head has been unveiled.
It prefigures the construction of a “place of memory”, decided in March by the bishops, but the terms of which have not yet been defined.
The photo was taken by a victim and a text on “the violence suffered” and the “suffering” of this child was read by another victim, Véronique Garnier, who came to the plenary assembly of the CEF which is held until see you Monday.
"Little children", "who made you his thing?
"
"Little children", "who dragged you into his shameful secret?
Who made you his thing?
", Asked Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the CEF, while Véronique Margron, president of the Corref (religious orders), denounced" the forbidden speech, outside as inside "of the child victims.
The 120 bishops, who were not dressed in their liturgical clothes at the request of the victims, the religious, priests and laity then went to the esplanade of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, where, after the bell rang , they participated in a penance prayer, some on their knees.
Friday, under the pressure of the victims and the report of Ciase which threw a harsh light on the extent of the phenomenon of pedocriminality in the Catholic Church for seventy years, the bishops officially recognized the "institutional responsibility" of the 'Church and their "systemic" character.