This is a first for a Catholic religious congregation: the Brothers of Saint-Gabriel (FSG) officially recognized Thursday, May 12, in Vendée, in front of victims, the acts of pedocrime committed by their members and commissioned a historian to study this past. painful, with a “
memory
” objective.
To discover
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In Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre (Vendée), historic cradle of the congregation, the provincial superior (responsible) of France, Claude Marsaud, read an "
act of recognition
" in the presence of 27 victims, some of whom testified before the religious, noted an AFP photographer.
Twenty attackers
"
We, Brothers of Saint-Gabriel, recognize and denounce all acts of physical, psychological, moral and sexual violence committed by the Brothers of Saint-Gabriel, in the exercise of their profession as educators, teachers, animator, of spiritual master whom they used for personal ends as a power and not as a service and a gift of themselves
, ”says this text, according to a copy sent to AFP.
In total, in this teaching congregation which detached brothers to schools - in Vendée, Finistère, Maine-et-Loire, Loire-Atlantique -, a little more than twenty attackers (all deceased) were identified, for facts having taken place from 1950 to the mid-1970s on about fifty people, according to the coordinator of this event, brother Christian Bizon, who is also among the victims.
twenty children
Brother Gabriel Girard alone assaulted at least twenty children, boys and girls, between 1965 and 1972 in two schools, in Issé (Loire-Atlantique) and Loctudy (Finistère), according to the congregation and the victims.
Significant fact: his biographical note was torn up and then one of his victims burned it publicly.
Antoine Garapon, president of the Recognition and Reparation Commission (CRR) set up following the publication in the fall of the Sauvé report on the extent of child crime in the Church since the 1950s, was co-organizer of This meeting.
“
A great first
”, according to him.
A moment when victims and congregation talk to each other “
from group to group
”.
"
Memory Goal
"
While his commission intends to play the role of "
third party
" between Catholic institutes and victims - for whom the facts are very often prescribed - Antoine Garapon's objective is to multiply this type of day.
“
The victims are waiting for meaning and moral disapproval of what has been done.
This disapproval is essential, it is akin to a collective confession of the congregation
,” he told AFP.
"
This is a first step, which will then allow us to move on to the second phase, the reparation
", underlined, before this day, Luc Coirier, one of the victims, member of the "
Group FSG-Collectif 85
" who s has been set up over the last few months and now brings together around fifteen people.
According to him, most of them “
intend to seek financial compensation.
»
"Just repair"
The Brothers of Saint-Gabriel pledged to "
just reparation
", in a press release.
To help the process, the CRR has established questionnaires and scales, which range from 5,000 to 60,000 euros maximum.
The FSG will also finance a study, carried out by a historian from the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) on the facts committed, "
with a memorial objective
".
This day of recognition is unique, even if, in 2021, the Conference of Religious of France (which represents around 30,000 monks, nuns, brothers and sisters of the Church) had recognized "
the collegial responsibility (...) of all of religious life
" in sexual violence, prior to the decision to create the CRR.
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On Sunday, another act of recognition, unrelated to this congregation, is organized in Aire-sur-la-Lys (Pas-de-Calais), a moment prepared jointly by the bishop of Arras and three victims of a priest of this municipality.
Another public recognition took place in the diocese of Luçon (Vendée) in March 2021, with the installation of a plaque in the cathedral.
