Le Figaro Lyon
He did not commit sexual assaults but created memories of them in the minds of his followers.
The testimonies given by several plaintiffs passed into the hands of the former exorcist of the diocese of Lyon are chilling.
Father Emmanuel Dumont was sentenced by canonical justice to a three-year ban on spiritual accompaniment following several reports concerning his activities, when he was stationed between Rhône and Saône.
The press release published at the end of January by the dioceses of Lyon and Paris, where the priest is incardinated, as well as his community of Emmanuel, does not specify the nature of the acts sanctioned.
But up to the top of the diocese, we recognize
“practices that are imprudent to say the least”
.
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, the religious, transferred to Burgundy, refutes the construction of these false memories and assures that he was not heard during the canonical investigation.
“We are in the most total delirium, with a priest who is a fan of conspiracy theories of control of the world by pedosatanist sects,”
chokes up a former member of the diocese of Lyon who has converted to helping victims
.
And a naturopath who looked on people's bodies for physical marks of abuse of this type in their childhood
.
The complainants, most often women, one of whom attempted suicide, describe situations of psychological control created by the method of the priest and his assistant.
A technique known as “induced false memory”, pointed out by Miviludes, the French sect policeman, in indoctrination processes.
It consists of reporting false flashes, in this case sexual assaults and pedosatanic rituals.
The evil one in the vertebrae
A Catholic from Isère, Catherine first began spiritual accompaniment with a Carmelite priest at the beginning of 2018.
“During the first meetings, he was very intrusive, he wanted to know everything about my life from my early childhood until my 42 years,
she recalls
.
When I was to go on a spiritual retreat, my back, which was painful, blocked and told him that it was an action of Satan to prevent me from participating
.
The diagnosis came a month later.
“He tells me that I am the victim of satanic possession
,” continues the mother
.
And that I should meet an exorcist priest
.
“Each diocese has an exorcist priest appointed by the bishop, someone balanced and trained for that,”
explains a good expert on ecclesial institutions.
He sometimes has a psychiatrist or psychologist diploma because it is complicated to see who is attacked by the demon and who suffers from psychological disorders, the boundary is often held.
The Catholic Church distinguishes four types of demonic infestation: temptation, oppression, obsession and possession.
Only the last requires a major exorcism, carried out with permission from the diocese when several criteria are met.
Namely speaking an unknown language, showing supernatural strength and displaying a distaste for religious things.
Quite rare then.
“The old exorcists were of infinite wisdom and prudence in the denomination
,” adds Pierre Vignon, former judge of the officiality of Lyon, known for his fight against sexual violence in the church.
When they encountered a real demon they would not tell the person that there was one, so that they could find peace.
And they worked hand in hand with good psychiatrists
.
Behind closed doors and induced memory
In the case of Catherine, the bishop of Grenoble is not convinced.
Neither does a priest friend of the family.
But the Carmelite priest who follows her will nevertheless convince her to introduce herself to Emmanuel Dumont.
“He had a fascination with demonic questions, I later learned that he had sent around ten people to an exorcist
,” she says.
At the end of 2018, Catherine therefore began to go to a church in La Mulatière, a town bordering Lyon, where she discovered the methods of Father Dumont and his assistant.
They who also give conferences together, relayed on the diocese website, officiate behind closed doors in the priest's office.
“We began a real psychoanalysis going back to my early childhood, even to previous generations, evoking the meeting between my parents,”
recalls the teacher.
Very quickly, I was asked questions about membership in Freemasonry or Rosicrucianism, and mental manipulation experiments by the army were mentioned.”
The exorcisms took place in the priest's office located in the Notre-Dame-du-Roule church, in La Mulatière, a town bordering Lyon.
GoogleMaps
Among this conspiracy molasses comes the idea of abuse committed during satanic rituals.
“These are abuses that take place in groups with adults who rape, torture and commit murder on children,”
continues Catherine.
I am told that I myself would have been a victim of this type of thing and would have contributed to it
.
Father Dumont, for his part, evokes
“a reconstruction, with certain correct elements, but its own narrative”
.
Catherine's story is, however, corroborated by several other sources and victims.
The elder from the diocese of Lyon who spoke to us anonymously spoke of
“wild exorcisms”
,
“without warning the bishop”
.
“Their thing was the induced false memory,”
noted Pierre Vignon, who was able to collect the testimony of several victims.
A man came to me after being convinced he was possessed.
This had got the better of his marriage even though he had no devil
.
“This is not our way of doing things,”
denies Father Dumont, who assures:
“we make sure we don’t fall into that
. ”
“I was convinced I was possessed”
“He took advantage of my weakness to copy his delusions
,” confirms Anne, another victim.
It was on the advice of a friend that she came to La Mulatière, with a personal history of past sexual assault.
“They began to suggest that I had been conceived during marital rape, that my injuries were not caused by the sexual assaults I suffered but at a younger age
,” she confides
.
They were trying to make me have flashes of incest.
It seemed plausible to me
. ”
At least until the relationship ended and panic attacks occurred.
“They manage to find a flaw behind which they put traumatic amnesia
,” continues Catherine, who falls into severe depression in the spring of 2019, according to the work stoppage prescribed for one month.
I was convinced that I was possessed, that I had done terrible things, and that the only way to get rid of it was to die.
I was put on antidepressants and attempted suicide.
Other victims, relatives of victims or people who have collected their testimony have confirmed these methods and their psychological and family impact to us.
Difficult to know the number of victims, the diocese of Lyon does not specify it, refusing to communicate on the procedure.
With potential victims also before arrival in Lyon, according to our information.
Emmanuel Dumont will end up being fired from Lyon in May 2020.
Catherine has not yet filed a complaint but several reports have already been reported.
“The investigation into the exorcism team highlights ambiguities in the attitude of Father Dumont including in particular an exaggerated spiritualization which could lead to inappropriate guilt, and practices that are imprudent to say the least
,” recognized the Bishop of Lyon. Bishop de Germay in a letter dated July 30, 2022 that
Le Figaro
was able to consult.
The dysfunctions that this investigation brought to light led us to decide to completely overhaul the exorcism team.
We are now very attentive to people's choices, their training and their supervision.
As for Father Dumont, he was prohibited from
“conducting any individual spiritual accompaniment, giving any teaching in the form of a conference or interview of any form on the ministry of healing or exorcism, publishing any work without having submitted it to a censor and having received the imprimatur, hear the confession”
, according to the press release of January 24.
He will recover an “adapted ministry”, at the end of the three years of sanctions, in April 2025. A publication which comes as the affair began to be rumored.
The diocese says it has waited until all avenues of appeal have been exhausted.
He specifies that no facts of a sexual nature have been recorded.
The only criminal complaint, qualified as abuse of weakness, was finally closed by the Lyon public prosecutor's office, due to the absence of financial or physical benefit from the influence, specifies its custodian.
As for the naturopath, in 2023 she continued to organize spiritual retreats, in Ile-de-France and Burgundy in the presence of a priest.