Following weeks of protests, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris has spoken out in defence of this freedom of expression.

Principal dismissal sparks tensions

The dismissal of Christian Espeso, principal of Immaculate Conception High School in Pau, southern France, has stirred national controversy. On 11 September, the local education authority removed Espeso from office, citing "breaching secularism" after he introduced confessions during school hours and required students to attend a conference led by a bishop.

"Many of us are stunned" stated the Diocese of Bayonne's Directorate of Catholic Education on 13 September, calling the decision "totally disproportionate in light of the facts".

Immaculate Conception High School, under Espeso's leadership, ranked first in its region and fourth nationally.

Archbishop defends religious expression

Archbishop Ulrich addressed the controversy on Radio Notre Dame, emphasising the importance of religious expression within Catholic institutions.

"We must be able to proclaim the Gospel in Catholic schools" he stated. "There are people who want to silence us."

The archbishop's comments come as the debate intensifies over the role of Catholic schools in a secular society. Currently, Catholic schools educate about 17% of French pupils and represent 95% of all private schools in the country.

Balancing secularism and religious identity

French Catholic schools operate under a 1959 agreement that requires them to follow the same curriculum as public institutions while maintaining their Catholic identity. The state pays the salaries of their teachers who are inspected by the Ministry of Education. In return, the schools agree to welcome students of all backgrounds and make catechism classes optional.

However, the balance between state oversight and religious autonomy appears to be shifting. In January, a group of public education representatives called for an end to state funding for Catholic schools, claiming that the current system undermines France's commitment to secularism.

Changing religious landscape

Philippe Gaudin, director of the Public Institute for the Study of Religions and Secularism, attributed the growing tensions to a shifting religious landscape in France.

"There is a huge decline in Christian religious practice" Gaudin told OSV News. "At the same time, there is a growing presence of Muslims who are loudly asserting their identity and their demands. This is something new. So the state is trying to put in place a public policy to manage all this."

The dismissal of Espeso has become a flashpoint in this wider debate over how religious institutions operate within France's secular framework.

Source

• CNA

From surveys to reports, the statistics on young people's mental health seem to depict a generation in distress—sad, anxious and discouraged.
Professor Ludovic Gicquel, head of the child and adolescent psychiatry department at Laborit Hospital in Poitiers, western France, sees this daily.
"We're dealing with serious adolescents who have lost their carefree spirit."

What's causing this?

Some psychiatrists blamed the harmful effects of screens and social media, while others pointed to the harshness of the times—wars, climate change, and distressing news stories.

All agree that the situation worsened starting in 2020, around the time of COVID-19, although the pandemic alone doesn't explain the scale of the problem.

"The mistake we made was blaming COVID too much. The health crisis is behind us, but the numbers haven't gone down," said Gicquel. He believes that the anxiety of this generation reflects that of society as a whole.

"We, as adults and health professionals, are also struggling. How could the youngest not be affected?"

A growing interest in psychology

"It's not that young people are more worried than before—everyone is," added Doctor Xavier Pommereau, a psychiatrist for adolescents and young adults in Talence, Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwest France.

"But young people are still developing. They're more sensitive and vulnerable."

Is it fair to talk about a psychiatric epidemic? Perhaps not.

"Some key indicators can't be ignored, especially the increase in suicide attempts," said David Gourion, a psychiatrist in Paris and author.

"But just as some parents tend to downplay severe psychological distress in their children, others dramatize what may just be a passing phase.

Ask a teen how they are, and they often say they're doing badly. Adolescence is inherently a time when one can feel tortured and may even express it."

Child psychiatrist Dr. Stéphane Clerget also noted an increase in consultations. "Personally, I don't see this as an aggravation of distress but as a growing interest in psychology and psychiatry.

Today's young people know there's someone to listen to them, and they seek that help more often," the doctor said.

The "obvious" challenges in psychiatry

Parents often feel helpless in aiding their children, whether it's minor or major distress. Many also feel responsible for their child's struggles.

"Responsible, yes, but not guilty," clarified Pommereau, emphasising the importance of the family environment.

"As an adult, the first reflex should be to consider any potential upheaval. Separations are one such event and can sometimes lead to acting out, with the adolescent hoping their parents will reconcile at their bedside.

"Proactively seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist, even for just one or two sessions, can have a protective effect."

The challenge is knowing where to turn when most child and adolescent mental health centers are overwhelmed.

"The difficulties in the sector are clear, but France has one of the highest densities of psychiatrists and child psychiatrists in Europe," said Gourion.

He believes the real issue lies in prevention, which should happen before Further reading: Pandemic takes toll on mental health in Bangladesh

"When we talk about young people's mental health, we often forget about prevention, yet you don't need to be a psychologist to do that. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers—these are the people who are in the best position to help," Gourion said.

Additionally, Doctor Clerget pointed out, "Nowadays, it's mostly parents whom children confide in, partly due to new parenting styles. They know every little worry their children have and get alarmed."

This trend can lead to overprotection.

"We must accept that zero risk doesn't exist, and it doesn't align with the level of risk adolescents need," said Gicquel.

"For this reason, I'm not sure it's advisable to buy a smartphone for a sixth-grader just to track their location." This practice is increasingly common and problematic, as it "invites the digital wolf into the fold," Gicquel continued.

"We shouldn't demonize screens, but just as there are endocrine disruptors, there are developmental disruptors that we should try to protect young people from, and smartphones are part of that."

As usual, it's all about balance.

"What's problematic is a teenager spending six hours on a couch with a tablet. This digital overload means we overstimulate the brain while under-stimulating the body, but both need to develop in tandem," said Gicquel.

"We need to dare to set limits," said Clerget. "In the 1960s, parents worried that their kids spent too much time outside; today, they don't go out enough. But they need to get out, be in nature, and talk with friends," he said, highlighting the harmful effects of a sedentary lifestyle.

Rehabilitating conversation and connection

In short, seeking professional help isn't always the first step, and neither are medications.

Clerget expressed concern about the significant increase in prescriptions for psychotropic drugs—antidepressants, anxiolytics, and others. "It's madness," said the doctor, who believes "this reflects an inability to address psychological problems through conversation, interaction, and changes in the patient's environment."

Rehabilitating conversation and connection is the primary recommendation from these psychiatrists, who remain "resolutely optimistic." Paradoxically, social media platforms like TikTok can sometimes be their greatest allies.

"There's a partial but real movement to destigmatize mental health issues on these platforms," observed Gicquel.

"Celebrities have shown young people that you can be a huge star and still have psychological vulnerabilities. They save more lives in three minutes than we do in a year."

• First published in La Croix

"The Holy People of God has been set in motion for mission thanks to the synodal experience," declared Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich S.J., General Rapporteur of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

Invited to exchange ideas using the method of spiritual conversations, clergy and laity have learned to listen to and freely share their vision of the Church.

This is undoubtedly the most significant outcome: the experience of living synodality.

These exchanges have highlighted the diversity of ways the same Christian faith is lived from one continent to another.

The Church has discovered itself to be plural in a unity that must be experienced differently.

How should we envision the Church's role in unity?

What authority should the Pope exercise and how? This question cannot be considered apart from the relationship between the Churches.

"Synodality and ecumenism are, in fact, two paths that proceed together, united by a common goal: that of communion, which means a more effective witness by Christians "so that the world may believe," the Pope said.

The blessing of homosexual couples

While the synodal method has proven fruitful, some unfortunate breaches have somewhat tarnished its credibility: such is the case with the promulgation of Fiducia Supplicans, a text that authorised the blessing of homosexual couples wishing to live together.

The issue had emerged from the initial consultations and was to be debated at the second synodal session. Rome preempted this discussion, which was regrettable.

Even more surprising was Pope Francis' "no" to the diaconate of women during an American TV interview May 21.

This public stance, outside the synodal reflection process, was very poorly received! On the highly sensitive issue, what is the Pope's real position? His hesitations are perceptible.

'De-masculinising' the Church

Since 2017, the Pope has striven to include more women in the Church's missionary fabric and continually repeated various calls to "demasculinise the Church."

He initiated two successive commissions to work on women's diaconate, which unfortunately did not succeed due to disagreements among members.

Four times since the end of the first synod session, the Pope has taken the initiative to bring women into the C9, his private council of cardinals.

He entrusted the organisation of these meetings to Linda Pocher, Salesian sister and theologian, professor of Christology and Mariology at the Auxilium in Rome.

At her request, a first meeting focused on an aspect of the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar: the Marian principle and the Petrine principle, which he used to exclude the ordination of women.

The three theologians present demonstrated the inadequacy of this aspect of von Balthasar's theology regarding the potential ordination of women.

What did the Pope take from this?

He prefaced the book Women and Ministries in the Synodal Church that recounted this meeting, stating:

"These reflections (...) aim to open rather than close; to provoke thought, invite seeking, and help in prayer (...) the final outcome is in God's hands."

At risk of schism?

Archbishop Jean-Paul Vesco of Algiers reflected: "The first reason is the Pope's responsibility as the ultimate guardian of the Church's unity.

It is his role to assess the Church's "elasticity" in its vast geographic, historical, cultural, and ideological diversity.

The awareness of diverse approaches to Christian life in a globalised Church has created tensions, and the role of women, in particular, is perceived very differently depending on the country.

Can the Church as a whole calmly accept a modification of its ecclesial status? Hence the este momento, no va (not now) from Pope Francis."

Indeed, the risk of schism cannot be excluded, but isn't immobility already generating one?

Besides the mass departure of women from the ecclesial fabric, we cannot ignore the presbyteral ordinations of women by Catholic bishops, disobeying the Pope in several regions of the world.

This revolt must be taken seriously.

The question then arises: how to live this "equality" between men and women that is at the heart of the Gospel message and which the Church's mission needs today?

We need "a deep reflection on the sacrament of orders.

Is everything about it intangible, fixed for eternity?" Archbishop Vesco suggested.

Christ was not a priest; he left the Church to organise the spiritual service of God's people without giving a rule other than love.

The hierarchical triad of deacon, priest, and bishop has structured the Church's organisation for two millennia, but it is merely a framework that can and must evolve.

Habits of the old Church

Jesuit theologian Christoph Theobald, who teaches theology in Paris, explained this, clearly emphasising how much the hCurch needs a synodal theology and ecclesiology .

As the early Church spontaneously lived, it is from the spiritual needs of God's people and the various charisms given by the Spirit to the baptised that ecclesial responsibilities, entrusted ministries, and necessary authority ensuring the unity of the Eucharistic Body of Christ must be adjusted.

In conclusion, the current synod is a process; the people of God are on the move.

They need to convert to listening to the differences among their brothers and sisters. They need theological reflection rooted in the heart of the Christian message.

They need pastoral imagination to invent ways to reach God's people in the diversity of their needs. Everything is connected!

But we are only beginning to recognise this civilisational change that is shaking the old Church's habits.

As the Pope invites us, we must be pilgrims of hope, confident that the Holy Spirit guides the Church, provided we are receptive to God, with open hearts and minds to God's light, with humble patience, Adsumus!

• First published in La Croix
• Christiane Joly, is a member of the Apostolic Community of Saint Francis Xavier, author of the French work Sent Together! The Role of Women in the Church's Mission, for a Synodal Reflection

France's unique approach to "laïcité" — loosely translated as "secularism" — has been increasingly stirring controversy from schools to sports fields across the country.

The struggle cuts to the core of how France approaches not only the place of religion in public life, and also the integration of its mostly immigrant-origin Muslim population, Western Europe's largest.

Signs of faith barred

Perhaps the most contested ground are public schools, where visible signs of faith are barred under policies seeking to foster a shared sense of national unity.

That includes the headscarves some Muslim women want to wear for piety and modesty, even as others fight them as a symbol of oppression.

"It has become a privilege to be allowed to practice our religion," said Majda Ould Ibbat.

She was considering leaving Marseille, France's second-largest city, until she discovered a private Muslim school, Ibn Khaldoun, where her children could both freely live their faith and flourish academically.

"We wanted them to have a great education, and with our principles and our values," added Ould Ibbat, who only started wearing a headscarf recently.

He teen daughter, Minane, hasn't felt ready to.

Her 15-year-old son, Chahid, often prays in the school's mosque during recess.

Navigating French culture and spiritual identity

For Minane, as for many French Muslim youth, navigating French culture and her spiritual identity is getting harder.

The 19-year-old nursing student has heard people say even on the streets of multicultural Marseille that there's no place for Muslims.

"I ask myself if Islam is accepted in France," she said in her parents' apartment, where a bright orange Berber rug woven by her Moroccan grandmother hangs next to Koranic verses in Arabic.

Minane also lives with the collective trauma that has scarred much of France — the gripping fear of Islamist attacks, which have targeted schools.

They are seen by many as evidence that laïcité (pronounced lah-eee-see-tay) needs to be strictly enforced to prevent radicalisation.

Minane vividly remembers observing a moment of silence at Ibn Khaldoun in honor of Samuel Paty, a public school teacher beheaded by a radicalised Islamist in 2020.

A memorial to Paty as a defender of France's values hangs in the entrance of the Education Ministry in Paris.

Secularism - pros and cons

For its officials and most educators, secularism in public schools and other public institutions is essential.

They say it encourages a sense of belonging to a united French identity and prevents those who are less or not religiously observant from feeling pressured, while leaving everyone free to worship in private spaces.

For many French Muslims, however, and other critics, laïcité is exerting precisely that kind of discriminatory pressure on already disadvantaged minorities.

The see it as denying them the chance to live their full identity in their own country.

Amid the tension, there's broad agreement that polarisation is skyrocketing, as crackdowns and challenges mount for this French approach to religion and integration.

While open confrontations are still numbered in the dozens among millions of students.

It has become common to see girls put their headscarves back on the moment they exit through a public school's doors.

"Laws on laïcité protect and allow for coexistence — which is less and less easy," said Isabelle Tretola, principal of the public primary school whose front gate faces the door to Ibn Khaldoun's small mosque.

She addresses challenges to secularism every day — like children in choir class who put their hands on their ears "because their families told them singing variety songs isn't good."

"You can't force them to sing, but teachers tell them they can't cover their ears out of respect for the instructor and classmates," Tretola said.

"In school, you come to learn the values of the republic."

Secularism is one of four fundamental values enshrined in France's constitution.

The state explicitly charges public schools with instilling those values in children, while allowing private schools to offer religious instruction as long as they also teach the general curriculum that the government establishes. Read more

• Giovanna Dell'Orto is a freelance journalist for Associated Press and Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass, University of Minnesota.

"The interest aroused in France by the restoration of Notre Dame is very telling," he explained to OSV News.

Identity

"In the current context, where society tends to become unstructured, Christian religious elements are still perceived by the French as a precious heritage.

"That's because they help preserve the French identity, which seems to be dissolving in a changing world.

"Our society is marked by anxiety about its future," Portier pointed out.

"When the French, and even more widely Europeans, are surveyed, they express a great deal of pessimism.

"They used to say that tomorrow would be better than today. And today, it is the other way around.

"The general feeling is that the future will be bleaker than the present," emphasised Portier.

He's known as a professor of world-renowned French political science schools such as Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and Sciences Po Paris.

"Faced with this, people tend to revalue the past, and the heritage that is its legacy," he added.

"Heritage elements appear as reassuring refuges in a period of doubt, and loss of benchmarks."

It has little to do with faith, he said, however, with "little effect on religious practice, and no impact on people's moral positions, which are disconnected from those of the Church."

Nevertheless - people do not want to cut ties with the roots of their past identity, Portier pointed out.

"They are attached to their village church, and they give money to help preserve it. Today's interest in Notre Dame Cathedral is part of this attitude."

CIASE

From 2019 to 2021, Portier was a member of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, known by its French acronym CIASE.

It was set up in 2018 by the French bishops to investigate sexual abuse committed in the Catholic Church since the 1950s.

In October 2021, CIASE published a report that indicated that 216,000 children had been abused by Catholic clergy since 1950 - a number that shocked France and the Catholic world.

The sociologist and political scientist said that establishing the commission helped rebuild the Church's trust and, in consequence, make it a more reliable institution in a society going fast down the path of "de-Christianisation."

"The work of this commission considerably accelerated the process of raising awareness of sexual abuse in the French Church, a process already underway since the late 1990s," Portier explained.

"It marked a radical turning point in dealing with abuse. Since then, bishops and religious congregations have been taking reparation and prevention measures very seriously.

They acknowledged the facts, recognised and accepted the Church's responsibility as well as their own. … My thesis today is that the French bishops are doing a good job in this area.

"In the face of abuse, the dynamic launched by the Church in France is going in the right direction," Portier told OSV News.

"At the very top of the state, decision-makers have followed this affair very closely," he said.

"For the political elites in France, Catholicism continues to be a stabilising element in the architecture of society, due to its central place in the history of the nation.

"Everyone praised the work of CIASE and the courage of the Church of France, which commissioned it," the French professor emphasised.

"Beyond the political elite, since this report there has been a return of confidence in the Catholic Church within society as a whole," Portier continued.

"This is evident in recent polls I conducted. In modern democracy, where individuals count more than institutions, society places transparency at the heart of its functioning.

"An institution that shows itself to be transparent, as the Church has done, has everything to gain.

"Today, in general, the Church is recognised for having taken matters into its own hands with courage, and for acting with determination."

Baptisms increasing

Since 1970, the Church in France has been losing 10 percent of its membership every 10 years, and today only 30 percent of French people claim to be Catholic, Portier said.

But "we now see that this figure is no longer falling. The decline is stabilising. There are even signs, not of a new rise, but of a significant increase in the number of adults asking for baptism."

Over 12,000 people, both adults and adolescents, were baptised in France on Easter.

That is a record number in the country that at the same time made abortion a constitutional right on March 4 and started a heated debate on legalising euthanasia. Read more

• Philippe Portier is a member of the French Independent Commission on sexual abuse in church.

The stereotype is that he or she is a sort of reactionary simpleton, a bit mean, a bit senile, obsessing over abstruse texts, preferring Mass to sleeping in on Sundays, and insisting on obeying an antiquated sect whose main activity is covering up sexual abuse.

This pious person has only three obsessions: to forbid women from doing as they please with their bodies, to prevent LGBT individuals from living their lives, and to force the sick to suffer for as long as possible.

This kind of Catholic is logically the last of its kind, with a perspective that's outdated and irrelevant.

To top it all off, this clueless person has yet to realise that Jesus never existed, as people like the prolific French philosopher Michel Onfray assert.

If this kind of figure does not appeal to you, it doesn't for me, either.

And it certainly isn't what motivated 7,000 adults to officially become Catholics this past Easter here in France.

This large number of adults who were baptized during the Easter Vigil is an unprecedented leap for the Church in this country.

For several months now, Catholic observers have sensed that something is happening, which escapes the official discourse of French society. In some dioceses, such as Montpellier in the south, the catechumens were twice as numerous this year compared to last year.

Conversion is possible for anyone

It's shocking! How could we have foreseen it?

How can these people want to jump into holy water when everything in modern society attempts to dissuade them, and when they don't even know what a holy water font is anymore?

Do these new Catholics that have emerged from nowhere ignore the image of the Church that is conveyed by the media and social networks?

Did they ask for permission from the rulers of secularized society? Are they misinformed? Manipulated? After all the efforts made to repel them, how can they show up in good faith?

No one knows if this springtime of faith will last.

Sometimes there can be late frosts that ruin a beautiful bloom, and then - poof! - there goes the harvest we were dreaming of.

But meanwhile, God laughs at our shock, as it is written in the second Psalm:

"Why do the nations protest and the peoples conspire in vain?

Kings on earth rise up and princes plot together against the LORD and against his anointed one:

"Let us break their shackles and cast off their chains from us!

"The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord derides them."

The mischievous Creator probably makes fun of our pastoral plans that aim for quantifiable results.

God finds Catholics in myriad ways, even in places where we don't go.

Le Pèlerin, one of La Croix's sister publications, once recounted the humble testimony of a young parliamentary assistant whom the Messiah came to fetch when he was 12-years-old.

The young man secretly bought a Bible with his pocket money, and the damage was done.

Reading it, he became a Christian.

He is not the only one to whom such a mishap has occurred, and conversion is possible for anyone, whether they be on the political left or political right.

God finds a way to draw people to himself

With all this in mind, however, the Gospel tells us that the disciples scatter when the situation turns dark. 1

In the Passion narrative according to St. Mark, only two outsiders confess, by their action or by words, the messianic status of Christ.

A woman breaks a jar of expensive perfume over Jesus' head, and when everything is finished in the most astounding of apparent failures, a Roman centurion - not even a lifelong Catholic — proclaims the crucified one as the "Son of God".

Even if they weren't the greatest theologians, these new Christians who knew nothing at all grasped an important truth - it's at the lowest point that the Most High lets himself be touched.

When the Church is flat on the ground and we lukewarm disciples wander around dazed in the messiness of our modern culture, God finds a way to draw people to himself.

This springtime of faith might indeed be a new beginning.

• First published in La Croix. Republished with permission
• Jean-Pierre Denis, a veteran journalist and editor, is the publisher of La Croix

Francis defined bad compassion as the law not to let the child grow in the mother's womb or the law of euthanasia in disease and old age."

Clarifying, he added "I am not saying it is a faith thing, but it is a human thing."

Francis remained adamant that life should not be toyed with "either at its inception or its conclusion."

The Pope's remarks came as he was en route from Marseille to Rome, following a two-day visit to the southern French city.

France on verge of legalising assisted suicide

Francis' comments were made against a background that France is on the cusp of potentially legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia through a contentious legislative proposal.

The parliamentary vote on the matter was been deferred to September 26-28, coincidentally following the Pope's visit to the country.

While Francis did not discuss euthanasia directly with French President Emmanuel Macron during their recent meeting, he emphasised that he had made his stance "unambiguously clear" during Macron's visit to the Vatican last year.

Belgian model

Macron, who had pledged to reform end-of-life care as part of his election campaign, expressed his inclination towards the Belgian model of euthanasia in April 2022.

The Belgian model of 'integral' end-of-life care consists of universal access to palliative care and legally regulated euthanasia.

It was legalised in Belgium in 2002, and permits euthanasia for adults and minors in exceptional cases.

In the ensuing years, euthanasia choice in Belgium has become more liberal.

Earlier this year, a 56-year-old Belgian mother who murdered her five children was euthanised at her own request.

In 2020, the Vatican stripped 15 of the Belgian Brothers of Charity psychiatric institutions of their Catholic status because euthanasia was permitted on their premises.

Advances in pain manaagement

During the course of the plane interview, Pope Francis highlighted the advancements in medical science that allow for effective pain management, reiterating his belief that life is sacrosanct and should not be trifled with.

On May 13, during the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, he lamented the legalisation of euthanasia in Portugal, describing it as "a law that sanctions killing."

Pope Francis has consistently advocated for palliative care as a humane approach to treating those with severe illnesses, stating that while it is essential to accompany people towards the end of their lives, it is not ethical to hasten their death or assist in their suicide.

He has been equally forthright on the topic of abortion, likening it back in 2018 to contracting a "hitman" to dispose of an inconvenient individual.

Sources

• CNA

A member of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, Sumich has had a dual role as a club player in New Zealand and the coach of Croatia's national rugby team.

"Rugby instils a strong sense of self-discipline and collective responsibility, both of which are invaluable in spiritual growth," Sumich told The Pillar.

"As society moves away from agrarian lifestyles, men need an outlet for their physical energy. Rugby, an amateur sport known for its selflessness, offers an excellent platform for character development," he added.

Sumich, a New Zealander with Croatian heritage, sees no conflict between his faith and the sport.

"In Auckland, where I reside, the high school rugby competition is fiercely competitive. Out of 16 teams, eight are from Catholic boys' schools," he said.

Across New Zealand, 24 towns have Catholic rugby clubs known as "Marist clubs," founded by alumni of Marist Brothers schools.

Praying to win

While seeing no conflict between his faith and sport, Sumich cautions against praying for a team's victory, emphasising that the sport should complement, not compete with, one's faith.

"You don't pray to God for something worldly, ever, and God isn't listening to prayers like that," he said.

"You've always got to keep the right balance as to what prayer is.

"It is primarily us thanking God, loving God, and honouring God, and one of the last things we do is we petition God for those things that are good for our own salvation, God's will being done, and the salvation of the world."

The intersection of Christianity and rugby is not unique to Sumich.

When questioned about reconciling his faith with the sport's aggressive nature, Christian and former All Black great Michael Jones, who controversially did not play rugby on Sundays, quipped, "It is better to give than to receive."

Catholic chapel in Bordeaux, France

The connection between rugby and Faith is not just a New Zealand thing.

In a quaint corner of Larrivière-Saint-Savin, France, the intertwining of rugby and spirituality is epitomised by La Chapelle Notre Dame Du Rugby.

An hour's drive from the Bay of Biscay, this medieval chapel is adorned with stained-glass windows depicting rugby scenes.

Inside the church are stained glass windows of a scrum, another of Mary holding Jesus in his arms, while Jesus prepares to throw the rugby ball into the lineout.

There's also another of Mary cradling an injured player in her arms.

Not leaving it with stained glass imagery, old rugby boots dangle by their laces next to the altar and along the walls there is proof that a Who's Who of the world of rugby through the decades have come here.

There are photos and newspaper articles of players displayed alongside jerseys worn by the stars of the past, such as Serge Blanco or Fabien Pelous with simple messages of support for the volunteers who look after the chapel.

Community with a cause

The chapel's significance to the rugby community dates back to a tragic 1964 incident when three young players from the local Dax club lost their lives in a car accident.

The community was devastated, but local priest Michel Devert saw an opportunity for healing.

He rallied the community around the idea of reviving the dilapidated chapel as a memorial for the young players and a spiritual hub for the global rugby community.

Today, the La Chapelle Notre Dame Du Rugby stands beautifully restored, thanks partly to a dedicated group known as the Friends of Notre Dame.

This committee has been instrumental in raising funds and soliciting rugby memorabilia from players worldwide.

The walls of the chapel are now adorned with a myriad of mementoes, turning it into a living museum of rugby history and a symbol of the sport's unique ability to foster community, discipline and character.

Sources

• The Pillar
• BBC

Francis was in Marseille to address a Mediterranean forum on migration.

The image was captured by Reuters photographer Yara Nardi who accompanied the Pope on his journey from Rome to Marseille.

"As soon as I revealed the photograph from its envelope, the Pope was visibly touched," recounted Nardi.

The atmosphere inside the aircraft grew sombre as Pope Francis remarked "They confine them in Libyan detention facilities, only to later cast them adrift at sea."

The poignant photograph, taken by Nardi the previous week on the small Italian island of Lampedusa, zooms in on the eyes of 18-month-old Prince.

The toddler, along with his mother Claudine Nsoe, hails from Cameroon.

They are part of a wave of thousands who have recently made the perilous sea journey from North Africa to Italy.

"He shook my hand and kept the photo," she said.

The encounter on the plane followed a stirring address in Marseille, France, where Pope Francis took a strong stance against rising nationalism and expressed deep concern over the global migrant crisis.

Speaking before a monument dedicated to lives lost at sea, the Pope was in the city to attend the Mediterranean Encounter ("Rencontres Méditerranéennes"), a forum that brought together approximately 120 young individuals of diverse faiths, and bishops from 30 different nations.

The Pope called on both individuals and nations to break free from the shackles of fear and apathy which he said subtly condemn countless lives to a grim fate.

"We can no longer be spectators to the tragedies of shipwrecks, fuelled by ruthless human trafficking and a callous disregard for human life," declared Francis.

Standing before the sea, a symbol of life but also a reminder of perilous journeys that have ended in tragedy, Pope Francis continued - "We convene here to remember those who didn't survive, those who were lost at sea.

"We must resist becoming numb to the news of shipwrecks, to seeing deaths at sea as mere statistics.

"These are not just numbers, these are individuals with names, faces, stories—lives that have been irrevocably broken and dreams that have been crushed."

His words served as a poignant reminder of the human cost of the ongoing migrant crisis and a call to action for a world he believes stands at a critical juncture between compassion and indifference.

Sources

• Reuters
• CNA
• CathNews NZ

Religious leaders and institutions are trying to respond after thousands of young people, many the children or grandchildren of North African immigrants who first came to France in large numbers in the 1960s, took to the streets.

They were protesting the killing by police of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk during a traffic stop on June 27 in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. Some young people have been involved in robberies, arson and looting as part of the violence.

Many in France believe Merzouk's killing blew the lid off years of simmering resentment because of the police treatment of black and Arab youth, the ghettoization of immigrants and their descendants in high-density suburban housing projects around major cities, and the general hopelessness among black and Arab youth who feel like second-class citizens in France.

Images of young people burning public administration buildings and looting schools and shops has been a shock to much of the nation.

More than 3,500 have been arrested so far.

One third of those arrested are under 18, and 60 percent have no criminal record, according to the French Minister of Interior.

Only 10 percent of the people arrested were not French-born, but members of the political far right say the rioting demands a more critical look at immigration policy.

The far right's anti-immigration mantra is seeping through a once ironclad political divide between it and mainstream politics.

"We know the causes" of France's unrest, Bruno Retailleau, head of the conservative group that dominates the French Senate, said last week on broadcaster France-Info.

"Unfortunately for the second, the third generation, there is a sort of regression toward their origins, their ethnic origins."

Mr Retailleau's remarks, which drew accusations of racism, reflect the current line of his mainstream party, The Republicans, whose priorities to keep France "from sinking durably into chaos" include "stopping mass immigration."

"This tragedy is the latest in a series of terrible episodes that reflect a muted tension that has been building for years at all levels of society," said Marin Izoard, the head of communication for Le Rocher Oasis des Cités, a Catholic organization that works with disaffected youths in the notorious high-density "banlieues," or housing projects that are located around French cities.

"This divide—named as such nearly 30 years ago—runs deep."

Le Rocher is active in Paris, Lyon, Toulon and Marseille.

"We are doing a very important job in these neighbourhoods, tackling the issue of social fracture from its roots," Mr Izoard said.

He describes Le Rocher as "an oasis of living together in tough neighbourhoods."

"We build trust with the residents of these neighborhoods to offer a wide range of activities, workshops and help, for example with administrative [affairs]," assisting housing project residents with paying taxes or in applying for social benefits, he said.

Mr Izoard declined to comment on the riots directly, explaining Le Rocher did not wish to contribute to a prejudiced and clichéd discourse on the young people who have been clashing with police. He did distribute a newsletter describing Le Rocher's outreach efforts and their importance to communal harmony in France.

Organizations like Le Rocher hope to connect discouraged youth from the banlieues with broader French society, links that the bishop of Nanterre hopes to nurture.

The Most Rev. Matthieu Rougé has pastoral responsibility for around 50 parishes in the Parisian suburbs with one of the most densely populated areas—over 1.5 million residents—in the department of Hauts-de-Seine.

Bishop Rougé has been extremely active among the different racial and religious communities within his diocese during the rioting.

Responding to the disorder in the streets, "my mission was threefold," he said. "Firstly, to pray, and get people to pray, for peace; secondly, to be present not only to people who were worried [about the violence] or even terrorized, but also to local elected representatives and government officials; thirdly, to call for dialogue and peace, in particular with other religious leaders in Nanterre and the department.

"French secularism is sometimes too rigid," Bishop Rougé said, "but, paradoxically, it does not exclude good dialogue on the ground between religious leaders and public authorities, which was truly the case during last week's unrest."

While many of the youth in the streets have come from the Islamic community, Bishop Rougé does not see religion as a dominant force in the disorder.

Instead, he noted an "educational deficit, social suffering and an identity crisis that we need to work on intensively."

Discrimination is still widespread in France, with 54 percent of youth saying they have been the victim of derogatory remarks during job interviews, and 41 percent of the French workforce report being victimized by discrimination at some point during their career.

The Covid-19 pandemic struck the banlieues very hard, with many families falling into poverty. Continue reading

Although they never fail to take us aback, French riots have followed the same distinct pattern ever since protests broke out in the eastern suburbs of Lyon in 1981, an episode known as the "summer of Minguettes": a young person is killed or seriously injured by the police, triggering an outpouring of violence in the affected neighbourhood and nearby.

Sometimes, as in the case of the 2005 riots and of this past week's, it is every rough neighbourhood that flares up.

Throughout the past 40 years in France, urban revolts have been dominated by the rage of young people who attack the symbols of order and the state: town halls, social centres, schools, and shops.

An institutional and political vacuum

That rage is the kind that leads one to destroy one's own neighbourhood, for all to see.

Residents condemn these acts, but can also understand the motivation. Elected representatives, associations, churches and mosques, social workers and teachers admit their powerlessness, revealing an institutional and political vacuum.

Of all the revolts, the summer of the Minguettes was the only one to pave the way to a social movement: the March for Equality and Against Racism in December 1983.

Numbering more than 100,000 people and prominently covered by the media, it was France's first demonstration of its kind. Left-leaning newspaper Libération nicknamed it "La Marche des Beurs", a colloquial term that refers to Europeans whose parents or grandparents are from the Maghreb.

In the demonstrations that followed, no similar movement appears to have emerged from the ashes.

At each riot, politicians are quick to play well-worn roles: the right denounces the violence and goes on to stigmatise neighbourhoods and police victims; the left denounces injustice and promises social policies in the neighbourhoods.

In 2005, then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy sided with the police. France's current President, Emmanuel Macron, has expressed compassion for the teenager killed by the police in Nanterre, but politicians and presidents are hardly heard in the neighbourhoods concerned.

We then wait for silence to set in until the next time the problems of the banlieues (French suburbs) and its police are rediscovered by society at large.

Lessons to be learned

The recurrence of urban riots in France and their scenarios yield some relatively simple lessons.

First, the country's urban policies miss their targets. Over the last 40 years, considerable efforts have been made to improve housing and facilities. Apartments are of better quality, there are social centres, schools, colleges and public transportation.

It would be wrong to say that these neighbourhoods have been abandoned.

On the other hand, the social and cultural diversity of disadvantaged suburbs has deteriorated. More often than not, the residents are poor or financially insecure, and are either descendants of immigrants or immigrants themselves.

Above all, when given the opportunity and the resources, those who can leave the banlieues soon do, only to be replaced by even poorer residents from further afield. Thus while the built environment is improving, the social environment is unravelling.

However reluctant people may be to talk about France's disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the social process at work here is indeed one of ghettoisation - i.e., a growing divide between neighbourhoods and their environment, a self-containment reinforced from within. You go to the same school, the same social centre, you socialise with the same individuals, and you participate in the same more or less legal economy.

In spite of the cash and local representatives' goodwill, people still feel excluded from society because of their origins, culture or religion. In spite of social policies and councillors' work, the neighbourhoods have no institutional or political resources of their own.

Whereas the often communist-led "banlieues rouges" ("red suburbs") benefited from the strong support of left-leaning political parties, trade unions and popular education movements, today's banlieues hardly have any spokespeople. Social workers and teachers are full of goodwill, but many don't live in the neighbourhoods where they work.

This disconnect works both ways, and the past days' riots revealed that elected representatives and associations don't have any hold on neighbourhoods where residents feel ignored and abandoned. Appeals for calm are going unheeded. The rift is not just social, it's also political.

• Dr François Dubet is a an Emeritus Professor at the University of Bordeaux.
• This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

He said the State would help villages and municipalities throughout France finance the upkeep and restoration of their empty churches.

As part of his commitment, the president intends to launch a new protection campaign: today, of the 50,000 religious buildings dedicated to worship (42,000 of which are Catholic), only 10,500 are classified or registered as historic monuments, which gives them greater access to subsidies. He also explained that he wants to use the national subsidy tool again, as was the case for Notre-Dame de Paris.

A necessary and popular measure

Very well. Since 1905, towns and villages have owned places of worship built before that date, the vast majority of which are Catholic churches, and are struggling to finance the restoration and upkeep of their bell towers.

It is, therefore, a necessary move.

It's also a popular measure, since, as all the polls and surveys show, the French people are extremely attached to their churches.

As soon as one of them is sold, converted into a hotel, a gym or whatever, the whole neighbourhood cries scandal...

Of course, but with less than 3% of the population attending Sunday worship, what's the point of these restorations?

To preserve a closed heritage?

We all know how difficult it is, in a number of villages, to get hold of the precious key that allows you to enter and admire an altarpiece or a painting that are hidden away in a place that is hardly ever used.

How long will the French be willing to pay (because we are the State) for buildings that have become ghosts of the past?

It's a delicate question.

On the one hand, our fellow citizens value their churches.

On the other hand, religious use is far from being the primary purpose for these locales.

The Catholic Church, as the benefactor of the buildings, has a say in how the properties are used.

It can therefore accept or refuse hosting other events, often concerts.

The difficulty today is that each steeple has its own parish priest, and so there are many different responses to requests.

It is undoubtedly in the interest of the institutional Church to allow "shared uses" of church building, or, as the bishops put it in a more restricted sense, "compatible uses".

A church can be used for Mass once a month, concerts or theatre, as well as a place of remembrance, education (heritage and history training), a space for artistic creation, or even charity work, such as a community grocery store or a day shelter for the homeless.

Fewer priests

With a little goodwill, there are a thousand ways of imagining these other services.

The institutional Church still needs to renounce this parochial conception of its organization, which dates back more than eight hundred years.

Since the Gregorian reform, the parish-church has been considered a sacramental space, under the authority of the parish priest.

In short, without the priest, there is no church... But this is no longer possible, simply because the number of priests is falling, and it is physically impossible for them to "hold" all those churches.

When a priest says "my" parish and has to manage 48 church buildings, it's quite complicated!

It must be recognized that the entire community is concerned about how these churches are put to use.

If the mayor's office is restoring a church, it's normal that city officials will want to see how it can be of service to society.

One thing is certain, and this should reassure the bishops who are apprehensive on this subject: the only way to ensure that these church buildings continue to serve the common good and are not privatized is for the Church to remain the lessee. Few, if any, want to dislodge it. We might as well rejoice...

• Isabelle de Gaulmyn is a senior editor at La Croix and former Vatican correspondent.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

But recent revelations of sexual misconduct by a cardinal and a bishop on Moulins-Beaufort's watch show how complicated, time-consuming and personal stamping out abuse can be.

These new cases, which come a year after a report that estimated that France had seen 330,000 ordained and lay abusers since 1950, have tangled Moulins-Beaufort in a web, caught between falling public confidence in the bishops' ability to solve the problem — which only increases the pressure to act — and a pope who firmly condemns clerical sexual abuse but offers only vague guidance when faced with concrete cases.

The revelations last week, both involving popular and well-respected clerics, were bigger than any cases to date.

Bishop Michel Santier of Créteil, an eastern suburb of Paris, had a reputation as a prelate open to other faiths and to people sidelined in the church. In 2020, he took early retirement, citing health reasons, but it turned out he had admitted to Pope Francis in 2019 that he had made at least two young men do a striptease as part of a confession.

Only after Santier later repeated his admission to his successor did the Vatican impose canonical restrictions on him.

The story finally came out in a Catholic magazine in October, forcing Moulins-Beaufort to acknowledge that he also knew the facts but could not publicize them because the Vatican hadn't.

Three weeks later, Moulins-Beaufort read out a letter from Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, who was twice elected head of the French bishops' conference in the 2000s, confessed that he had "acted in a reprehensible way with a 14-year-old girl" 35 years ago.

When Moulins-Beaufort unveiled the Ricard scandal, it came to light that several church leaders had been informed but had taken months to inform French law enforcement or the Vatican.

Bishop Dominique Blanchet, who took over from Santier, later described how he tried to keep a distance from his popular predecessor without divulging the reason. "I was in an untenable position," he said.

French Catholic leaders initially played down clerical abuse when news of U.S. cases made headlines in The Boston Globe two decades ago, but the issue has now gone far beyond the "few bad apples" stage.

"Neither ordination nor honours protect someone from making mistakes, including some legally serious ones," a worn-down Moulins-Beaufort said at the end of the French bishops' Nov. 3-8 plenary session in Lourdes. "Every person can be haunted by troubled forces that he does not always manage to control."

Yet Santier's and Ricard's cases show that the problem is as much one of transparency as of troubled priests. "Your trust has been betrayed. You feel anger, sadness, amazement. These feelings are legitimate," Rennes Archbishop Pierre d'Ornellas told parishioners in the Breton town of Montfort-sur-Meu.

D'Ornellas chose that parish because its pastor had just been jailed in Paris for yet another sexual abuse case. The Rev. Yannick Poligné, who is HIV-positive, was charged with aggravated rape, drug use and endangering the life of a 15-year-old male he met through the gay app Grindr.

At the news conference unveiling the Ricard scandal, Moulins-Beaufort said the total of French bishops involved in sexual abuse cases was now 11. But he mixed up the cases — for example, including those charged with nondenunciation of an abusive priest with prelates who actually abused victims — and thus created further distrust of the bishops in general.

Three bishops were not named, meaning more revelations may come soon. A church spokesman would only say that two were being investigated by French authorities and the Vatican, while the third had been reported to the French and restricted by the Vatican in his ministry.

The Rev. Hans Zollner, a Catholic expert on sexual abuse based in Rome, said: "The French bishops' conference should communicate names, if this is legally possible. Without this, there is a risk of bringing widespread suspicion to bear on everyone. … This is a rule of communication that we have not yet learned."

"How can we still believe that the church will get out of this, that it has the means to reform itself, when it is so deeply affected itself?" asked Isabelle de Gaulmyn, an editor and former Vatican correspondent for the Catholic daily newspaper La Croix.

"What do we see on the part of this ‘elite,' supposedly chosen carefully by the pope and his advisers? Perversion for some — serious, profound and criminal perversion. And for the others, an incomprehensible laxity that leads to immense helplessness."

• Tom Heneghan is an author at Religion News Service.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

But the 56-year-old Jesuit priest, who is director of the Institute of Anthropology at the Rome-based Gregorian University, believes the CEF should also publish the names of those bishops in order to avoid creating a general suspicion of the entire hierarchy.

He explained further in this exclusive interview with La Croix's Loup Besmond de Senneville.

What's your reaction to the revelations made by the French bishops' this week?

Hans Zollner: First of all, I'm really shocked and surprised.

This brings to light a vast failure of the institution over the course of decades. That's very clear. But paradoxically, I also see a big step forward in this move by the French bishops, even if it comes quite late.

However, there's an essential dimension that's missing: the French Bishops' Conference should publish the names, if this is legally possible.

Without this, there is a risk of creating a generalized suspicion of all bishops.

We must always admit and tell the truth, with the necessary clarity.

Should we move towards transparency of canonical sanctions?

This is a debate that has been going on for years.

It seems clear to me that decisions should be published according to the rules of transparency invoked at the summit on sexual abuse that Pope Francis convened at the Vatican in 2019.

As we can see, we're fooling ourselves if we think we can hide things in the digital age; sooner or later, things come and there's a scandal.

This is a rule of communication that we have not yet learned.

Should changes be made?

Yes, they must be made.

We in the Church have not yet understood how communication works in today's world.

We have to keep in mind that things always come out sooner or later.

Therefore, we must be transparent and sincere while respecting civil law.

As far as the transparency of canonical sanctions is concerned, it is also necessary that the victims have access to them.

This is not the case today.

Should the processes for appointing bishops be reviewed?

We have to differentiate between the issues.

On the one hand, we can never force someone to tell the truth if they do not want to reveal it.

This means that if a candidate has committed prejudicial acts and no one says so, and he does not reveal them himself, no bishop appointment process can take this into account.

On the other hand, changes could be considered for the groups of those questioning the candidate, for example, by turning to people outside ecclesial circles who have known or collaborated with the candidate for the episcopate, even in other contexts.

• Loup Besmond de Senneville has been a journalist with La Croix since 2011 and a permanent correspondent at the Vatican since 2020.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

Cardinal Ricard is a member of the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; the department charged with investigating abuse cases in the Catholic Church.

"I have decided not to remain silent about my situation and to place myself at the disposal of justice, both on the level of society and on that of the Church," the cardinal said in a letter.

"Thirty-five years ago, when I was a parish priest I behaved reprehensibly with a young 14-year-old girl. My behaviour has necessarily caused serious and lasting consequences for this person," the letter added.

The letter was read aloud by the French Bishops' Conference president at a press conference.

Ricard also apologised to the young girl and her family, as well as all those who will be impacted by the revelation.

In light of this situation, Ricard said he will be "taking a time to retire and pray".

According to La Croix the woman abused by Ricard has twice written to Pope Francis, most recently in May-June, but has not had a reply.

No civil complaint has yet been filed against Ricard; however, on Tuesday, a preliminary civil investigation into Ricard's abusive behaviour was opened after a letter was received from an adviser of the current bishop of Nice.

The Catholic Church in France has been under fire since a 2021 report estimated that 330,000 children were abused by clergy in the country in a span of 70 years.

Ricard's revelations came as "a shock" to the French episcopacy, as he is among 11 French bishops currently under investigation for sexual abuse.

During a press conference on a plane, while returning from Bahrain, where he had been promoting dialogue with Islam, Francis said child abuse inside the Church was a "tragic thing", and the Catholic church is working "as best we can" to fight clerical child abuse.

Francis admitted are shortfalls.

"We are working as best we can, but there are people within the Church who don't see it clearly," Francis said.

Francis has enacted a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, enforcing the mandatory reporting of abuse to authorities and making sexual abuse a criminal offence at the Vatican.

Only three cardinals have been officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church for sexual abuse.

In 1995, Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër stepped down as Archbishop of Vienna following numerous reports of sexual abuse but never underwent a canonical trial.

Benedict prohibited Cardinal Keith O'Brien from participating in the 2013 conclave due to abuse allegations; two years later, Francis stripped O'Brien of his cardinal rights.

In 2019, Francis defrocked former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after a Vatican investigation found him guilty of abusing minors and seminarians.

Ricard, who headed the archdiocese of Bordeaux between 2001 and 2019, headed the French Bishops' Conference from 2001 to 2007.

He has occupied a number of important roles at the Vatican under Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. And as well as his role in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, he was appointed by Francis to the Council of Economic Affairs in 2014 and served there until 2019.

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The Lazarus Association is one expression of its continuing inventiveness. The organization is pioneering a new approach to homelessness that has transformed the lives of hundreds of people, won papal approval, and spread across Europe.

It began in 2006, when two young Frenchmen — Étienne Villemain and Martin Choutet — felt called to help the homeless in Paris.

"They both had the desire to establish a genuine bond with others ‘on an equal footing,' to live poverty with simplicity and to live out this ‘mission' prayerfully," Sibylle de Malet, the association's international manager, told The Pillar.

A Catholic parish lent the two men an apartment, and they moved in with four men with precarious housing situations: Yves, Karim, Rabah, and Valery.

The arrangement was unsurprisingly challenging at times. One day, Étienne Villemain — who would later inspire Pope Francis to establish the World Day of the Poor — returned from work to find Karim brandishing a gun. He knew that Karim came from a violent background: as a youngster, he witnessed his father strangling his two-year-old sister and then taking his own life. He had grown up in shelters and struggled to express his feelings.

Karim soon reassured Villemain that the gun was plastic. "But I have a question for you," he said, "who pays you to live with me?"

"Karim didn't know friendship, this free and loving relation with others, which was the source of his human reconstruction," commented Malet. "That's how our adventure started."

The transformation of Fred

Out of that experiment was born the idea of an organization that would bring together homeless people and young professionals to live under one roof.

The Lazarus Association was formally established in France in 2011. Some 250 people are currently living in its shared apartments in 16 cities in France, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, and Mexico.

Each home is single-sex and accommodates between six and 10 people, known in French as "colocs" (housemates).

"Half of our residents have been homeless or experienced socio-economic insecurity, and the other half are young working adults who volunteer with the organization," Malet explained.

"Everyone has their own bedroom and a stable standard of shared living where privacy and freedom of choice are respected. The living room, kitchen, and bathroom are shared. We treat all our housemates equally - housework is divided fairly, and everyone pays the same affordable rent."

In purely statistical terms, shared homes are remarkably successful:

• 85% of homeless people go on to find a permanent place to live;
• 46% find employment or training; and 9
• 5% say they are either happy or very happy living with young professionals.

Malet cites the example of a man named Fred who was homeless for five years. Continue reading

Then in November, the French Catholic Academy published a 15-page critique of the report.

The Academy has about 70 members.

"The most serious defects of the CIASE report, in addition to a faulty and contradictory methodology and serious deficiencies in the theological, philosophical and legal fields, concern its recommendations," the Academy claimed.

The Academy's analysis led to a December 9 meeting between Pope Francis and CIASE being cancelled.

Sauvé has now rebutted the Academy's charges in a 50-page response.

"The Catholic Academy was not trying to have a debate and contribute to the truth, but rather to engage in a trial against the accused and in a smear campaign," he said.

"At the end of the careful examination of the analysis ... nothing remains of the very serious criticisms ...".

Offering a nuanced assessment of the figures it presented, the CIASE report said an estimated 216,000 children were abused by priests, deacons, monks, and nuns from 1950 to 2020.

When abuse by other Church workers was included, the report said "the estimated number of child victims rises to 330,000 for the whole of the period".

We cannot ensure "there is no significant bias affecting these estimates," the report explained. Furthermore, "we cannot affirm that the estimates produced are far from the true values".

It said, "as a matter of principle, all statistics derived from a survey are subject to errors ... and all reasoning about quality is done ‘on average' ... there is never a total guarantee, because there is always an error due to sampling and non-response and, at most, it can be said that the estimate is '(very) probably' close to reality".

He said he had called upon expert advisors to confirm the validity of the Independent Commission's working method and results.

"The chosen method is used by all polling institutes and our researchers took precautions to reduce bias," he said.

"Our results are comparable to those of probability surveys conducted on very similar subjects over the last ten years.

"The main risk is that of underestimating the number of victims".

The report identified negligence and institutional failures - these are systemic elements common to any institution that welcomes minors, while some are specific to the Catholic Church.

Sauvé noted the Academy does not accept that the Church has entrusted the subject of pedocriminality in its midst to persons other than clerics.

For the Academy, reparation can be decided only by a court.

This is exactly the opposite of what all the episcopal conferences in the world have decided in terms of reparation for the consequences of abuse.

"The Academy is going against the very clear teachings of the pope himself on priesthood, clericalism, reparation and being self-referential. This is shameful for people who thought they had to denounce us to him."

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• La Croix
• Image: Dierso.com

In the flood of information and disturbing statistics published earlier this month by France's Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE), too little attention has been paid to an important detail in the commission's report - an estimated 115,000 minors and vulnerable adults were sexually abused by laypeople in a church setting over the past 70 years.

They are a significant portion of the 330,000 victims abused (216,000 others by priests) between 1950-2020.

Abuse by laypeople is something CIASE has not particularly dealt with, except for a few elements that once again underline the gravity of the situation.

The report already makes it possible to define these profiles of lay abusers who, in fact, cannot claim the status of priest or religious, but exercise ecclesial missions.

They are catechists and teachers in Catholic schools. They are also leaders of chaplaincies, choirs, youth movements or scout troops and so forth.

"From these data, the first result shows that, contrary to popular belief, sexual violence in the Church is not the prerogative of only clerics, men and women religious, but lay people are, for their part, at the origin of 34.6% of assaults, or more than a third," notes the CIASE report, also known as the Sauvé Report.

"As soon as adults are in contact with minors, there is a risk, in the Catholic Church as elsewhere, of abuse of power, authority or trust leading to sexual assault," the report insists.

"It is also likely that, over time, especially with the reduction in the number of clerics and religious and the rise in responsibility for the laity, the proportion of victims of lay people in the Catholic Church will increase," it notes.

Little documentation of abuse by lay people
Since the statistical study did not include laity, there is little evidence to establish data over time.

Moreover, the strength of the Sauvé Report lies in the emphasis on the testimony of victims.

However, "only" 75 of the more than 2,000 testimonies revealed abuse committed by lay people in the church setting.

Finally, the socio-historical investigation focused on diocesan archives, which contain few documents on abuse committed by laypeople.

La Croix was confronted with this lack of information when it contacted Catholic youth centres.

While the Sauvé Report notes that 30% of abuse in the Church occurred in the context of schools or boarding schools, the general secretariat of Catholic education admits that it cannot distinguish between those committed by priests, teachers or chaplains, and those committed by laypeople.

A strong prevalence from the 1940s to 1960s

It is also known that the highest incidence of sexual violence by priests against minors in Catholic education occurred between 1940 and 1960.

The report goes on to note "a decrease in the number of sexual assaults by clergy and religious in Catholic education, due to the rapid withdrawal of clergy from these institutions".

For several years, the Sauvé Report stresses:

"there has been a general phenomenon of professionalization for professions related to childhood: catechism is now provided by laypeople (essentially women); teaching under contract in Catholic schools is controlled by the national education system; the supervision of group camps for minors (summer camps, scouting, leisure centres without accommodation) is also controlled by the State and has become professionalized via a diploma requiring training, even if it remains partly voluntary".

There are many aspects that allow for better prevention of abuse of any kind.

"In this figure of 115,000, we feel potentially involved"

One of CIASE's recommendations is that laypeople involved in Church work be given better training. It also insists on the obligation to "systematically check the criminal background of any person that the Church appoints or assigns in a habitual way with minors or vulnerable people".

During a hearing in the French senate on March 26, 2019, the leaders of the main scouting movements explained that this verification takes place in a systematic way via a teleprocedure for welcoming minors.

Nevertheless, "in this figure of 115,000, we feel potentially involved," acknowledged Armelle Toulemonde, head of the Aux Aguets commission for the Unitary Scouts of France (SUF), which intends to fight against sexual abuse within its ranks.

But, she said she is aware of only a very small number of abuse cases.

"I am frightened about the number of people who do not speak out," she admitted.

"I know of five cases, two of which were in the 1990s," Toulemonde said.

"Yet when we created Aux Aguets, we wanted to give victims a voice. We put out a call for witnesses in the press, but we got no response," she noted.

"Before the CIASE report came out, we wrote to the group leaders to invite them, if they ever received any reports, to refer people to our commission," the scouting official said.

Olivier Savignac, who was abused by a priest during his time as a scout, said it is not surprising that victims do not turn first to the movement in which they were abused.

"The first instinct is to seek help outside," said Savignac, who is now involved in the victims' group "Parler et Revivre".

"In a movement, everyone knows each other, and there may be fear of a conflict of loyalty between the person receiving the confidence and the abuser," he said.

Structures made aware of this evil that is eating away at society as a whole

This violence is not, however, a blind spot, as the various educational and support structures for young people have, for the most part, been made aware of this evil that is eating away at society as a whole.

Agnès Cerbelaud-Salagnac, spokesperson for the Scouts and Guides of France, said her organization receives "two to three calls a year" from people who wish to report old incidents.

"We take the time to listen to the person and we put him or her in contact with our legal service to see what can be done, if he or she can lodge a complaint," she said.

"When a case breaks out, it gets publicized so that other potential victims can bring attention to their situation," Cerbelaud-Salagnac pointed out.

But Savignac deplored the "protective reflex on the part of the institutions, which do not want to bring the dead bodies out of the closet, and prefer to remain within their own walls".

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that "these acts are today more rare, since safeguards have been put in place and people speak about it more freely".

In fact, when a case is brought to court, the various scouting movements now take action alongside the victim.

• Christophe Henning and Clémence Houdaille write for La Croix in France.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

Instead, I started crying.

I don't cry easily. And these were not tears borne of sadness but of frustration.

On Tuesday morning, an independent commission reported that priests and church workers in France have abused over 330,000 children over the past seven decades. As usual, the church too often turned a blind eye to the molestation.

I am 21 years old. None of my conscious life has occurred during a time when the church was not known for its history of sexual abuse.

But I remained, attending a Catholic high school and joining the undergraduate leadership of Yale's Catholic chapel.

I believe wholeheartedly in the good intentions of the church and its ability to be a force for good across the world.

Or rather, I believe a version of that.

Most of what we know about the abuse crisis comes from news articles—not conversations among congregants at the local level.

I have attended many parishes over the years, and only one has bothered to repeatedly name the victims of sexual abuse during the Prayers of the Faithful.

And though I believe that is a start, even those weekly mentions have begun to ring hollow.

While the phrase "sex abuse" was jarring the first time I heard it in an otherwise quiet church, over time it has become one of many rocks in the river: For Pope Francis. For our armed forces and first responders. For the victims of the sex abuse crisis. For the sick. For the dead.

For the victims of the sex abuse crisis," we pray. No, for the victims of the church, for that is what they are.

It has been said that if you say a word aloud to yourself enough, it will lose all meaning.

You would think that "sex abuse" could not become commonplace, but in our petitions, it has—until something like France happens. Because that's the thing: It always happens again.

A few days ago I asked on Twitter: "When you think of the Catholic Church, what comes to mind? Comment or DM me honest answers—good, bad, and everything in between."

Answers ran the gamut.

"Beautiful icons, painted glass windows," wrote one respondent. "Sexual abuse, especially of minors. (Sorry, you did say be honest)," wrote another. "Immorality! Sex Exploitation. Pretence," wrote a third.

I had asked this question before Tuesday's revelations, and I remember feeling vaguely sad that the church I have devoted so much mental, physical and spiritual energy to was known to the public primarily for art and abuse.

But now, as I reread responses, with fresh knowledge of the French cases pounding within my mind, I feel more than vague sadness; I feel a deep, bitter frustration.

Somewhere between my Twitter poll and Tuesday's revelations, I read an article by Ryan Burge on Religion Unplugged that quantified the birth rates in the United States of different faith traditions, in addition to the average ages of those faith traditions.

The average Catholic is 52 years old, just one year younger than the average Protestant, who had the oldest mean age of all of the faiths.

And later, a starker reality: "Christianity is ageing, younger generations are having fewer children, and without a great influx of new members, thousands of churches will close over the next few decades."

That is bad news for Catholics, which as of 2018 had one convert for every 6.5 people to leave the church. Continue reading

• Valerie Pavilonis is a senior at Yale University, studying English. Previously, she was an editor at the Yale Daily News.

The numbers were released, Sunday by Jean-Marc Sauvé, the head of an independent commission examining church sex abuse.

The commission has been investigating for 2 1/2 years.

22 cases of alleged crimes have been forwarded to prosecutors and more than 40 cases have been forwarded to Church officials because the alleged offences are too old to prosecute.

"From 1950 to 1970, the church is completely indifferent to the victims: They don't exist, the suffering inflicted on children is ignored," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "The periods that followed were different," said Sauvé.

He did not give a figure on the number of victims, however, the number will be released on Tuesday when the 2,500-page report is made public.

The independent commission was established in 2018 by the Catholic Church in France.

Its formation also came after Pope Francis passed a landmark measure obliging those who know about sex abuse in the Catholic Church to report it to their superiors.

The commission comprises 22 legal professionals, doctors, historians, sociologists and theologians.

It is financed by the French Catholic Bishops conference but members are not paid. They do not receive instructions from the Church.

In March 2021, CNN reports the commission estimated clergy could have abused 10,000 minors and other vulnerable people since 1950.

In March, the Vatican's Archbishop Charles Scicluna, top investigator of sex abuse, told CNN new Church rules added a layer of accountability for church leaders.

"First of all that leadership is not above the law," Scicluna said, "and second that leadership needs to know, all of us in leadership we need to know, that if the people love the Church they're going to denounce us when we do something wrong."

Sources

• France24
• APNews
• CNN