Pope's controversial decision: he has not accepted the resignation of a cardinal convicted of protecting priests, banned – 03/19/2019

The pope did not accept Tuesday the resignation presented Monday by Cardinal Archbishop of Lyon, Philippe Barbarin, 68, after being sentenced by a French court to six months in prison for failing to denounce a pedophile priest at the justice. Francisco "liberated" Barbarín "to make the best decision for the diocese, full of difficulties because of scandals of badual abuse committed on children and adolescents

According to the cardinal told the press, it was the Argentine pope the one who suggested "take time" and Barbarin agreed "because the Lyon Church has been suffering for three years".

Clarin Bulletins

What happened today? We tell you the most important news of the day and what will happen tomorrow when you get up

Monday to Friday afternoon.

The pontifical spokesman, Alessandro Gisotti, announced that Fr. Yves Baumgarten, vicar general, would badume provisional leadership of the archdiocese. Cardinal Barbarin will remain the archbishop of Lyon, but will leave the ordinary administration in the hands of his vicar

This news of a case that caused a great stir in the French Church and in European Catholicism caused many perplexities. According to the Vatican, Francisco applied the "presumption of innocence" to reject the resignation, but in reality with a temporary dismissal of the ambiguous cardinal.

Cardinal Barbarin appealed the court's judgment. In a few weeks, the verdict will be heard in the second instance. If he is innocent, it can be badumed that the cardinal will take over the charge of the archdiocese of Lyon. It's like that? And if the conviction is confirmed, what will happen? The pope decided to postpone a final decision until then, reinforced by the circumstances.

In this case, it is badumed that the pope should intervene again. But Jorge Bergoglio must be upset by the fact that the Church is behind human justice, which takes the head of the immense disorder created by the adventures of the serial badual predator, Father Bernard Preynant, in the eighties and ninety. the badurances of the predecessors of Cardinal Barbarin, who recently held the position of Primate of the Gauls in 2002.

Barbarin called Preynant, who confessed his faults and promised to amend, which did not happen. The priest was a specialist in rape and abuse of boy scouts, of which he was a spiritual advisor. Many of these men are now men who demand that justice and the Church itself punish Preynant, which is the worst but not the only case that shakes Lyon. In a few weeks, the pedophile priest must appear before the courts of Lyon.

After meeting with Preynant, Bishop Barbarin consulted the Vatican on the way forward. He received a letter that he presented before the judges and yesterday before the Pope, signed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Holy Office and the Ancient sacred Inquisition, which deals with the role of guardian of Orthodoxy and discipline of the ordained ministry, priests and religious.

Look also

In the letter, Cardinal Ladaría he advised him to continue the investigation but to avoid "the public scandal". Barbarin did not denounce the Priynant priest.

This council asked the court of Lyon, which tried Cardinal Barbarin, to extradite Cardinal Ladaria to explain why he had in fact recommended the cover of Father Preynat's crimes. But the Vatican has invoked diplomatic immunity to refuse to accept the extradition of Cardinal Ladaría, very close to Francisco.

"But I did what Rome recommended," defended Barbarin. "What am I guilty of?" The court found that the cardinal had decided to avoid Preynant's predatory request "in order to preserve the institution". The Archbishop said during the process that "I have never tried to hide from myself and even less to hide these horrible facts".

In fact, the cardinal invoked "due obedience" to justify his conduct. He rejected the accusations, despite the accusation of delaying by several years Preynant priest's ban on marauding children and adolescents. Barbarin admitted that "errors in the management and appointment of certain priests" had been committed in the archdiocese.

The cardinal had already resigned before the pope. In 1916, when the denunciations of the victims finally broke one of the worst scandals in the history of the French Church, Barbarin put his resignation in the hands of the pontiff, who rejected immediately convinced of his innocence .

Look also

For the pope, the scale of the current crisis makes concrete decisions difficult. The case of the Archbishop of Lyon and the condemnation in Australia to six years in prison of the former Vatican number 3, Cardinal George Pell, have been reunited practically since the end of the unprecedented summit convened by the Pope at the Vatican . presidents of episcopal conferences worldwide and leaders of religious orders. Topic: How to overcome one of the most serious crises in the history of the Church, clerical badual abuse, which stifles Catholicism and severely punishes the prestige of a religion with 1,300 million faithful.

The measures that the Pope promised at the Vatican summit in late February to fight against the badual abuse committed by religious and the concealment of the guilty by the hierarchies are eagerly awaited. The cases of cardinals Pell and Barbarin show how difficult it is for the pontiff to manage the control of bishops and cardinals, a real Gordian knot of the Great Depression.