“35 years ago, when I was a priest, I behaved reprehensibly towards a 14-year-old girl,” Rickard said in a statement.
The cardinal’s announcement comes after a report revealed a high number of child sexual abuse cases in the French Catholic Church.
“My conduct caused serious and lasting damage to that person,” he said.
Ricard, 78, was the archbishop of Bordeaux in southwestern France, serving in his home diocese of Dignes-les-Bains (south) until his retirement in 2019. In the 1980s, he was a priest in the Archdiocese of Marseille.
Cardinal said he spoke with the victim and apologized, but did not say when.
In a speech released today, Rickard said he apologized to all those who hurt him.
Rickard, however, stressed that he was “no longer silent [sua] Circumstance”, showing willingness to cooperate with French judicial and ecclesiastical authorities.
11 bishops or former bishops have been indicted by French civil justice or church justice for sexual abuse, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the Council of French Bishops (CEF), announced today at a press conference in the southwestern French city of Lourdes. An important Catholic pilgrimage site.
CEF’s 120 members are gathering in Lourdes from Thursday for their autumn plenary session.
Among other things, it aims to develop “concrete proposals” to improve the communication and transparency of legal actions taken against clergy involved in sexual abuse cases.