Criminal proceedings for sexual assault against the former archbishop of Auch, Maurice Gardès, have been dismissed, the prosecution said Thursday, April 27, the Catholic Church explaining for its part that the prelate always does subject to sanctions and canonical investigation.
After a report from the diocese of Lyon on December 1, 2020, the Auch prosecutor "immediately" opened a criminal investigation and heard from a nun accusing Maurice Gardès of "sexual assault and attempted rape between the end of 2007 and 2009", writes the prosecution in a press release. "Assuming them proven, the facts of sexual assault, of a criminal nature, were affected by the prescription", he specifies, adding that "the investigation did not make it possible to establish (…) the facts of reported attempted rape, of a criminal nature". The procedure was therefore dismissed on April 15, 2022, writes the prosecution again.
For their part, the archbishops of Lyon, Auch and Toulouse reported on Thursday, in a joint press release, sanctions taken by the Vatican from 2021 and prohibiting Maurice Gardès from exercising any "public ministry" or returning to the diocese. of Auch. These sanctions also include the obligation to "lead a life of prayer and penance" and to "submit to psychotherapy", they specify.
In addition, a canonical procedure against the former archbishop of Auch, who lives in Lyon, his diocese of origin, is also underway, the three archbishops further affirm.
In February, the justice had dismissed, due to prescription of the facts, an investigation for "aggravated sexual assault" targeting Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, who had admitted "reprehensible" behavior with a teenager. Jean-Pierre Ricard's confession was made in November 2022, the day after the French episcopate announced that eleven bishops or former bishops had had to deal with civil justice or Church justice for "abuses" sex or their "non-disclosure".
Revelations made official a little over a year after the publication of the Sauvé report which estimates that around 330,000 the number of victims of priests, deacons, religious or people linked to the Church of France since 1950.
