The archbishop of Lyon, the most senior French cleric caught up in the global paedophilia scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church, was convicted of failing to report abuse and handed a six-month suspended jail term on Thursday.
The suspended nature of the jail term means he will not serve time behind bars and Barbarin’s lawyer announced immediately that he would appeal the judgement. He was on trial along with five former aides at a time when the Catholic Church had been hit by abuse scandals in countries as far afield as Australia, Brazil, Chile and the United States.
“I cannot see what I am guilty of,” Barbarin had told the court on January 7. “I never tried to hide, let alone cover up these horrible facts.” But during the trial, victims accused Barbarin of being aware of the abuse allegations from at least 2010 and then trying to cover up the scandal, under orders from the Vatican, from 2015.
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