Mister, Archbishop and Primate of Gaul,
La Libre Pensée du Rhône, in collaboration with the Fédération Nationale de la Libre Pensée, is organising a conference to be held on 11th October 2025 at the Palais de la Mutualité in Lyon. It will take place at the end of the 9th Congress of the International Association of Freethought on 10 and 11 October in Grenoble. The central theme of this congress will be the issue of reparations for victims of crimes committed within or around the Church, on an international scale. Several victims’ associations will be present.
The IAFT proposes to ‘continue the campaign at all levels to ensure that justice is amplified. The reparations owed to victims are too few and too small where they have begun to be paid, and scandalously absent in many cases and places.’
International legal and institutional reflection is necessary to ensure that the statute of limitations does not excessively protect criminals from human justice, which in our view is the only justice known to the Republic.
The so-called ‘Barbarin affair’ is emblematic of the problems posed, but it is not the only one. We do not need to remind you of the outrage caused among Catholics and beyond by the actions of priests who abused their supposed moral authority. These heinous acts too often appeared to be protected by the institution.
You are familiar with the Sauvé report, and you have too many witnesses and informants, even in the confessionals, to be unaware of this tidal wave of outrage.
However, we do not wish to make a rash judgement on the events that have shaken the Church and society over the last quarter of a century.
Our goal is to understand and to help provide redress to the victims. Mr Philippe Barbarin himself has opened up in a book entitled ‘En mon âme et conscience’ (In my soul and conscience). And as we respect all points of view and freedom of conscience, guaranteed by the 1905 law and as such linked to our history, we invite you, as Archbishop of Lyon and Primate of Gaul, to make your point of view, that of the ecclesiastical institution, heard. We therefore offer you a platform to speak at this conference on 11th October.
This approach is unusual, but after all, we would simply be reviving an old tradition of debates between priests and free thinkers. We intend for this to be done in complete frankness, even if our positions are radical.
Please accept, Mister, the assurance of our respect for all points of view.
For the Rhone federation of Libre Pensée,
P. Girod
