More Commentary from French Catholics about Abuse Story in French Church: "What we are discovering today – with horror – is a twisted system"

Notre Dame cathedral, Paris, photo by Tom S., Wikimedia Commons

As a follow-up to my two previous postings (here and here) about the shocking revelations now breaking in the French Catholic church, indicating that at least 11 bishops, some retired and some still presiding over dioceses, have been credibly accused of having molested minors, and that a French cardinal admits having abused a 14-year-old girl when he was a parish priest, more reactions from French Catholics:

Arnaud Bevilaqua "Bishops and sex abuse: who knew what and when did they know it?": 

Why did it take so long for this [i.e., the abuse committed by Cardinal Ricard] to come out? Archbishop de Moulins-Beaufort said it was because time was needed to contact the victim and convince her to give sufficiently reliable information to establish the report. The CEF president said he also contacted Cardinal Ricard last February on this point. "It is not under the pressure of the Santier case nor because there has been a report, but because he has taken an internal step," he added.

In the meantime, Cardinal Ricard went to Rome at the end of August to participate in the consistory and two days of meeting for all the Church's cardinals. He also attended two special events that the French community the Eternal City held to honor the newly created Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline – a Mass at the French national church and a reception at the French Embassy to the Holy See.

Isabelle de Gaulmyn, "Sexual violence in the Church: the tremendous anger":

What we are discovering today – with horror – is a twisted system. And it's at the highest level of the Church's hierarchy. First of all, it's twisted for the perpetrators. Because men who have studied theology and law for many years have been shown to be capable of the worst. And then they accepted the responsibility of being named a bishop with no hesitation. ... Who can continue to "believe in the Church", as we repeat in the Creed each Sunday? The house seems to be damaged to its very foundations.