This May 24, in Lourdes, in the monastery of the priestly brotherhood of Saint-PieX, an action was carried out to condemn the presence of Abbot Groche. This man who admitted to sexually abusing children in Gabon in the 80s and 90s and was never tried.
“Abbé Groche raped children in Gabon. He lives here. Let’s demand that he be tried.” Punch action, which was carried out by the association this May 24 in Lourdes, at the door of Maison Saint-Ignace Mouv’Enfants and members collective of victims of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius (FSSPX).
“We condemn the presence of Father Patrick Groche who is hosted here by the SSPX. This man was never tried even though he admitted to raping children,” summed up Arnaud Gallais, co-founder of Mouv’Enfants, who himself was abused by a Church man in his childhood.
In front of the door of the monastery located on Chemin de l’Arrouza, protesters reconstructed a mock crime scene. Several banners were hung on the walls of the fraternity property in order to raise the awareness of the population. “FSSPX accomplice”; “What does the government do?” ; “Justice on its knees before the church.” Slogans written in black marker accompanied those chanted by the activists in revolt. One of them filed a report against the abbot, but in vain…
“We couldn’t convict him.”
Claude was 15 years old when he started catechism classes with Father Groche in Libreville, Gabon in 1986. “I quickly became an altar server. My parents were very proud because you should know that at that time the brotherhood had a great influence in Gabon. It financed the school and the luckiest ones like me were selected to come and study in Europe for the abbots were seen as benefactors Accuse them to do such things was impossible.
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Quickly, however, young Claude realized that he was not the only one who shared the intimacy imposed by the abbot. “One day, one of the young people I was with at boarding school asked how many of us would sleep with Father Groche. I don’t know the number of his victims, but I’m afraid there were a lot of them. There were 10 of us selected a year to come to Europe, so 10 places became available every year in Gabon with him.”
Claude never returned to Libreville after those events and built his life in France. It was only in 2020, a year after the establishment of the Independent Commission for Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase) led by Jean-Marc Sauvé, that he decided to denounce the facts. While Patrick Groche wrote to Claude to express his regret, the abbot was never concerned about the law.
Unidentified victims
If Ciase allowed 131 people to be recognized as victims of pedophile priests within the Catholic Church and to be compensated (figures 2023), the commission seized several reports of sexual abuse allegedly committed by members of the FSSPX faced a major obstacle from this society of traditionalist (some would say extremist) priests has been at odds with the Roman Church since 1975. The date on which it lost its canonical status.
“The Church tells us that it has no authority over the Brotherhood,” explains Claude. “This is what we are told as victims when the brotherhood still has the right to celebrate weddings, baptisms, communions… Like Abbé Groche, others have confessed to crimes, but they will never be punished because the facts are either prescribed, or they are not there. recent complaints.”
With this action, the Mouv’Enfants and the collective of victims of the FSSPX, who are advocating for the abolition of the statute of limitations for these crimes and transgressions in France, want to send a message to potential victims: “You are not alone! »
But also challenge the government, which is accused of inaction.