A French Roman Catholic priest has admitted sexually assaulting a minor and sees his arrest as a "deliverance" after years of private torment, his lawyer said Friday.Father Jacques Gaimard, director of a Christian radio station in the northern region of Upper Normandy, was charged on Wednesday with sexual assaults on a minor in 1992 and 1993 and released on bail.
"He is everything but a pedophile," lawyer Pierre Houppe said of Gaimard, whose arrest was announced by the archbishop of Rouen.
"He is a brilliant man, with a direct gaze and honest handshake."
The priest has been "in repentance for a long time" and, when he was finally charged this week, "he considered this a form of deliverance," he added.
In a related case, a parish priest, Father Philippe Richir, was interviewed under caution on suspicion of possessing child pornography, the Rouen state prosecutor's office said.
Both men have been suspended pending the results of investigations by French police and by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the body formerly known as the Inquisition.
Gaimard's lawyer said his client had personally informed the archbishop of the allegations before he was arrested on Monday.
Child-abuse scandals involving Roman Catholic priests have engulfed the church of Europe and the United States, drawing in the Vatican for harsh criticism over its handling of the affairs.
The leader of Germany's Roman Catholic bishops, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, said in a special message to mark Good Friday that the day must "mark a new departure which we so badly need."
The abuse cases fill the hearts of Catholics with "pain, fear, and shame," he said.
Meanwhile, an abuse hotline set up by the Roman Catholic Church in Germany crashed on its first day as more than 4,000 alleged victims of pedophile and violent priests called in to seek counselling and advice.
The numbers were far more than the handful of therapists assigned to deal with them could cope with. Only 162 out of 4,459 callers were given advice before the system was closed.
Andreas Zimmer, the head of the project in the Bishopric of Trier, said he was not prepared for "that kind of an onslaught." The hotline is the church's attempt to win back trust in the face of an escalating abuse scandal that threatens the papacy of German-born Pontiff Benedict XVI.
On the same day the hotline opened, allegations emerged of serial abuse perpetrated against children by Bishop Walter Mixa, an ally and friend of the Pope, when he was overseeing a Catholic children's' home in the 1970s.
The leader of Germany's Catholic bishops said in a Good Friday message that he hoped Christianity's most solemn day would mark a "new start."
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch said the time when Christians commemorated the crucifixion of Christ must "mark a new departure which we so badly need."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: EJ