CNA Newsroom, Dec 12, 2022 / 07:20 am
This month, the French Bishops’ Conference (CEF) established a new legal structure to deal with crimes and offenses committed by clerics and laity within the Church, including sexual abuse of adults.
It is considered a world first: To date, no other bishops’ conference has implemented any national structure of this magnitude.
The tribunal “pénal canonique” national — “national canonical criminal court,” TPCN — is to some degree the result of findings by the French Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (CIASE).
In its October 2021 report, the commission demanded such a tribunal. The French bishops had already announced the creation of such a structure during their March 2021 plenary assembly.