4 years later, a difficult substantive work

It is an irreversible but long and … laborious process. Stopped in February 2019 with the creation of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE), the reform work launched by the Conference of Bishops of France is advancing outfits.

Even though the scandal of violence in Catholic internships is just beginning – that of Betharram is only about fifteen kilometers from Lourdes, where their plenary assembly has been taking place since Monday, an investigation of France Inter, Published Friday March 28, 2025, evoked the mismanagement of victims complaints by 17 bishops. Awkwardness, inertia … The breaches pinned by the investigation service of public radio stretch over more than ten years, demonstrating a very unequal awareness according to the dioceses.

On the ground, however, the reform process is indeed engaged, as illustrated by the dissemination, on March 31, 2025, of a report on the implementation of the decisions voted in the plenary assembly of March 2023. In front of nearly 400 officials, including the bishops, the three rapporteurs, Sister Marie-Laure Dénès, father Roger Hébert and a secular, Dominique Rouyer, underlined the advances, points of vigilance.

Control, training and follow -up

Among these: the loneliness of the episcopal exercise. To remedy this, evaluation visits to the practice of bishops, by third parties designated for this purpose (lay, consecrated or bishops), have been set up. In early January 2025, 11 bishops were met and seven will be in the year. A new exercise and, for many of them, stimulating: the bishop of Limoges, for example, when he was not obliged, gave echoes to his collaborators.

As for the bishops who have just been appointed, two annual training sessions have been set up. The monitoring of priests by their bishop must also gain in proximity, and greater diversity among the members of the diocesan councils is encouraged.

In the end, it is a question of installing another culture of exchange, information sharing and discernment at all levels. To this end, the project of a “synodal assembly” of the bishops with laity was announced for November 2026. An appointment that will return every three years.