A retired French cardinal admitted Monday to abusing a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago.
In a Nov. 7 statement, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard announced that he was withdrawing from his functions and would cooperate with both secular and ecclesiastical justice systems.
Ricard was president of the French bishops’ conference from 2001 to 2007 and is a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which oversees abuse investigations, according to his Vatican biography.
The 78-year-old cardinal served as Archbishop of Bordeaux, southwestern France, from 2001 to 2019, when he stepped down at the age of 75.
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