“There is a real crisis and the losers are the Catholics,” laments theologian Anne Soupa

According to theologian Anne Soupa, “the system is obsolete” and “only creates a void inside the Church.”

“There is a real crisis and the losers are Catholics and all of society,” deplores theologian Anne Soupa, on franceinfo, Sunday November 10, after the postponement of announcements on support for adult victims of sexual violence in the Church, by the Conference of Bishops of France, “at the end of March, beginning of April”. “The process is getting bogged down”affirms the one who co-signed, at the end of 2021, a call for the resignation of the bishops after the submission of the Sauvé report. “With the bishops, the problem is not what they say, the problem is what they do not say, it is the silence they maintain on many subjects”she asserts.

Anne Soupa denounces “desire to remain between the clerical actors and not to sufficiently involve the laity in the reform process”, and “system called into question by Ciase report” (Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church) in 2021. The theologian explains that the “reform work has still not been undertaken”while “the system is obsolete” et “only creates a void inside the Church.” According to her, “the current institution fails to ensure the good of the faithful and the proclamation of the gospel”. She affirms, moreover, that the bishops “have brought to a standstill all the working groups that had been decided after the Ciase report”.

Regarding the revelations of sexual assault targeting Abbé Pierre, Anne Soupa affirms that it is “obvious” that the bishops “did not do everything they could to limit Abbé Pierre’s influence over women in particular.” “The archives were opened, but the archives stop in the 1970s, after which the file is empty, so we can ask questions”, she emphasizes.

The theologian “notes that the churches are emptying, that the ranks of the faithful are thinning.” “Unfortunately the image that the Church gives today is a negative image of actors who are not moving forward in a clear and direct process of reform”while “the situation is critical”she adds.