death of Father Preynat, convicted of assault on minors

Bernard Preynat was found lifeless at his home after his release under an electronic bracelet. He was serving a 5-year prison sentence.

Former priest Bernard Preynat, 79, sentenced in 2020 to five years in prison for sexual assault on minors which tainted the hierarchy of the diocese of Lyon, was found dead on Sunday in Saint-Etienne, the prosecution said.

Bernard Preynat, released on an electronic bracelet “for several weeks”, was found lifeless in his bathroomspecified a duty magistrate, confirming information from BFM Lyon.

An investigation into the causes of death was opened “even if there is nothing suspicious on his body which will be examined by a forensic doctor within a few days”, according to this source.

In March 2020, Bernard Preynat was sentenced to five years in prison for countless sexual assaults committed between 1971 and 1991 on scouts aged 7 to 15 while he was chaplain of Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon (Rhone).

Between 3000 and 4000 assaults

During his trial, prosecutor Dominique Sauves accused him of having “broken” lives and of having “used the silence of parents and the silence of the Church” to multiply his abuses. One of the lawyers for the civil parties had estimated the number of attacks between 3000 and 4000.

Maintained in office by the diocese of Lyon until the fall of 2015 even though his actions had been known for a long time, Father Preynat asked for forgiveness from the nine victims who came to testify to their suffering. Many others were unable to file a complaint due to the statute of limitations.

He was defrocked in 2019 following his canonical trial, a very late decision in the eyes of the victims, a symbol of the Church’s unease in the face of this affair which sealed the fate of the Primate of the Gauls, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin.

Convicted in 2019 for his silence on these acts, following a resounding trial, the former archbishop of Lyon was acquitted on appeal. However, he preferred to resign from the diocese and is today chaplain in Brittany.

The fight of Father Preynat’s victims’ association, La Parole Libéré, inspired the (powerful) film Thanks to God by François Ozon released in 2019.

In an October 2021 report, the Sauvé commission on sexual violence in the Catholic Church estimated 330,000 the number of people who have been subject to sexual violence since 1950, when they were minors, from clerics, religious or people linked to the Church. (sda/ats/afp/please)

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