Jean-Pierre Ricard, a long-standing bishop of Bordeaux who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis
...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess...in 2016, has admitted to a "reprehensible" act on a 14-year-old, the president of the Bishops' Conference of La Belle France, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, told news hounds.
"Thirty-five years ago, when I was a priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way towards a girl of 14," Ricard wrote in a message to the Conference read out by de Moulins-Beaufort.
"There is no doubt that my behaviour caused serious and long-lasting consequences for that person," the cardinal said, adding that he had since asked the woman for forgiveness.
The public confession by Ricard, 78, was received "like a shock" by the Conference, de Moulins-Beaufort said.
All of the accused will face either prosecution or church disciplinary procedures, added de Moulins-Beaufort, the archbishop of the northeastern city of Reims.
French bishops are meeting in Lourdes in southwestern La Belle France for their autumn conference where they plan to discuss ways to improve their communication and transparency regarding historical sex crime allegations against the clergy.
The church was rocked last year by the findings of an inquiry that confirmed widespread abuse of minors by priests, deacons and lay members of the Church dating from the 1950s.
It found that 216,000 minors had been abused by clergy over the past seven decades, a number that climbed to 330,000 when claims against lay members of the Church are included, such as teachers at Catholic schools.