by Norman Barry

The Primate of all the Gauls, 68 year old Cardinal Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyons since 2002, offered his resignation earlier this year. It was refused by the Pope but a bishop was brought out of retirement to manage the archdiocese.

This was prompted by the case of one of his priests, Bernard Preynat, who not only confessed to interfering with boy scouts while he was their chaplain but also declared he had made known his behaviour to the Church authorities. One of his victims had written to the Pope and the Archbishop when he discovered Preynat was still ministering to children. Barbarin received a suspended six month prison sentence for not dealing effectively with Preynat.