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Prison term for bishop
Failed to report child abuse
A French bishop was given a three-month prison sentence—which was suspended—for failing to notify police that a priest had told him he was sexually abusing children.
Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux-Lisieux was found guilty of charges that he had covered up for a priest who was earlier sentenced to 18 years in prison for the rape of a boy and abuse of 10 others between 1989 and 1996. The bishop had said he confronted Father Rene Bissey in 1997 and the priest confessed to sexually abusing children. However, instead of calling the police, Bishop Pican sent Bissey for psychiatric help and, in 1998, transferred him to another parish. The priest was arrested a few days after he arrived at his new assignment.
Since Father Bissey did not make his admission to the bishop as part of the sacrament of confession, the court decided the bishop was under a legal and moral obligation to inform police—especially since the welfare of children was at issue.
Minister admits mercy killing
Founder of feted medical group
French Health Minister Bernard Kouchner has admitted that he engaged in “mercy killing” during the time when he worked in Lebanon and Vietnam as a young man.
Kouchner told the Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland, “I practiced euthanasia several times. When people suffered too much, and I knew ahead of time they would die, I helped them. I did this in Lebanon and Vietnam.” He admitted, “Euthanasia is, in its essence, contrary to medical ethics. Doctors are there to protect life, and not to end it.” Nevertheless, he argued: “If someone indicates he wants to die, society must also take this into account; that’s what makes the debate so difficult.” In addition to his government post, Kouchner is known as founder of Doctors without Borders, the group that has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Debate over euthanasia and assisted suicide has risen throughout Europe this year after the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize the practice. After the passage of the Netherlands law, Kouchner said it was time to reopen the debate on dying. “We must rehabilitate, improve the dignity of the end of life, look at death in its face and not hide behind old techniques,” Kouchner said in a May speech, before a gathering of ethicists and medical experts in Paris.
Lutheran leader converts
Cites joint statement on justification
A high-ranking Lutheran cleric in Paris has announced his conversion to Catholicism, in what may be the first of its kind since the 16th-century Reformation.
Michel Viot was a Lutheran ecclesiastical inspector—an office that would be the equivalent of bishop in other churches. He told the Catholic newspaper La Croix that the joint declaration on justification signed by the Catholic and Lutheran churches in 1999 was the linchpin of his conversion. “In order that the world believes, it is necessary that Christians are united,” Viot said.
“I believe that I am the first pastor with the rank of bishop to make such a move,” he added. Viot said he hopes to become a priest, but must first spend time as a lay minister in a Catholic parish.
Back to Catholic World Report October 2001 Table of Contents