Catholic priests in France will soon be obliged to wear traffic-light-coded identity tags, which will allow the public to verify if they have ever been accused of sexual assault. Depending on whether the priest has lost their priestly rank, the cards’ QR codes, which smartphones can read, will either flash a red, orange, or green light.
The Bishop’s Conference of France introduced the program on Wednesday with the dual goals of making it simpler to identify priests authorized to conduct confessions, lead masses, and protect worshipers from sexual abuse. The news in November that 11 former serving French bishops had been accused of abusing children or had refused to report incidents have brought the issue of abuse into stark focus.
Identification Tags for the Public to Check Sexual Abuse Charges
According to the article in Daily Mail, the general public will see a red, amber, or green light after scanning one of the new cards. A priest who has been defrocked and is unable to carry out priestly responsibilities is indicated by a red light. Every year, or promptly in cases of major wrongdoing, the database will be updated. A green light indicates that a priest is authorized to perform the full range of sacraments. In contrast, an orange light indicates that a priest has limited authority due to training or restrictions.
The method is meant to enhance the French Catholic Church’s current paper documentation used in ongoing attempts to combat sex abuse within its ranks. Within the French Catholic Church, allegations of sexual abuse or cover-up against 11 bishops surfaced in November 2022. The former archbishop of Bordeaux, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, was one of those who would either face criminal or canonical charges.
In the article shared in NY Breaking, the ID system was implemented in response to a thorough independent investigation released in October 2021. The report, which was the result of a two-and-a-half-year inquiry, uncovered a long history of abuse within the church, with an estimate of 330,000 victims over a span of 70 years.
In reaction to the catastrophic conclusions of the Sauvé Report, named after its principal investigator, the Bishops authorized the Celebrets ID card program in November 2021. There will be distributed About 17,000 of these identification cards.
But only some people are sold on the initiative. Co-founder of the organization that amplifies the voices of victims, Parler et revivre, Olivier Savignac, expressed doubt. He called into question if people in charge of religious rites in France’s aging Catholic Church have the technological know-how and instruction required to operate the QR code system. “You have to flash a QR code – it’s quite technical,” Savignac said, implying that older priests would find it challenging.
Also Read:Pope Francis Takes Bold Step to Combat Sexual Abuse, Extends Church Law to Include Lay Leaders
The church has Fallen Much Lower
Abuse survivor organizations have denounced the French Catholic Church’s decision to issue digital ID cards to its clergy as little more than a publicity stunt. According to the article in Telegraph, it was ranked as one of the church’s top three most absurd notions by François Devaux, a former leader of the organization La Parole Libérée, which advocates for victims of Church abuse. He said that the church’s use of QR codes to reassure Catholics represents a new low and a breakdown in the relationship of trust between the faithful and the church’s authority.
The French Catholic Church started talking about ID cards in 2021 after a study showed that since 1950, the clergy had abused 216,000 minors, primarily boys. There were 45 recommendations in the report to stop sexual abuse, but none of them mentioned digital IDs. A victim reparations program has been put into place; so far, 201 victims have received compensation, and more than 1,180 other people have come forward to make claims.
Related Article: Sexual Abuse of Clerics: Do Church Leaders Get Punish By Law?