One of France's highest-ranking prelates of the Catholic Church has admitted to abusing a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago and says he is withdrawing from his religious duties.
Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard's admission comes after a report issued last year revealed a large number of child sex abuse cases within the French Catholic Church.
"Thirty-five years ago, when I was a priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way with a young girl aged 14," Cardinal Ricard said in a written statement.
"My behaviour has inevitably caused serious and lasting consequences for this person."
Cardinal Ricard, 78, used to be the archbishop of Bordeaux, in south-western France, until he retired from that position in 2019 to serve in his home diocese of Dignes-les-Bains, in the south of the country.
In the 1980s, he was a priest in the archdiocese of Marseille.
The announcement was made on Monday at a news conference by the president of the French bishops' conference, Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort.
Archbishop Moulins-Beaufort said a total of 11 bishops and former bishops, including Cardinal Ricard, have been targeted by accusations in relation to sexual abuse in diverse cases being investigated by French justice or church authorities.
Cardinal Ricard said he had talked to the victim and asked her for forgiveness, without specifying when.
He said he was also asking for forgiveness "to all those I hurt" through his statement, however, he did not elaborate further.
At a time when the French Catholic Church has just started to pay financial compensation to victims of child sexual abuse, Cardinal Ricard said he decided "not to stay silent anymore about [his] situation" and that he was available for the country's justice and for church authorities.
The broad study released last year by an independent commission estimated that some 330,000 children were sexually abused over a 70-year period by priests or other church-related figures in France.
That tally includes an estimated 216,000 people abused by priests and other clerics, and the rest by church figures such as scout leaders and camp counsellors.
The estimates were based on broader research by France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research into sexual abuse of children.
Its report described a "systemic" cover-up by church officials and urged the French Catholic Church to respect the rule of law in France.
ABC/wires
