A French cleric of the Brothers of Saint John, Benoît-Emmanuel Peltereau-Villeneuve, who had been the subject of reports of “serious sexual assault” has been dismissed from the clergy by Pope Francis, the Catholic Institute said in a statement released Tuesday.
“Pope Francis has decided to dismiss Benoît Peltereau-Villeneuve from the clergy without the possibility of appeal or appeal,” write the Brothers of Saint John, specifying that it is a matter of a decree issued in December by the Dicastery was signed for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in the Vatican.
The Saint-Jean brothers “take note of this awaited decision, which has led to the conclusion of years of proceedings, long and painful for those affected,” they add. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had already issued this verdict in 2011, but the religious had appealed, according to the institute.
The alleged facts, which “for the oldest ones go back to the 1990s”, “are numerous and serious”, in particular “related to the spiritual accompaniment of Sisters of Saint-Jean and adult women”, affirms the Institute.
Mr Peltereau-Villeneuve was “prior (priest of a monastery, ed.) in Geneva for 12 years between 1988 and 2008 and organizer of important events”, such as the Agapé Festival, an international festival of music and sacred art, the same source.
In early 2008, “following complaints, the Bishop of Geneva (the) removed him from office and lodged a complaint with the Swiss judiciary,” which then closed operations to establish the facts, the institute says.
According to this source, the religious also brought an action against the Swiss judiciary before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and in 2014 the ECtHR convicted Switzerland of violating the presumption of innocence.
“He also filed a complaint against a brother, a sister and several lay people, accusing them of slandering him.”
The Brothers of Saint John have around 450 Religious, Apostolic Volunteers “in the world” – on the five continents. In the past, several “little grays” (because of their fur color) have been charged with sexual violence.
In 2015, the institute set up an “SOS Abus” commission “responsible for cases of sexual abuse in which the brothers are to blame or in which they are involved”.
In 2019, this commission counted 27 brothers who committed sexual assaults on adults and 6 on minors. Benoît-Emmanuel Peltereau-Villeneuve was one of those 27, the religious institute told AFP.