Betharram case: a witness appeal in the 15 countries where the congregation is located

He was the first to file a complaint of rape against an overseer of the former Catholic College of Combrée (Maine-et-Loire), closed since 2005. In recent weeks, the testimony of former residents denouncing the sexual assaults suffered by this same man in the late 1980s has increased.

Nabil Touati is interested in François Bayrou's words on the Betharram affair

In France, 200 complaints have now been filed in the "Betharram" case, a case of physical and sexual violence in a Catholic institution in southwestern France between 1950 and 2010. However, according to the victims' collective, they could be far more numerous and not only in France. Therefore, a call for testimony was launched in all countries where the congregation of the fathers of Betharram is established.

The Spanish Catholic Church has recognized 146 new testimonies of sexual abuse in 2024, raising the total number to more than 1,000 complaints since 2020. However, far from assuming clear responsibilities, the ecclesiastical hierarchy parapets in diffuse concepts such as "moral obligation" and still does not guarantee justice and reparation to the victims. A thousand silenced voices, a hierarchy that silences Sexual abuse committed within the Ch…

A group of whistleblowers of sexual assaults in a Catholic school in France launched an international call to find new victims abroad, where the congregation is established, said an alumni on Friday. The Congregation of Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Betharram was born in the 19th century at the feet of the French Pyrenees, but is implanted in 15 countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Vietnam…

“There will be a before and after Betharram”, say many observers, and many victims want to believe.