The French Diocese of Créteil acknowledged last week that its previous bishop had been held accountable by the Vatican for leading a life of “prayer and penance” after being credibly accused of sexual abuse.
Two years before the age at which bishops are expected to submit a letter of resignation to the pope, Bishop Michel Santier announced his retirement in January 2021 at the age of 73.
According to a report by La Croix, Santier informed Catholics in his diocese that he would be retiring early in June 2020 for to “health concerns” seven months earlier.
However, the actual cause of Santier’s early retirement was that he was credibly accused in late 2019 of perpetrating sexual assault as a priest more than 20 years earlier. This was verified by Créteil’s new bishop, Dominque Blanchet, in a press statement on October 14.
After the French Catholic publication Famille Chrétienne reported about the sanctions against Santier on October 14, Blanchet’s press release—which was also read at Masses around the diocese over the weekend—was made public.
The Vatican reportedly ordered Santier to live a life of prayer and penance in October 2021, 22 months after he was credibly accused of abusing two adult males sexually in the 1990s, according to Famille Chrétienne.
Recently, it was discovered that the Vatican had discreetly punished another Catholic bishop for sexual assault.
According to Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican Press Office, Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, a Nobel winner and bishop from the Southeast Asian country of East Timor, will have his ministry restricted starting in September 2020 due to allegations of sexual misconduct with children.
The Vatican’s affirmation followed an investigation into allegations of abuse, including rape, allegedly committed by Belo against teenage boys both before and after he was appointed apostolic administrator of Dili in 1988, which was published on September 28 by the Dutch magazine De Groene Amsterdammer.
According to Famille Chrétienne, Bishop Santier’s abuse took place in the Diocese of Coutances, where he was then a priest and the director of the School of Faith, a one-year program for young people ages 18 to 30 to learn how to pray.
Santier is said to have abused two young men sexually while in a position of spiritual leadership; the sacraments, particularly the sacrament of confession, were allegedly utilized as tools in the abuse.
The Vatican was notified right away of the allegations in late 2019 and disciplinary measures were put in place in October 2021, forcing Santier “to move from his place of retirement to reside in a religious community,” according to Bishop Blanchet, who succeeded Santier as the leader of the Diocese of Créteil in January 2021.
Blanchet remarked that Santier’s ministry was limited to the activities of that particular religious group.
Prior to October 2021, Santier lived in a parish in his native Diocese of Coutances and Avranches. According to La Croix, the local bishop had asked him to avoid direct contact with persons under the age of 30, and Santier complied.
The main house of the Sisters of Christian Schools, Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte Abbey, is where Santier now resides.
Because Créteil is a suffragan diocese of Paris, according to La Croix, the accusations were referred to Archbishop Michel Aupetit, then the archbishop of Paris. After speaking with Santier, Aupetit reported back to the Vatican in December 2019.
Then, according to reports, Santier submitted Pope Francis a letter of resignation acknowledging his abusive behavior.
The French bishop informed his diocese in June 2020 that, with the pope’s approval, he would resign in January 2021 due to lung issues. La Croix claimed the man also said that he had “gone through other hardships,” but he did not elaborate.
La Croix claims that Catholics in the Diocese of Créteil were astonished to find that the Vatican’s sanctions against Santier were withheld from them for more than two years and that the actual reason for their former bishop’s departure was because of previous crimes of sexual abuse.
According to diocesan officials, the delay was necessary to protect the victims’ privacy and since the matter wasn’t resolved until October 2021, according to La Croix.
In 1973, Santier was ordained as a priest. Prior to being appointed bishop of Créteil in 2007, he presided over the Diocese of Luçon from 2001.