Archbishop suspected of sexual assault and attempted rape of a nun

The former Archbishop of Auch-Condom-Lectoure-Lombez (often shortened to Auch), Maurice Gardès, who was in office between 2004 and 2020, is suspected of sexual assault and attempted rape of a nun, the weekly magazine "Famille chrétienne" revealed on Wednesday 26 April. The deeds are alleged to have taken place in the Gers between 2007 and 2009.The former cleric is currently retired and living in the suburbs of Lyon.

In 2020, Bishop Gardès was the subject of a report from the Diocese of Lyon concerning acts of a sexual nature that were allegedly committed in the Gers. In December of the same year, the Lyon public prosecutor's office forwarded the same report to the Public Prosecutor in Auch. An investigation was opened for acts that would have occurred between 2007 and 2009. If the nun did not wish to file a complaint at the time, investigations carried out by the research section of the Toulouse gendarmerie were nevertheless conducted on the basis of her denunciations.

"If they were to be proven, the facts of sexual assault, of a criminal nature, were reached by the statute of limitations of public action. As regards the facts of attempted rape denounced, of a criminal nature, the investigation did not make it possible to establish their materiality", the State Prosecutor in Auch indicated this Thursday. On April 15, 2022, the procedure was closed without continuation on the grounds of "insufficiently characterised offence". However, the churchman is currently the subject of canonical measures.

The 78-year-old Bishop Gardès is also suspected of harassment, reports the Christian weekly. In September 2017, he appeared before the Lyon correctional court, along with six other people including Cardinal Barbarin, for failure to report a case of sexual assault on minors by the priest, Bernard Preynat.

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