Rattled by duplicated cases of sexual assault for many years, the French Catholic Church will quickly offer digital ID cards with scannable QR codes that will provide colour-coded background info– varying from green to orange to red– on bishops, priests and deacons. The brand-new procedure is raising eyebrows. Old sins cast long shadows. After centuries of secrecy, the French Bishop’s Conference (CEF) has actually chosen it will be more transparent by gearing up priests, bishops and deacons with digital, scannable recognition cards. No larger than a bankcard, the IDs will accredit whether its holder is fit to carry out a preaching or deserves to hear confession. Basically, the cards determine whether the Church member is dealing with a sexual assault charge. When the statement dropped on Wednesday 10 May, it triggered a small transformation within the French Catholic Church. The bishop of Troyes, a town in eastern France, called it a “cultural shift”.” Confrontée à des affaires de violences sexuelles, l’Église de France numérise d’ici la fin de l’année les files d’identité professionnelle des évêques, des prêtres et des diacres, put les empêcher de célébrer en cas de sanction.” https://t.co/Jyh6kkPNm2– Agir put notre Église (@AgirNotreEglise) May 10, 2023 “Faced with cases of sexual violence, the Church of France is digitising the expert identity files of bishops, priests and deacons by the end of the year, to avoid them from commemorating in case of sanction.” By merely scanning a QR code on these IDs, anybody can access colour-coded info on a clergy member. Green indicates there are no limitations on them leading a mass or hearing confession. Orange suggests that some constraints remain in location, however not always that the clergy member is an abuser (for instance, a young priest might have been just recently ordained and is not yet certified to lead mass or confession). Red is scheduled for somebody who can no longer preach or practice, or that they have actually been removed of clerical status– however the nature of the sanction isn’t defined.
French Catholic Church to offer clergy with scannable IDs to fight sexual assault
