French Catholic Clergy Now Forced To Carry Scannable ID Cards To Combat Sexual Abuse Epidemic

As more and more priests and clergymen in the Roman Catholic church continue to be outed and exposed to the public, the archdiocese in France is taking drastic measures to cutback on the abuse by mandating color-coded, scannable ID licenses with QR codes to track the actions of the bishops and other members.

French Bishop’s Conference (CEF) made this announcement on May 10th, unveiling the “celebret” cards that are the same size as a typical driver’s license. The card will determine what priest can do what, whether he can administer sermons or listen in on confessions.

This will effect over 18,000 French priests and other clergy members.

The celebret is a document issued by the ecclesiastical authority which attests that its holder is a priest, that he can celebrate mass and that he has the power to confess. Valid for a year, it is the equivalent of the press card for journalists or the professional identity card of lawyers.

The celebret is issued by the ecclesiastical authority (the bishop for diocesan priests, and the major superior for religious priests).

It aims not to let the impostors (false priests or deacons) continue to act to the detriment of the faithful and the sacraments, by creating false celebret.

The CEF explained in their press release

Carriers of a celebret may be asked to display their card in order to attend certain events or simply be in the presence of certain areas, outside of the diocese in France or abroad.

The card features a portrait of the holder, name and birthday, incardination info, and details on the priest’s ordination, along with an unique QR code. The card can then be scanned with a smartphone for validation. The “card has no validity limit, except in the event of a change of place of incardination,” the CEF says.

When scanned, the app will indicate what privileges the clergy member has but without disclosing the reasons he cannot do certain things. A 4-digit code is then to be punched-in to review “the specific rights and authorizations” the priest has. Anyone hosting an event such as mass, a pilgrimage, or a gathering, may demand to see the card. If a minister is asked to present his card then he is not permitted to celebrate.

This data is collected and stored in a national map of the celebret that details the information of the priest and what he is allowed to do. The CEF lists priests may or may not be eligible to participate in depending on the status of their card:

• celebrate the Eucharist in public
• preach
• baptize
• confess / have head-to-head pastoral interviews (with mention of the restricted audience if necessary (men / women / boys / girls / excluding congregations-institutes)
• prepare and celebrate weddings
• prepare and celebrate the functioning of the sick
• celebrate funeral
• supervise youth groups alone
• be alone with a minor even in visible space
• participate in programs broadcast by radio, television or internet

The cards are also color-coded. Green means that a priest is purportedly squeaky clean and can act as normal; orange indicating that there are some restrictions but does not indicate he has been cited for sexual abuse or some other heinous act; and red meaning that person has been stripped of his liturgical rights and cannot preach or practice, but the details are not listed.

The CEF adds, “the information will be updated by the dioceses, via the bishops and chancellors for the diocesan priests, and by the major superiors for the religious priests.”

The concept of the celebret is nothing new as priests were already forced to carry around physical paperwork covering most of the same checkpoints, but now it has been digitized to ease the process and further crackdown on abuse.

Christine Pedotti, who heads the Christian weekly magazine Témoignage Chrétien (Christian Witness), explains the paper IDs “had always been used by priests while travelling, for example, to prove to another priest that they were authorized to co-lead a mass.”

Today’s updated digital version is more modern and has a new feature that allows someone to check whether the priest has been suspended. It’s a good idea given the current context, and should prove quite useful.

Today, bishops are expected to manage several hundred priests without really having any way of controlling them. But the term ‘episcopal’, which comes from the Greek ‘episcopos’, means ‘guardian’ or ‘overseer’. It’s about time they were equipped with modern tools to ensure they can fulfill their responsibilities.

[This is designed to give] priests or laypeople in charge of a parish a tool to verify the legitimacy of each person. The vast majority of Catholics were previously unaware that paper ID cards existed in the first place. There is little reason for them to ask for ID now.

Pedotti said

But not everyone is down with the idea. François Devaux, former president of La Parole Libérée (The Liberated Word), an organisation created in 2015 by victims of former Catholic priest and paedophile Bernard Preynat, calls this one the dumbest ideas ever in their religion.

It’s quite an exceptional measure which, in my opinion, is one of the Catholic Church’s top three most stupid ideas.

If we have to scan the QR codes of clergy members to reassure Catholics, it means the Church has hit a new low. It’s nothing more than a publicity stunt, and it shows the extent to which trust has been broken between the faithful and their hierarchy.

This new ineptitude is a sign of the Church’s idleness. It has not understood the criticism it has faced, nor does it want to. In any case, the initiative is a far cry from the measures that were recommended in the Ciase report.

Devaux stated, reported by France 24.

Even so, the French Catholic Church affirms that this is “to ensure that we are now in a culture of transparency and treating others well,” Matthieu Rougé, the bishop of Nanterre, in an interview with RMC radio last week.

This controversial announcement comes at a time when more and more sexual abuse allegations relating to priests in Roman Catholicism continue to spill out into the public, from all corners of the world. An example of this has come out in a string of scathing reports and lawsuits that reveal how 156 clergy and other Church officials tormented more than 600 children and young adults, dating back to the 1940s, under the umbrella of the Baltimore, Maryland, Archdiocese; covered up by them and local police as well.

At the time this news began to break a Spanish interview with Pope Francis aired on the Disney+ streaming service, where children blasted Francis and criticized the leadership for all of its controversial stances and rampant problems with abusive priests. But Francis tried to reassure them that something would be done to solve this problem.

There are men and women who destroy. The abuser destroys a child, and if it’s a church person, the hypocrisy and double life are horrific.

I can’t possibly convey the empathy I feel for a person who has been abused, but it pains me deeply. We’ve been clear about this, we’ve disciplined the seminaries, we’ve punished the abusing priests or even the abusing laypeople.

It’s a serious social problem. We’re beginning to raise social awareness. That is key.

Francis said

But it was only a few months later that Francis said in a private meeting with Hungarian Jesuit priests that he felt that convicted pedophile priests are “children of God” and deserve their love.”

Yes, they too are children of God. But how can you love them? It’s a powerful question. The abuser is to be condemned, indeed, but as a brother.

But they are God’s children too. They deserve punishment, but they also deserve pastoral care. How do we provide that? No, it is not easy. You are right.

Francis told the Jesuits

SEE: Pope Francis Says That Pedophile Priests Are ‘God’s Children’ In Meeting With Hungarian Jesuits

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

Putting doctrine aside for the sake of discussion, the reason why abuse, rape, molestation, and pedophilia is so rampant in Catholicism, as is with the Protestants, Baptists, Charismatics, etc.; is because instead of kicking these people out, they are allowed to not only stay but also maintain some role in public and preaching ministry, which is not to be done.

[7] Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: [8] Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. [9] I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: [10] Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. [11] But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. [12] For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? [13] But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

1 Corinthians 5:7-13

If 1 Corinthians 5 were actually followed – you know, preaching the word with “sincerity and truth” (see also 2 Corinthians 2:17 – then these church’s congregations would have been emptied out eons ago and the problems that they have caused us all would never have existed. But that would mean they would all lose their income to pay their bills they should have never had, and to fund their lavish lifestyle.

But this silly card system in France, which will no doubt be adopted by more Catholic dioceses soon, and other denominations alike, will not stop the problem. The card is as good as the people documenting the abuse and the people who are supposed to check them.

Therefore, as the problem persists and festers for years to come, it will beget more excuses to install more surveillance everywhere, and eventual biometric implants (i.e. the mark of the beast) down the road.

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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