Cardinal exits over failure to report ‘sex abuser’

LYON: Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a French cardinal who failed to report an alleged paedophile priest, the Catholic Church in Lyon said on Friday.

Archbishop of Lyon Philippe Barbarin is the most senior French priest to be caught up in a global paedophilia scandal that has seen clergy hauled before courts from Argentina to Australia.

Barbarin, 69, a staunch conservative who became archbishop of the French city in 2002, has long been accused by victims’ groups of turning a blind eye to decades of child abuse in his diocese that blighted many lives.

He was convicted last year of not reporting a priest for allegedly abused dozens of boy scouts in the 1980s and 1990s -- but the conviction was overturned on appeal in January. Appeals judges said Barbarin should have reported the priest but found that he could not be held criminally liable because the incidents happened too long ago.