accused of sexual assault, Father Rivoire soon expelled from his congregation
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. @WilliamPham
Accused of sexual assault against young Inuit in the 1960s, Father Johannes Rivoire, who lives in Lyon, will be expelled by his congregation, in response to requests from a Canadian delegation who came to demand accountability.
In the aftermath of the French court’s decision not to extradite Father Johannes Rivoire to Canada, where he is accused of sexual assaults against young Inuit in the 1960s, the Inuit delegation which went to Lyon for the meet got his congregation to start an exclusion procedure for his reverence. The community of the French-Canadian missionary, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), a congregation founded in 1816 and counting 3,700 members worldwide, has initiated a canonical dismissal procedure.
Read also: Lyon: France refuses to extradite Father Rivoire accused of sexual assault
“He disobeyed our order to appear in Canadian justice”, explained to the press the provincial of the OMI for France, Vincent Gruber. Ottawa issued an arrest warrant followed in August by an extradition request, which was therefore rejected this week, after a new complaint against the cleric, while a first arrest warrant issued from 1998 to 2017 for sexual assaults against three minors remained a dead letter.
The Inuit delegation met Father Rivoire
The delegation of 9 Inuit, including two children of an alleged victim and another alleged victim, was received on Wednesday September 14 in Fourvière by the community of Father Rivoire, who lives in an nursing home in Croix-Rousse. Father Gruber then repeated to them that he was trying to “continue to convince Father Rivoire“, including with the support of “Rome“, to surrender to Canadian justice.”We believe the victims from the beginning, deeply“, and their”cry cannot go unanswered!”, he launched, before adding “I can’t force him, contradict him“.
On Wednesday, the 92-year-old churchman, who is accused, finally agreed to meet this delegation from the Far North to bring the word of the victims, but “deny everything“and refuse to go to Canada to respond to justice, a representative of the Inuit of Nunavut told the press, reports AFP. The father who “speaks and understands Inuktitut and English” se”reminders“of certain faces which were revealed in front of him, but”at times he pretends to forget everything” whereas “ten seconds earlier he remembered“, did she say.
Despite the priest’s categorical refusal to travel to Canada, the delegation still took him a Lyon-Montreal ticket in his name for Friday, in the hope of bringing him back.
Read also: