Catholic Church – Further abuse at French boarding school

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The Roman Catholic Church’s notorious abuse of children and young people has, unsurprisingly, seen another mass case emerge. This time it’s the French boarding school Notre-Dame de Bétharram. But this case also has a political dimension.

Uninterrupted routine

While those responsible in the Roman Catholic Church, heads bowed, publicly and effectively express regret for the countless cases of abuse of children and young people within their sphere of responsibility that have become almost routine over the many decades, and even attempt to compensate for the rather muted handling of the same cases in the churches of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) with generous compensation, they nevertheless cheerfully cling to the custom that already seems like a tradition.

This was also the case at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram boarding school in France. (Source).

Catholic priests in charge have already admitted responsibility after more than 150 reports of sexual assault, violence, and even rape at the school were filed with the police since 2014. However, the numerous incidents date back to the 1950s.

France’s government is acting

The French government has responded, among other things, by having the police conduct stricter inspections of schools and boarding schools, predominantly run by the Roman Catholic Church. This involves some 7,500 institutions, including some that receive state funding. This measure is now being described by the Church’s personnel responsible for education as “state overreach.” They claim the inspectors are violating existing law, particularly by emphasizing the Church’s standards of law, justice, custom, and morality.

On the other hand, it is very surprising that, after such cases become known in Catholic educational institutions, parents still entrust their children to these Catholic institutions, and that in the case of orphanages, the public authorities have not long since taken measures to remove the children from such snake pits, as is very easy for local youth welfare offices in some places to do, to revoke the guardians’ rights and remove the children from their families, for the protection of those entrusted to their care.

Legacy of the French Revolution

According to church “protests,” the “overly intrusive” control measures have already resulted in an attempt to hollow out the church as a whole, within the framework of the principle of secularism that dominates in France. (Source). This principle is a legacy of the French Revolution, which vehemently rejected all forms of religion. As a consequence, the papacy (then under Pius IV) was completely stripped of its political power in 1798. (Info).

A truly theatrical performance?

It is quite possible that the government’s sweeping measures are based on the fact that the daughter of the Prime Minister of France, François Bayrou, is among the victims of the Roman Catholic customs of her priestly caste.

The daughter of French Prime Minister François Bayrou recently revealed that she was abused at a Catholic boarding school. Her testimony has reignited accusations against Bayrou that he was unaware of the abuse allegations at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram Catholic school between the 1950s and 2000s. However, Bayrou’s record is not particularly favorable, as he learned of the abuse from his daughter back in the 1980s when he was a local official at the school. Even as Minister of Education in the 1990s, he was presented with numerous reports and has maintained his ignorance of the matter until now.

Now that all the cases have become public knowledge through other channels, further silence seems inappropriate. Having abandoned his reserved respect for the Vatican, he now emphasizes his awareness of his responsibility with great zeal for clarification. Before the assembled press in April 2025, Bayrou expressed his profound dismay at the “recently learned” incidents. (Source).

Historical inseparability of the Papacy and France

One must not forget that France is still referred to by the Papacy as its “eldest daughter of the Church.” This goes back to the Merovingian and Frankish king Clovis, a devout neo-Catholic and a prince of one of the ten Germanic tribes who emerged from the recently collapsed Western Roman Empire (476 AD), who placed his military power at the disposal of the Papacy. Clovis helped the Bishop of Rome achieve an unprecedented increase in power and influence, which ultimately led to the Pope ruling virtually as emperor over the kings of Europe and exercising his historically unique tyranny unhindered. Clovis is the “eldest son of the Church.”

Bible prophecy reveals the script

Even the (temporary) disempowerment of the papacy in 1798 did not diminish their mutual, deep love. After all, this also reflected the swift transition from the fifth to the sixth beast according to the prophecy in Revelation 17 (Info). Everything is proceeding “according to God’s plan,” then, now, and also what is yet to come. One simply needs to be careful not to be led around by the nose by the global theater. 2 Thessalonians 2:5-12 describes how best to do this.

Bible verses from King James Version (1611)