Victims of paedophile priest demand stained glass windows be removed

Father Louis Ribes was known as ‘the Picasso of churches’ but his alleged victims of rape and sexual assault want his stained glass work removed. Photo / Thinkstock

The victims of a paedophile priest known as “the Picasso of churches” for his stained glass windows are fighting to have dozens of works removed because they are an insult to their suffering.

Father Louis Ribes died in 1994, leaving hundreds of paintings and stained glass works in various churches around France, mainly around Lyon. His cubist-like style and use of bright colours gave him the Picasso moniker.

One of his stained glass works The Prodigal Son in St Catherine church, in southeastern France, shows a child kneeling before a priest.

“It looks like a fellatio,” said Luc Gemet, the president of an association representing 30 of his alleged victims, which the St Etienne archdiocese puts at 49.

Their testimony of abuse, mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, led to the Lyon prosecutor last year launching an investigation into rape and sexual assault by the priest.

After the scandal broke, the Lyon diocese said that “out of respect for the victims, the works of Father Ribes that belong to the diocese of Lyon, Grenoble-Vienne and Saint-Etienne will progressively be taken down and put away”.

But while his paintings and drawings were swiftly removed, victims complain that the process is proving much harder for Ribes’ stained glass works.

Regretting the “slowness” of the process, victims have teamed up with Be Brave, a charity fighting sexual violence against children.

In St Catherine, where seven of his stained glass still adorn the nave of the church, for now, authorities have simply placed a black sticker over his initials RIB. The church has promised to pay to remove the works “by the end of the summer”.

In another church in Loire-sur-Rhone, the local municipality initially offered to pay to have the works removed, sparking outrage among victims.

“I don’t understand why atheists should pay via their local taxes [to have the works removed],” said Gamet. “The church is responsible for employing Ribes, it protected him and must pay,” said Gemet. The local diocese has now pledged to fund the works’ removal.

In the village of Charly, which has eight of Ribes’ stained glass windows, the mayor has agreed to allow the Church to fund their removal and to launch a “consultation” with the local population on replacement stained glass. But he has refused to destroy the works, which victims say would “put a symbolic full stop on all his crimes”, saying that is a matter for the Church.

Meanwhile, in the church of Givors, Mayor Mohamed Boudjellaba has refused to take the stained glass down, arguing that “one must dissociate the work from the man” and pointing out that the church had been deconsecrated and restored.

To the victims’ dismay, he has only agreed to add a plaque under the works indicating that they were “made by a child abuser priest”.

France’s Catholic church was rocked in 2021 by the findings of an inquiry that found that 216,000 minors had been abused by clergy over the past seven decades. The number climbed to 330,000 when claims against lay members of the Church were included, such as teachers at Catholic schools.

The commission that produced the report denounced the “systemic character” of efforts to shield clergy from prosecution and urged the Church to pay compensation to victims.

Last November, the church revealed that 11 former or serving bishops have been accused of sexual violence or failing to report cases of abuse.

Lyon has been at the heart of sex abuse allegations in the Catholic Church. Notably, ex-archbishop Philippe Barbarin resigned in 2020 for failing to report crimes committed by priest Bernard Preynat during boy scout outings between 1986 and 1991.