The traditionalist community, which started in the 1960s as a foster home for children placed by social services and also took in children from conservative families, is the target of several other legal proceedings.

Three priests from the traditionalist Catholic community of Riaumont (Pas-de-Calais), charged with violence against minors, will be the subject of a canonical investigation, the Bishop of Arras announced on RCF Hauts-de-France radio on Friday. The three clergymen targeted by this canonical investigation are "the three priests who have been formally charged," added Olivier Leborgne, Bishop of Arras.

Bishop Leborgne and Dom Pateau, abbot of Fontgombault Abbey, which oversees Riaumont, have also given the community "a year to rework its fundamentals," redefine its mission, and "review all of its statutes." "The educational aspect is no longer possible" within the former children's village of Riaumont, since it "requires skills that people don't possess and that current events prevent," Bishop Leborgne emphasizes.

These decisions follow a report submitted to Messrs. Leborgne and Pateau after a canonical visitation conducted at Riaumont in September. This visitation was ordered by the two prelates after the conviction of the community's former prior, Alain H., to a two-year suspended prison sentence for viewing child pornography. He has appealed.

Several other legal proceedings

The traditionalist community, which began in the 1960s as a foster home for children placed by social services and also took in children from conservative families, is the subject of several other legal proceedings. The Béthune public prosecutor's office has requested a trial for Alain H. and five other members of the Riaumont religious community for violence against dozens of children between 2007 and 2019. Two other staff members have been charged with sexual assault. A separate judicial investigation concerns a rape case.

Contacted by AFP in late December, Octave Nitkowski, Riaumont's lawyer, emphasized that "no member of the religious community has ever been convicted, or even indicted or implicated in legal proceedings, for acts of sexual violence against minors or rape." He maintains that "only" the proceedings for physical violence against minors concern current members of the community, stressing that these allegations are "firmly contested by those accused."