Only two parishes, of which he was parish priest, speak of it in a laconic way. Jean-Jacques Villaine, a retired priest of the diocese of Versailles, died on 9 October. “His funeral will be celebrated next Tuesday, October 18 in absolute privacy due to the canonical sanctions that impose this provision”, he indicated in mid-October a press release from the parish of Sainte-Marguerite du Vésinet, of which Jean-Jacques Villaine had been pastor. No details on the measures in question, much less on their motivations. The existence of canonical provisions against the priest, pastor of several successive parishes in the Yvelines, was revealed by the bishop of Versailles, Luc Crépy, to the priests of the diocese after his death. No press release has been published on the subject on the diocesan website.
A few days before the plenary assembly of bishops in Lourdes, from 3 to 8 November, this case once again raises the question of the secrecy of canonical sanctions for clerics. According to the documents compiled by Life, in 2019 a complaint for rape and sexual violence against an adult against this priest was presented to the courts. The handling of this case is strongly reminiscent of the story unveiled in mid-October by Goliath et Christian family regarding Michel Santier, former bishop of Créteil targeted by canonical sanctions in 2021 for spiritual sexual abuse of two young adults in the 1990s. testimonies of other victims … who hastened to make themselves known, only a few days after the revelation of the story in the public square.
“For me it was obvious that these measures would be public”
This is also the case with Santier, which occurred only five days after the death of Jean-Jacques Villaine, which prompted Cécile to react. When, through her testimony and her denunciation of rape and sexual violence, canonical measures are taken against the priest, she does not think for a single second that the sanctions of the Church can remain secret. ” When there is a trial in France, the verdict is public! It was obvious to me that it would be the same in the Catholic Church. However, the law of the Church does not provide for the disclosure of canonical sanctions, addressed personally to the interested parties. The parallel with the Santier affair therefore pushes Cécile to speak, to find possible co-victims, as happened after the revelations on the former bishop of Créteil.
For Cécile, who is now 49 and lives in Essonne, the silence lasted 25 years. It has taken her all this time to realize that she is a victim and not guilty. This is the documentary Arte, Deceived nuns, the other scandal of the Church, which makes him aware of his situation. “It was listening to the story of these nuns, understanding the phenomenon of flu, that I understood what had happened to me and that I was not alone. Sexual violence is isolating, because the attackers always make the victims believe that it is their fault. “ Since she was a young adult at the time, she did not recognize herself in cases of rape and sexual assault on minors. «In the Church it is difficult to understand the phenomenon of control. Some priests and religious behave like the gurus of a sect, with the resulting manipulations. “
Gripping mechanism
At the time, in the 1990s, Cécile was 19 and had just lost her father. The bereaved family is in a complicated economic situation. Cécile has no one to confide in. It was she as she joined the choir of the Saint-Louis Cathedral in Versailles that she met Jean-Jacques Villaine, who was conducting the choir. “He took me under his wing, often accompanied me home, we talked … He was my father’s age. Gradually, I gave him all my trust. ” When the family is hit by a heating failure, the priest offers Cécile’s mother to let her come and work in the presbytery. This is where the first contact takes place. “He was very tactile, very loving. Things gradually degenerated without my realizing it. “
To justify the sexual assaults, the priest invokes a speech similar to that of the brothers Philippe or Régis Peyrard. “He was talking about love / friendship. She said that the sexual relations she imposed were a way like any other to express the love of God. And she asked me not to say anything, because people would not understand. “ The flu situation lasts three years, at the end of which Cécile takes a step back but is crushed by shame and guilt. Psychological support, marital difficulties, suicidal thoughts, health problems … “It’s a life full of chaos. “
Following watching the documentary and becoming aware of it, Essonnienne filed a complaint in 2019. The facts are prescribed, but this approach allows him to contact an association of victims and the police, who help him to speak. on what he has been through and understand that it is a criminal offense. When Luc Crépy, former head of the permanent commission to combat pedophilia, was appointed bishop in Versailles in 2021, Cécile wrote to him. She receives it. Following her testimony, the bishop seized the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome on Jean-Jacques Villaine, then in a retirement home.
Canonical measures in 2021
In December of the same year, Cécile received a letter from Luc Crépy assuring her of the canonical sanctions adopted against her attacker: “Father Villaine no longer exercises his priestly ministry, except for the celebration or concelebration in the retirement home where he resides. He can no longer hear confessions or celebrate any sacrament. “ An exchange of letters followed between the bishop of Versailles and the victim of Jean-Jacques Villaine, letters to which Life could have access, in which Luc Crépy insists on the will to do justice in the Catholic Church and to punish the guilty. “Where civil justice has dismissed the case without giving it any follow-up, the Church has tried to respond to the gravity of the facts, insists in a letter. The disciplinary measures adopted are very strong sanctions, since Father Villaine is deprived of any exercise of his ministry. “
Cecile disagrees: “What I remember is that the hands of a sex offender can always touch the consecrated host. Is the Body of Christ less valuable than a priest’s public visibility? There is something deeply imperceptible and inconsistent there for me … ” It is basically the whole question of the discrepancy between the feeling, internally, of having reacted to a situation, even going beyond what civil justice can do, while public opinion expresses ever greater expectations of coherence, and guarantees that the Church is truly a “safe house”. ” This grace of the sacraments, which should not depend on the moral integrity of the priests who administer them, is another slap in the face of the victims. “
Above all, the canonical sanctions remain secret, as in the case of Michel Santier, who once again raises the problem of transparency. “What I would have expected from Luc Crépy is that he would have launched a request for testimony to find other victims”, Cécile insists, convinced that she is not the only one, as in the case of the Santier affair. The association for assistance to victims of sexual abuse and sexual violence in the Church Like a loving mother, of which Cécile is a member, has also denounced to the courts other worrying situations concerning Jean-Jacques Villaine. “The Christian’s first duty is to take care of the weak. This silence of the procedures, even in the non-disclosure of the measures taken, is in profound disagreement with what the Church claims to be. “
The requirement of silence imposed by canon law
This need for silence in the announcement of the sanctions was mentioned by Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the Bishops’ Conference of France, regarding the Santier affair: “There is a tension between the requirements of canon law, its use, its interpretations which may vary from one expert to another, the practices of justice in our country, respect for people and the need for transparency of many devoted. ” Canon law in fact provides that sanctions are communicated only to the person concerned and to the victim. “We need to think about changes in our procedures, in the way we perform them and communicate the results”, assures the archbishop of Reims.
Contacted, the diocese reports a situation of great complexity, between emotion, morality and the law of the Church. «Father Villaine was informed of the measures applied, the same for the victim, as required by canon law. Roma asks that the sanctions not be made public. We have not tried to hide anything. ” The fact remains that this question of transparency is very likely to return with insistence in the coming months and that the Catholic institution will find it hard to escape a questioning of its practices in this area.
