A French priest who was accused of hurting Inuit children in Nunavut won’t be kicked out of the Oblates group because leaders in Rome decided to let him stay.
Johannes Rivoire, who is in his 90s and lives in Lyon, France, has been accused of sexually abusing Inuit children while he was in Nunavut.
Rev said he was very let down. Ken Thorson works at OMI in Lacombe, Canada.
The OMI Lacombe Canada and the Oblates of the Province of France asked the leaders in Rome to start the process of firing Rivoire in 2022. This was because the priest didn’t want to go back to Canada to deal with the charges against him.
Rivoire was wanted by the police because he was accused of touching a girl in a bad way in Arviat and Whale Cove, Nvt. , between 1974 and 1979. French authorities said no to sending a person back to Canada when Canadian authorities asked them to.
The priest didn’t go to trial because he didn’t come back to Canada when the police wanted to arrest him in 1998. He was accused of sexually abusing people in three Nunavut communities – Arviat, Rankin Inlet, and Naujaat. More than twenty years later, the charges were dropped.
The Canadian government said that France didn’t want to send the person back.
Rivoire said that he didn’t do the things people are accusing him of, and no one has shown in court that he did.
Inuit leaders and politicians want the priest to go to trial. Natan Obed, who leads a group called Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, said he wanted the Pope to talk to Rivoire when Indigenous people visited the Vatican in 2022.
A group of 10 people from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc, which represents Nunavut Inuit, went to France and talked to Rivoire, asking him to come back to Canada. The group said that as many as 60 children might have been hurt.
Last year, almost 12 members of BeBrave France, a group in France that wants to stop children from being hurt, protested outside the retirement home where Rivoire was living. He has been moved to a different building in Lyon because he was getting too much attention at the old place, according to Thorson.
The Oblates of Mary Immaculate have asked Rivoire many times to deal with the charges, but he has said no.
Thorson said that there were two warnings and a formal recommendation in the disciplinary process. Rivoire’s lawyer said that his health is getting worse and the doctors advised him not to travel for more than one hour. That’s why he can’t come back, Thorson said.
Because Rivoire was not healthy, the Oblate administration in Rome did not go through with kicking him out of the congregation, according to Thorson.
Canada was going to tell Rivoire to leave, but Thorson said it would show that the church wants to take responsibility and make things right.
“I know we didn’t do everything we could to help in this situation,” Thorson said.
“I feel really sorry about that. ”
Thorson said he wants a fair investigation into the accusations against Rivoire and how the Oblates dealt with the situation to bring justice.
The Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Canada and the Oblates of the Province of France have chosen former Superior Court justice Andre Denis to be in charge of the Oblate Safeguarding Commission.
The commission’s job is to find out how the accusations against Rivoire were dealt with in the Catholic group and to make rules and ways to make sure kids are safe and people are responsible.
It will also look at why Rivoire left Canada.
A report must be shared with the public by April 1st.
