Priests to carry ID cards that reveal if they are sex offenders

Priests in France will be required to carry QR codes that the public can scan in order to check if they have been struck off as part of a sexual abuse clampdown.

The new wallet-sized ID cards will, after being scanned by a mobile phone, bring up a green, orange or red light depending on the priest’s status and career history.

The new system announced at the French Bishops’ Conference is designed to make the church more transparent but has been criticised as frivolous by some sex abuse survivor groups.

The ID card’s main function is to show whether a priest is qualified to lead mass or hear confession, but the code also discloses whether the priest has been stripped of clerical status.

The card does not explicitly state why a priest has been stripped of that status, but the red colour code would serve as an early warning signal that they may have faced sexual abuse charges.

This means the cards can in effect be used by Catholics to find out whether bishops, deacons and priests in their area are possible sex offenders, broadcaster France 24 reported.

The orange light may simply indicate that a recently-ordained priest is not fully qualified to lead a mass yet.

French Catholic priests are already required to hold a “celebret”, a paper document that confirms their profession and qualification. But critics say the documents are cumbersome to keep updated and that the time has come for a centralised, digital database.

“The celebret can be requested ... in France or abroad, in shrines or parishes, or on major events such as World Youth Days, to provide proof that a priest is well qualified to give the sacraments, and is subject to no restriction impeding his sacramental faculties,” the Catholic Church said in a statement announcing the new system.

It explained that the new ID card would not only help crack down on imposter priests with fake celebrets, but also “intensify the fight against sexual violence in the Church”.

Under the colour code system, green indicates that the priest is fully authorised to lead mass while orange means that some undisclosed restrictions have been imposed on them and red means they are stripped of clerical status.

The database that lists the status of each priest will be updated once a year, or immediately in cases of serious infractions, reports said.

Bishops have already received their cards, while a remaining 18,000 deacons and priests are due to receive them by the end of the year.

‘The Church has hit a new low’

The move has been described as a public relations stunt by abuse survivor groups critical of the change.

“It’s quite an exceptional measure which, in my opinion, is one of the Catholic Church’s top three most stupid ideas,” François Devaux, a former president of the Church abuse survivors group La Parole Libérée (The Liberated Word), claimed according to France 24.

“If we have to scan the QR codes of clergy members to reassure Catholics, it means the Church has hit a new low. It’s nothing more than a publicity stunt, and it shows the extent to which trust has been broken between the faithful and their hierarchy,” he added.

“This new ineptitude is a sign of the Church’s idleness.”

Discussions around ID cards in the French Catholic Church began in 2021, when a major report found that some 216,000 children, mainly boys, have been abused by the clergy since 1950.

The report by France 24 noted that the same report made 45 recommendations to prevent sexual abuse and that none of them involved digital ID cards.

A reparations scheme launched last year by an independent body has so far granted compensation to 201 victims. More than 1,180 victims of priests or other church representatives have come forward to claim compensation since the scheme began.