The stained glass windows of Father Ribes, priest accused of child abuse, removed from a church

Eight stained glass windows designed by Father Ribes, a deceased priest accused of child abuse, were removed on Tuesday from the church of Sainte-Catherine (Rhône), after a long fight by two victims' associations, noted an AFP journalist. Among the works taken down, The Prodigal Son, a stained glass window from the church of Sainte-Catherine (Rhône), where a child is kneeling before a priest, in a very equivocal position that some have compared to fellatio. Father Ribes, who died in 1994, was accused by 49 people of sexual assault and rape in the 1970s and 1980s, in the dioceses of Lyon, Grenoble-Vienne and Saint-Étienne.

For Luc Gemet, spokesperson for a collective of victims, representing around thirty people, the withdrawal “is part of the reparation”. “It hurt me a lot to see these productions,” he explains. Louis Ribes asked us to undress to draw ourselves. And afterwards, whenever he had the opportunity, he would touch us, he would caress us, even to the point of rape.” For Arnaud Gallais of Be Brave, an association of victims of child crime, “the victims begged for the evidence, for these stained glass windows to be removed”. “We are demanding the outright withdrawal, including works listed as historical heritage,” he insists, citing in particular the painting “The Stations of the Cross” in Chambost-Allières, which is classified.

Since the affair broke out in January 2022, the church of Sainte-Catherine is the second, after that of Dième, in the Rhône, to remove the Cubist-inspired stained glass windows of this priest whose frescoes and paintings decorate several churches , from the Alps to the central massif. Around 70 works have been identified, 18 of which belong to the dioceses. The one from Lyon is “happy” to be able to “show in a concrete way to the victims that we have respected our word”, Christophe Ravinet, responsible for communications, explained to AFP.

The archdiocese had said as soon as the affair was revealed its wish to see the works of Louis Ribes taken down, at the expense of the Church. But the removal of stained glass windows from churches belonging to the municipalities required the establishment of conventions. In the diocese of Lyon, the stained glass windows of Loire-sur-Rhône, Charly and Caluire-et-Cuire should be removed by early 2024. “All the paintings we owned were taken down in January and February 2022,” specifies Christophe Ravinet. Only the town hall of Givors, where three stained glass windows are located, has so far not taken the decision to remove them. The diocese confirmed that it was awaiting feedback from the municipality.