Click to copy, then share by pasting into your messages, comments, social media posts and websites.
Click to copy, then add into your webpages so users can view and engage with this video from your site.
Report Content
We also accept reports via email. Please see the Guidelines Enforcement Process for instructions on how to make a request via email.
Thank you for submitting your report
We will investigate and take the appropriate action.
Catholic Priests in France Forced to Wear QR Codes (666) to Reveal Sex Offender Status
❖ Catholic priests in France will be forced to wear scannable QR codes to signal whether they are sex offenders as part of a national crackdown on abuse, according to church officials.
Under the new system, people can scan the wallet-size cards with their smartphones to receive one of three color codes revealing the clergy member’s “status,” according to the Bishops’ Conference of France.
Red shows that the priest has been stripped of his clerical position potentially due to child sex abuse, though the nature of the sanction is not specified.
Green is a sign that the priest is in good standing, while orange indicates he’s not yet fully qualified to lead Mass.
The system — announced May 10 in an effort by the church to appear more “transparent” — also applies to bishops and deacons, France 24 reported.
The Catholic Church hailed the program as an efficient way to bust imposter priests and “intensify the fight against sexual violence in the Church,” though it came under fire from some sex abuse victims.
“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,” François Devaux, a former president of the church abuse survivors group La Parole Libérée (the Freed Word), told the outlet.
“It’s quite an exceptional measure which, in my opinion, is one of the Catholic Church’s top three most stupid ideas.”
Christine Pedotti, who runs the French Christian weekly magazine Témoignage Chrétien (Christian Testimony), called it “a small tool that, when compared to the scale of the problem, just isn’t enough.”
The tech-centric changes come after a bombshell 2021 report revealed that an estimated 330,000 children were victims of sex abuse within France’s Catholic Church over the past 70 years.
Previously, Catholic priests in the country have been required to carry a document confirming their profession and qualification, though the paperwork has been criticized as hard to keep up-to-date.
Details of the program, such as where the priest must wear or display the QR code and the date by which they must comply, were not immediately clear.
👉 Courtesy: NYPost
Category | Spirituality & Faith |
Sensitivity | Normal - Content that is suitable for ages 16 and over |
Warning - This video exceeds your sensitivity preference!
To dismiss this warning and continue to watch the video please click on the button below.
Note - Autoplay has been disabled for this video.