French Catholic priests to carry QR code revealing if they are sex offender

Clergy to wear scannable ID with colour system where red is a warning for possible sex abuse in past

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

The new ID cards, which can fit in a wallet, 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 Bishops’ Conference of France, is designed to make the Church more transparent but has been criticised as frivolous by 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 he 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 could be sex abusers, the 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 which confirms their profession and qualification. Critics, however, 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”.

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

The move has been criticised by abuse survivor groups who dismissed the ID cards as a public relations stunt.

“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 resident 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, had been abused by members of the clergy since 1950.

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

‘It’s an exceptional measure which, in my opinion, is one of the Church’s top three most stupid ideas’

since the body started the scheme.

Under the colour code system, green indicates the priest is fully authorised to lead Mass while orange means that some undisclosed restrictions have been imposed on him and red means he has been 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.