Ten children educated in the Saint-Stanislas private school group were victims of sexual violence, reveal the diocese and the Directorate of Catholic Education in Loire-Atlantique.
The diocese Nantes and the Directorate of Catholic Education of Loire-Atlantique unveiled, Friday, June 29, a series of rape and sexual assault which they recently learned and of which ten children were victims, enrolled between 1958 and 1995 in the Saint-Stanislas school group. A call to witness was broadcast to collect the testimony of other victims.
The abuses imply five priests as well as at least a boarding school supervisor. None of the accused is still alive, the last of them having died in 2011. The facts alleged against them concern “appalling abuse“, Including rapes, touching and sexual assault committed in boarding school, as well as during a holiday camp. The victims were all minor at the time of the facts. It is a girl and nine boys, educated in the school’s college classes in the years 1958 to 1978, 1980 to 1981 and 1991 to 1995. Three of the ten known victims were now died.
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“An unacceptable betrayal”
Decisive testimonies were communicated to the reception and listening cell of victims of sexual abuse of the diocese in spring 2025, on the initiative of two victims and their families. All the facts were reported to justice, the rectorate as well as to the police. The diocese of Nantes and the Catholic education of Loire-Atlantique invite other potential victims to make themselves known to the diocesan listening unit. “We know that other children have suffered such violence”indicates the call for testimonies broadcast on Friday afternoon by the diocese.
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“We are upset by these testimonies and deeply revolted by the acts that have been reported. These violence constitute an unacceptable betrayal of the educational promise and the evangelical values that our educational project promotes ”said in a press conference the Diocesan Director of Catholic Education, Frédéric Delemazure. “Lives have been broken”he added by expressing his support to the victims. “We will continue to open the archives of the Saint-Stanislas establishment, the diocesan management of Catholic education and the diocese in order to continue to cross our sources, to identify dysfunctions and also to analyze the causes of such abuses”also said Mgr Laurent Périerou, bishop of Nantes, who expressed his “shame” in front of the facts presented.
According to managers of the diocesan listening unit, the number of reports would have increased considerably this year. “It feels like The Betharram case has prompted some victims to act and finally testify “suggests Jean-Luc Pilet, cell manager. Range accusations have been regularly tagged near Saint-Stanislas since the presentation, in 2021, of the Report saved on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church In France, between 1950 and 2020. Part of the inscriptions attacked the person of the Bishop of Nantes and a former director of the establishment, both accused of stifling the facts. The management of the school group had at the time filed a complaint for degradation, while the diocese of Nantes declared himself to be ready to hear anyone who would have “Information to make known”.
