French bishops create national canonical criminal tribunal (Église catholique en France)

On December 5, the bishops of France installed a National Penal Canonical Tribunal that replaces all diocesan and interdiocesan tribunals in judging canonical offenses committed by clerics and laity.

“Many people suffer from the slowness of canonical procedures because officialdom is often overwhelmed,” Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, president of the Bishops’ Conference of France, said in spring 2021, when the bishops approved the court. “The creation of a national structure is also motivated by the difficulty of recruiting personnel for the existing offices.”