Jean-Baptiste Girard (Jesuit)

Jean-Baptiste Girard in a contemporary German illustration

Jean-Baptiste Girard (* 1680 in Dole ; † July 4, 1733 in Dole) was a French Jesuit priest . He became known throughout Europe in the 1730s through an accused sexual abuse and was considered the epitome of the corrupt clergyman.

Jean-Baptiste Girard entered the Jesuit order in 1696 and was ordained in 1707 . After stays in Gray , Pontarlier and Aix-en-Provence , he came to Toulon in 1728 , where he held the office of confessor . After allegations of corruption had already become loud, there was a trial in 1731 in which he was accused of seducing Marie-Catherine Cadière into sexual intercourse in the confessional and later inciting an abortion. The statements of other confessors of Girard supported the accusation, but this was acquitted on October 10, 1731 in Toulon. However, he had to return to his hometown, where he died two years later.

The process was overshadowed by the dispute between Jesuits and Jansenists , who at that time were engaged in a heated argument about the interpretation of Catholicism . The dispute over Girard's guilt or innocence not only aroused France, but found interest far beyond its borders. Songs, poems and pamphlets were written in large numbers and contributed to the criticism of the church and society in the context of the Enlightenment .

The affair continued to circulate for many years and was also processed literarily. Voltaire dealt with it and the novel Thérèse philosophe , one of the best-selling libertine works of the 18th century, took Girard and Cadière as anagrammatically veiled protagonists. The anti-Jesuit polemics of the 19th century saw Girard as the epitome of the corrupt clergyman.

literature

• Hertha Busemann: The Jesuit and his confessor. The fascination of a moral scandal in three centuries. BIS, library u. Information system d. Univ. Oldenburg. With e. Foreword by Ernst Hinrichs. Oldenburg 1987, ISBN 3814202058

Web links

• Short biography, website of the University of Trier