Pierre Pican

Memorial plaque at tomb of Pierre Auguste Gratien Pican S.D.B. (27 February 1935 – 23 July 2018), Bishop of Bayeux from 1988 to 2010. Pierre Auguste Gratien Pican S.D.B. (27 February 1935 – 23 July 2018) was a French prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Bishop of Bayeux from 1988 to 2010. In 2001, he was given a three-month suspended sentence for failing to notify civil authorities of charges of sexual abuse of a minor made against one of his priests, the first criminal conviction of a French bishop since the Revolution.

Biography Pican was born in Granville on 27 February 1935. He studied ancient languages and literature before joining the Salesians of Don Bosco. He continued his education at the seminary in Dormans and spent his years as a scholastic in Lyon. He was ordained a priest on 24 April 1966. He was a school chaplain in Caen for two years and then from 1968 to 1971 led a parish as well as a French-Lebanese school in Beirut, followed by directorship of a technical school. He was provincial superior of the Salesians from 1975 to 1981. In October 2000, Bissey had been sentenced to 18 years in prison for molesting eleven minor boys. Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, wrote Pican to say he was glad to have "a brother bishop who in the eyes of history and of all the world's bishops would choose prison over denouncing his priest".

Pope Benedict XVI accepted his resignation, which he was required to submit when he turned 75 on 27 February 2010, on 12 March 2010. His retirement ceremony, held on 21 February, took place in the Basilica in Lisieux because the Bayeux cathedral was too small to accommodate the crowds expected. Asked about the way he handled the case of the sexual abuse he said that "Today I would not report it any more than yesterday" and that he "preferred to be condemned by his country's justice than betray his conscience".

In retirement Pican remained active within the Salesians and the Episcopal Conference of France, He lived first with the Salesian community in Paris and then on rue Picpus with the community of Petites Sœurs des Pauvres.