A French Roman Catholic Bishop has been charged with failing to alert police about a priest after allegedly discovering in the confessional that he had sexually abused young children.
It is the first time the French justice system has taken action against a cleric in this way, raising legal questions about the secrecy of the confessional.
Bishop Pierre Pican of the northern town of Bayeux is expected to stand trial in June, a justice official said.
Magistrates allege Bishop Pican heard Father Rene Bissey's confession and discovered that he was abusing minors. Instead of making him go to the police or reporting him, the bishop temporarily relieved him of his duties, prosecutors say.
Fr Bissey was sentenced to 18 years in jail last October for the repeated rape of one boy and the sexual abuse of 10 others between 1989 and 1996 in a case that shocked France.
The priest stood trial after one of the main victims, now in his 20s, filed a formal complaint with police.
Testifying in Fr Bissey's case, Bishop Pican declined to say if he had known about the assaults and insisted that the confidentiality of the Catholic confession box was paramount.
Lawyers for the families of the boys believe Bishop Pican knew of Fr Bissey's sex crimes in 1996, two years before the priest was finally arrested.
"I am waiting for the responsibility and guilt of the bishop to be recognised. This recognition of guilt could give the church an opportunity for a great debate," a lawyer for the families said.
Fr Bissey was in charge of a parish near the northern city of Caen until 1996 when he was suddenly relieved of his duties and sent to a religious retreat.
Six months later he was given a new parish in the northern Calvados region, where he again had contact with young people - although none of the abuse charges relate to this period.
Bishop Pican is the second senior French churchman to run into a scandal over his handling of a case of alleged paedophilia.
In December, the former Bishop of Evreux, Jacques Gaillot, admitted entrusting a parish to a Canadian priest in the late 1980s despite knowing that he might have paedophile tendencies.
Bishop Gaillot was sacked from his diocese in the Normandy town by the Vatican five years ago because of his unorthodox views on social issues.