The case against Johannes Rivoire, who victims say has been on the run for decades, came to a head this week when the Inuit leader of Canada asked the pope to intervene in person during a visit to the Vatican by a delegation of indigenous peoples. . Meeting in person with Pope Francis on Monday, Natan Obed, head of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, asked Rivoire to return to Canada to “be tried for the damage he has done.” Obed called on the pope to use his “influence on the competent authorities” to extradite Rivoir or to try the priest in France. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said last month an arrest warrant was issued across Canada for Rivoir, 93, who currently lives in Lyon, France. Rivoar, a priest with the Mary Immaculate Missionaries, worked in many Arctic communities in the 1960s and ’70s before returning to France in 1993. Inuk senior Peter Irniq told APTN News last year that his friend Marius Tungilik was one of the Rivoire victims. Tungilik committed suicide in 2012 at the age of 55. His friends say he was cracked by the abuse at the hands of the Rivoire. “[Marius] drank and drank and drank. “He was very haunted by this devilish priest,” Irniq said. It is believed that there are at least five other victims. Police filed three charges against Rivoir in 1998, but he was already in France. The charges were eventually dropped after the Canadian authorities considered that France’s policy of not extraditing citizens would limit their ability to bring them to court. The new charge dates back to allegations that took place between 1974 and 1979. The complainant’s identity is banned from publication. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Canada asked Rivoire to surrender to the authorities, and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said that “the church should not stand in their way but help victims who fall victim to seeking justice and healing.”
