CAEN, France (AP) -- A court convicted a Roman Catholic bishop on Tuesday of concealing knowledge that a priest was sexually abusing children, sentencing him to a three-month suspended prison term.
Pierre Pican, 66, bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux in Normandy, had faced up to three years in prison.
Pican's lawyers had argued that the bishop had been motivated by what amounts to professional secrets even though he learned of the priest's acts outside the sacrosanct church confessional.
The prosecution said that Pican failed to assure that the case be brought to the attention of judicial authorities.
"This is not the trial of the church, but of a man of the church who failed in his duty ...," Prosecutor Jacques-Philippe Segondat told the court.
The priest, Rev. Rene Bissey, was convicted in October of raping and sexually abusing 11 minors from 1996-1998, and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Last week, Bissey told a court that he had decided not to appeal his conviction.