The Vatican said on Friday that it was launching an investigation into French cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard.

The cardinal admitted to committing a "reprehensible" act of sexual abuse on a 14-year-old.

 "In order to properly examine what happened, it has been decided to open a preliminary inquiry," Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

Bruni said that the Vatican was looking for a person "with the necessary autonomy, impartiality and experience."

What do we know about the cardinal?

On Monday, France's Catholic Church revealed that 11 former or serving French bishops have been accused of abuse or not reporting abuse cases.

On Tuesday, French prosecutors said they had launched an investigation into Ricard for alleged "aggravated sexual assault," but had not yet filed a complaint. Prosecutors said they first received a report about Ricard in October from Nice Bishop Jean-Phillippe.

Ricard was made a cardinal in 2016 by Pope Francis and was bishop of Bordeaux from 2001 to 2019. He is a high-ranking member of several Vatican offices, including the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he voted in proceedings involving other sex abuse cases.

"Thirty-five years ago, when I was a priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way towards a girl of 14," Ricard wrote in a statement that was read out at a bishops' conference in the southwestern French town of Lourdes.

"There is no doubt that my behavior caused serious and long-lasting consequences for that person," he said.

An independent commission investigating abuse in the French Catholic Church said last year there were thousands of pedophiles in its ranks over many years, adding that the French clergy had abused an estimated 330,000 children over the last 70 years.

The commission said that crimes were covered up in a "systemic manner" by the church hierarchy.

sdi/wd (AFP, AP)