Helping Canadian Pedophile Priest 'A Mistake,' French Bishop Admits, Ottawa Citizen, DATA

Helping Canadian Pedophile Priest 'A Mistake,' French Bishop Admits

Ottawa Citizen
April 6, 2010

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Helping+Canadian+pedophile+priest+mistake+French+bishop+admits/2767174/story.html

A retired French bishop said Monday that it was a mistake to take a convicted Canadian pedophile priest into his diocese in the 1980s, but added that "back then, that's how the Church operated."

"We were being helpful. We were asked to take in an undesirable priest and we agreed," said Jacques Gaillot, the former bishop of Evreux, west of Paris.

"This was more than 20 years ago. It was a mistake," said Gaillot in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper.

The Pope is facing growing anger over the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal and allegations that the church hierarchy worked to cover up crimes committed by their priests.

Retired bishop Jacques Gaillot said his parish was being helpful when it took in a Canadian priest.
Photo by Patrick Kovarik

In 1987, Gaillot agreed to take in Canadian priest Denis Vadeboncoeur, two years after he was sentenced to 20 months in prison by a Canadian court for sexually assaulting children. Gaillot knew of his conviction and yet appointed him priest and vicar in 1988 to a parish in western France, allowing him to have regular contact with children.

A French criminal court convicted Vadeboncoeur again in 2005 for raping several minors between 1989 and 1992 and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. During the trial, Gaillot expressed regret for his decision to provide refuge for Vadeboncoeur.

The retired bishop said that "things have changed within the Church. We now let justice authorities step in. We are slowly coming out of this culture of secrecy."

In Italy, the Pope acknowledged Monday the Church is in "times of difficulty," but avoided direct comment on sex abuse, as the Vatican faced fresh criticism over the scandal.

After a series of pedophile revelations which cast a pall over the holiest week in the Christian calendar, the embattled pontiff spoke of priests' special responsibility to society in an Easter Monday prayer. Benedict told hundreds of followers at Castel Gandolfo near Rome that "the loving presence (of Christ) accompanies the Church on its path and supports it in times of difficulty."

"Priests, ministers of Christ, have a special responsibility," said the 82-year-old Pope, appearing calm and smiling, adding that they should be "messengers of victory over evil and death."

But Benedict again kept mum on the abuse scandal, which has reached the Pope himself with claims that he helped shield predator priests when head of the Vatican's moral watchdog and as archbishop of Munich.

A report in Germany's Die Zeit magazine said that current Vatican No. 2 Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, and not the Pope, bore the main responsibility for inaction in the scandal of a U.S. priest. Benedict has faced criticism over claims that, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he failed to take action despite being alerted twice by the archbishop of Wisconsin to claims that Father Lawrence Murphy had abused 200 deaf children.

Large-scale pedophile scandals have rocked the churches of Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, the United States and the Pope's native Germany in recent days.