TOULOUSE (FRANCE)
The Pillar [Washington DC]
July 8, 2025
By Jack Figge
“Taking the side of mercy? Do we take this side for the victims?”
An archbishop in France appointed last month a priest convicted of raping a 16-year-old boy to the position of archdiocesan chancellor — telling French media that the appointment was meant as an act of mercy, and the position is mostly administrative.
After the appointment made French headlines Monday, victims’ advocacy groups — and the priest’s own victim — said the appointment was in their judgment unacceptable.
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Archbishop Guy André Marie de Kerimel of the Archdiocese of Toulouse – Saint Bertrand de Comminges–Rieux appointed June 2 Father Dominique Spina as the chancellor and episcopal delegate for marriages of the Toulouse archdiocese.
But in 2006, Spina was convicted of the 1993 rape of a 16-year-old boy, and was sentenced to five years in prison.
According to a statement obtained by French news outlets, Kerimel said that he has “taken the side of mercy” in regards to Father Spina.
“[Spina] no longer exercises any pastoral responsibility, other than that of celebrating the Eucharist, alone or exceptionally for the faithful,” Kerimel said in a statement released to news outlets July 7.
“Considering that we have nothing to reproach this priest for over the past 30 years for acts likely to be the subject of legal proceedings, canonical or civil, I have therefore chosen to appoint him to this administrative function.”
Ordained for the Diocese of Bayonne, Spina was a high school chaplain and parish priest in the town of Pau. He was also diocesan vocations director before facing criminal charges.
Multiple rapes occurred between 1993 and 1994 when the victim was 16 years old and a student at Notre-Dame de Bétharram, a local school engulfed in a series of sexual abuse scandals that took place from the 1970s to the late 1990s.
The victim later entered diocesan seminary, and allegations were investigated after the victim told the seminary’s rector what had happened.
Spina was removed from his role in 2000 when an investigation was opened, and he was arrested in 2002.
In 2006, the priest was convicted of rape and senteced to five years in prison. After serving four years, he was released with a suspended sentence.
According to Le Monde, psychiatric experts at Spina’s trial testified that the priest had “paranoid, narcissistic and perverse dispositions,” no sense of his own responsibility for the crimes, and was at risk of committing similar crimes in the future.
After being released from prison, Spina was incardinated in the Diocese of Toulouse where he was assigned to a local parish. There, he was in charge of children’s ministry.
The public learned of Spina’s prior conviction in 2016, when the French news site Mediapart reported on the priest’s former conviction and his new assignment.
After the report, Kerimel’s predecessor, Archbishop Robert Le Gall, removed Spina from ministry.
“Father Dominique Spina understands that exercising his duties as parish priest (…) is impossible in the current context. He asked me to be relieved of his duties: it is the only solution against widespread mistrust and suspicion. I accepted his removal,” Le Gall said in a 2016 press release.
The press release also acknowledged that the archdiocese had received other reports of child abuse, but the archbishop claimed he could not speak further about the issue.
“We are currently receiving the victims’ words and will support them in the steps they will take,” the archbishop explained.
But according to a June 4 diocesan statement regarding the new appointments, Spina has been until now vice chancellor of the Toulouse archdiocese, even while restricted from public ministry.
As chancellor, Spina will be in charge of assisting the archbishop with official communications and with advising and assisting on other administrative matters.
According to canon law, a diocesan chancellor is responsible for maintaining the archives of a diocesan curia. But in many dioceses, the role is conferred upon a person in a senior advisory role of the diocesan bishop.
The chancellor “must be,” canon law explains, “of unimpaired reputation and above all suspicion.”
Despite that requirement, Archbishop Kerimel defended his appointment this week.
“By this function, Spina is, in fact, a notary and secretary of the diocesan curia. Moreover, Father Spina does not accompany couples to marriage,” Kerimel said in the press release.
After French news outlets made the announcement of Spina’s new appointment public on Monday, the Archdiocese of Toulouse has received widespread criticism from support groups and victims of clerical sexual abuse, including Spina’s victim.
Spina’s victim, identified as Frédéric, told the French news site Charlie Hebdo that he was “not surprised” by Spina’s promotion.
“He has always enjoyed great goodwill. From the start, all the Church’s leaders have been very kind to him, and this continues quite logically. Being a priest is the only profession where you manage to find a new job despite committing abominable crimes,” Frédéric said.
Frédéric also criticized Archbishop Kerimel’s statement, asking whether mercy had been shown to victims of clerical sexual abuse.
“Taking the side of mercy? Do we take this side for the victims? Not at all,” Frédéric said.
“Mercy?” he lamented. “It’s terrible to hear words like that…For the victims, mercy doesn’t exist. There’s nothing at all, to be honest. Spina is supported to the end.”
Jérôme Moreau, president of the French victims’ federation, told French news site Liberation that, “Having people promoted based on the fact that they have good conduct sends a very bad message. Especially for the direct victim of this priest, it’s extremely painful.”
Archbishop Kerimel was appointed in December 2021 by Pope Francis to lead the Toulouse archdiocese. He was before that Bishop of Grenoble, and is a member of the Emmanuel Community, an association of the faithful known in France for its evangelical initiatives.
Spina is set to begin his new assignment Sept. 1.