TOULOUSE (FRANCE)
The Pillar [Washington DC]
July 22, 2025
By Edgar Beltrán
Archbishop Giraud called the appointment of a priest convicted of rape as chancellor in another diocese ‘unacceptable.’
A French archbishop has publicly criticized the appointment of a priest convicted of rape as chancellor of the Archdiocese of Toulouse, calling the appointment was “unacceptable and untenable.”
Archbishop Hervé Giraud of the Diocese of Viviers criticized the appointment of Fr. Dominque Spina in the Toulouse archdiocese, which caused uproar among French Catholics earlier this month first in a social media post on July 21 and then again in an interview with the magazine La Vie, published the following day.
The archbishop said he was “appalled by this appointment,” and called his intervention over the decision of a brother bishop an expression of “fraternal correction.”
Toulouse’s Archbishop Guy de Kerimel, who made the appointment, has argued that Spina’s nomination as chancellor, despite a 2006 conviction for raping a 16 year-old, was an expression of “mercy” and did not amount to a promotion.
“Who should show mercy? I don’t think a bishop can show mercy without taking into account the victims… It’s not simple because we must also look after the priest’s future, but there are many other ways to open up a path in life for him,” Giraud said in the interview.
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In early June, de Kerimel appointed Fr. Dominique Spina as diocesan chancellor. The appointment caused controversy because Spina had been sentenced in 2006 to five years in prison for multiple counts of rape of a teenage boy in the 90s while serving as a school chaplain in Bayonne.
The priest served four years of his sentence before being released, after which he incardinated in the Archdiocese of Toulouse.
According to a June 4 statement regarding new appointments in the archdiocese, Spina had been recently serving as vice chancellor, even while restricted from public ministry, and was being elevated to chancellor.
Archbishop Giraud, the first French bishop to publicly criticize de Kerimel’s decision, said in a Jul. 21 Bluesky post that “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. ‘Where does this impression come from that the Church has always been better at dealing with sinners than with victims?’ (J.B. Metz) The appointment of the chancellor of the diocese of Toulouse is unacceptable and untenable.”
Following up in an interview with La Vie, the bishop said that on hearing of the appointment his “first reaction was to think of the victims. Their outraged reactions were swift. Like many others, I was therefore appalled by this appointment.”
“After so many years of awareness, how could a guilty priest, even one who had served his sentence, still be appointed to such a position which requires a ‘reputation of integrity?,’” Giraud said.
Asked about his decision to wade into the public debate, Giraud said that “[After] listening to and reading the strong reactions of the faithful, and especially the victims, I told myself that I had to react.”
“My goal was not primarily to criticize a colleague, but to clearly state that this appointment was unacceptable and untenable. Unacceptable to victims of sexual violence. Untenable because I do not believe it is possible to maintain it as it stands,” he said.
“Our institution is slow. Here too, we will have to progress in the way we ‘correct’ ourselves fraternally.”
“What worries me most is that not only clergy but also lay faithful are unable to understand the point of view of all those who have suffered and still suffer from our ‘overlooking’ attitudes or those without true compassion or just mercy.”
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Spina, originally a priest of the Diocese of Bayonne, was convicted in 2006 of the rape of a teenage boy in the 1990s, whom he met while serving as a school chaplain. He was sentenced to five years in prison, with one year suspended.
Following his ordination as a priest of 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.
The victim was raped repeatedly by Spina when he was 16 years old between 1993 and 1994 and a student at Notre-Dame de Bétharram, a Catholic 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 arrested in 2002. In 2006, he was convicted of rape and began serving his prison sentence.
After his release, 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, Spina was removed from public ministry by Archbishop Robert Le Gall, who was succeeded by de Kerimel in 2022.
De Kerimel said of Spina’s appointment as chancellor last month that “rape is a crime, and there is no question of relativizing a crime. It is our absolute duty to do everything possible to ensure that the victim is recognized and supported in their life journey; they must move forward to rebuild by discovering that they are not primarily or solely a victim, even though these wounds cause lifelong pain.”
The archbishop recalled that Spina had served in recent years as an archdiocesan archivist and as vice-chancellor, overseeing matters such as baptism and marriage notifications.
“After the resignation of the current chancellor, I decided to maintain continuity of mission and appoint Fr. Spina as chancellor, while keeping his work in the archives,” de Kerimel explained.
“As chancellor, and as before, he will continue to work in his office at the archdiocese; he therefore has no contact with young people, and lives very discreetly… this can in no way be understood or presented as a promotion, as certain press organs have sought to do.”
The archbishop noted that media coverage of the appointment, announced June 2 and effective Sept. 1, cited a provision from canon law that chancellors must be “of unimpaired reputation and above all suspicion.”
“I think we can say that of Fr. Spina today, if we believe, as Christian faith and simple humanity invite us to do, that a person’s conversion is possible,” de Kerimel wrote.
He went on: “Is it possible to show mercy to a priest who sinned gravely 30 years ago, and who has since demonstrated self-sacrifice and integrity in his service and his relationship with his superiors and fellow priests?”
The Catholic Church in France has struggled in recent years to get to grips with a burgeoning abuse crisis.
In 2022, French Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard admitted to abusing a 14-year-old girl in the 1980s.
Prominent figures within French Catholicism have faced posthumous accusations of sexual misconduct, including Abbé Pierre, founder of the Emmaus charity, Fr. Georges Finet, co-founder of the Foyers de Charité, Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe, founder of the Community of St. John, and Jean Vanier, a Canadian who founded the L’Arche community in France.