MARSEILLE (FRANCE)
The Pillar [Washington DC]
August 11, 2025
By Edgar Beltrán
“Such an appointment to such an important position…can only reopen wounds, reawaken suspicions, and disconcert the people of God.”
“Such an appointment to such an important position, both canonically and symbolically, can only reopen wounds, reawaken suspicions, and disconcert the people of God,” said an Aug. 11 statement from the leadership of the French bishops’ conference.
The statement was signed by Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, president of the bishops’ conference, as well as Archbishop Vincent Jordy of Tours and Bishop Benoit Bertrad of Pontoise, vice presidents of the conference.
“Our Church, for several years, has courageously taken the path of truth in the painful question of abuses committed within it. It is very important to continue this work in all sectors of ecclesial life,” the statement said.
“This shift in perspective… [has] initiated, for our ecclesial institution, a long and demanding work of conversion, which we are determined to continue. In this spirit, we have entered into a constructive dialogue with Mgr Guy de Kerimel, Archbishop of Toulouse, inviting him to reconsider the decision he had taken regarding the appointment of the Chancellor of his diocese,” it added.
Controversy arose in France in June, when Archbishop Guy de Kerimel of Toulouse announced his decision to appoint Fr. Dominique Spina as the chancellor of the diocese.
In 2006, Spina was sentenced 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.
Among those who have criticized the appointment is Archbishop Hervé Giraud of Viviers, who spoke out against the decision first in a July 21 social media post and then again in an interview with the magazine La Vie, published the following day.
Giraud said he was “appalled by this appointment,” which he termed “unacceptable and untenable.”
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.
Originally a priest of the Diocese of Bayonne, Spina had served as a high school chaplain, parish priest, and diocesan vocations director before being accused of rape. His victim, a teenage boy, later entered diocesan seminary, where he told the rector what had occurred.
Subsequently, an investigation was launched into Spina’s actions, and he was 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 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 that “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.”
“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, which becomes effective Sept. 1, has 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.