IAșI (ROMANIA)
PressOne [Bucharest, Romania]
January 26, 2026
By Emilia Sercan
[See also the original article in Romanian.]
A Roman Catholic priest sexually abused* a 13-year-old minor in the parish in Bacău County where he served: the bishop of Iași knew, sent the case to the Vatican and applied canonical sanctions, but did not notify the authorities, who only intervened later and definitively sentenced him to prison.
- The Roman Catholic Bishop of Iași, Iosif Păuleț, learned in 2022 that a priest under his command had sexually abused a 13-year-old minor, sanctioned him canonically, but did not notify the Police or the Prosecutor’s Office.
- The documents in the criminal file show that, before the Romanian state found out and intervened, the case was managed exclusively within the Catholic Church, through canonical procedures initiated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași and later validated by the Vatican itself.
- Although Vatican norms explicitly recommend cooperation with state authorities in cases of abuse of minors, the Church has limited intervention to administrative measures.
- It’s a pattern more familiar from international sex scandals in the Catholic Church: institutional silence, internal sanctions, and the priest’s relocation to another parish.
- The Romanian state intervened only after the Bacău Prosecutor’s Office took action ex officio: the priest was arrested, tried and definitively sentenced, in 2024, to four years in prison.
It took almost three years for the priest from Bacău to be held criminally liable, although in the case of sexual abuse of children, the law leaves no room for interpretation: they are considered serious crimes, which must be reported to the authorities and criminally investigated.
According to his own statements and documents from the criminal file, Bishop Iosif Păuleț did not notify the Prosecutor’s Office, considering that the Church’s internal mechanisms were sufficient to handle the case.
In a response to the PressOne editorial team yesterday , the spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași, priest Adrian Blăjuță, claims that ” immediately after learning of the facts, contact was made with the competent state authorities .”
The mentioned link actually refers to the hearing of Bishop Păuleț, which took place four days after the priest was initially detained and subsequently arrested.
The priest has been behind bars since July 2024 and is currently incarcerated in Vaslui Penitentiary. Tomorrow, the Vaslui Court is scheduled to rule on his conditional release.
December 2021. Cluj
Cecilia**, a woman from Cleja commune, Bacău county, finds out that between her minor daughter and priest Augustin Benchea, the parish priest of the “Saint Mark” Roman Catholic church in the locality, there is a connection that crosses the border of a confessional relationship.
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The information is given to him by the nurse who was taking care of the priest.
Priest Benchea had been transferred to the parish in Cleja for a little over a year , starting September 1, 2020, after serving in the village of Pustiana, Pârjol commune, Bacău county, for 16 years.
Cecilia talks to her daughter, now in eighth grade, who confesses to her that she was touched inappropriately by the priest.
The events took place in the summer of that year, between June and September 2021, when the minor was still 13 years old and a seventh-grade student. At that time, the girl frequently went to church, being in the period of preparation for receiving Holy Chrism.
The family is trying to manage the situation as best they can.
Cecilia immediately addresses a superior of the priest, asking him to move Augustin Benchea to another parish, and her daughter begins psychological therapy.
Deeply affected and frightened at the thought that what happened might be known in the community, the family decides at that moment not to notify the Police or the Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the documents in the criminal investigation file, the superior to whom the facts were reported – a parish priest and dean of a church in Bacău – only reported the situation of priest Benchea to the Episcopate in May 2022.
May 10, 2022. Iasi
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Iași, Iosif Păuleț, is informed that priest Augustin Benchea, the parish priest of the “Saint Mark” church in the commune of Cleja, Bacău county, has ” an alleged relationship ” with a minor, middle school student from the commune of Cleja.
The one who informs Bishop Păuleț about the abuse committed against a minor is the parish priest of a church in Bacău with whom Cecilia had spoken in December 2021. Five months pass from that moment until the notification of the Episcopate.
Bishop Păuleț issues a decree opening an internal investigation, targeting priest Benchea.
For the preliminary investigation of the Benchea case, Bishop Păuleț empowers Monica Butacu – a member of a Commission for the analysis of possible abuses of minors by clergy, which operates at the level of the Diocese. Butacu, an employee of the Church, was in charge of the administration of the “Saint Teresa of Calcutta” Community Assistance Center of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași.
The decree states that Monica Butacu receives ”
the same powers that the investigating judge has in a trial .”
However, the internal investigations of the Catholic Church are not conducted according to the rigors of a criminal investigation, their purpose being to establish disciplinary offenses of priests and to apply religious sanctions.
Another person empowered to handle this case is priest Nicu-Daniel Butacu, vice-chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași, also a member of the same Commission for the analysis of possible abuse of minors by clergy.
Beyond opening an internal investigation, Bishop Păuleț does not notify the state’s investigative bodies, although the law allows any person who learns of such an act to file a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office, without the need for a complaint from the victim.
According to criminal law, sexual crimes committed against minors are prosecuted ex officio, which means that state authorities must be notified immediately when there are indications of their commission.
However, the Bishop chooses to handle the case exclusively through the Church’s internal mechanisms.
September 9, 2022. Vatican
Archbishop John J. Kennedy, secretary for the Disciplinary Section of the Catholic Church – responsible for handling serious canonical offenses, especially cases of sexual abuse committed by clergy – sends a letter to the bishop of Iași, Iosif Păuleț.
This letter is a response to the disciplinary investigation file of priest Augustin Benchea from Cleja, which the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași sent to the Vatican. Monsignor Kennedy informs Bishop Păuleț that, “given the merits of the accusations ” made against him, a “criminal precept ” will be applied to Father Benchea .
In the Roman Catholic universe, a penal precept is a disciplinary measure, taken in the form of an order, issued by a competent church authority, through which sanctions are imposed on a person.
Thus, the punishment established by the Vatican for priest Benchea from Cleja was the following:
- the ban, for a period of three years , from exercising the function of parish priest;
- the indefinite ban on exercising the function of parish priest in the parish of Cleja;
- the prohibition, for a period of three years, of carrying out pastoral activity with minors, without the presence of an adult;
- the recommendation to the cleric to follow a course of psychological and spiritual counseling.
In the document, Monsignor Kennedy specifies that the punishment was taken based on the documents received from the Diocese of Iași and requests that Augustin Benchea be informed in writing and sign the notification, as proof that he has taken note of the sanctions that were applied to him.
The Disciplinary Section of the Catholic Church, headed by Archbishop Kennedy, was established by Pope Francis in 2017 following countless scandals related to sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests against minors.
October 10, 2022. Iasi
Bishop Iosif Păuleț communicates to priest Augustin Benchea the punishment decided at the Vatican for abusing a minor in the form of a criminal precept.
In the document, the bishop mentions that ” I am obliged to be concerned about all the faithful entrusted to my care ” and ” to demand compliance with all ecclesiastical laws to avoid situations of scandal .”
He informs Father Benchea both of the actual punishment established by the Vatican and that it was taken ” as a result of the completion of the preliminary investigation ” and ” of the finding of a violation of the sixth commandment of the Decalogue with a minor by Your Holiness .”
The sixth commandment of the Decalogue refers to not committing ” impure acts “, referring to interactions of a sexual nature. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains at length what constitutes a violation of the sixth commandment.
At the end of the document addressed to priest Benchea, Bishop Păuleț shows his willingness to ” be by your side even in these more difficult moments ” and mentions that the precept enters into force on the date of issuance, i.e. October 10, 2022.
One of the sanctions dictated in September 2022 by the Vatican was that Benchea should no longer work in Cleja.
He had already left the church and commune since July 2022 and could not have done so without the approval of the Diocese of Iași.
Moreover, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași had appointed another parish priest in Cleja – Felix Marius Roca – starting September 1, 9 days before receiving Monsignor Kennedy’s letter.
January 22, 2026. Cleja
Cleja is a commune that brings together three large villages, with over 5,000 inhabitants, 20 minutes away from Bacău. The entire community is Catholic, as stated by the deputy mayor Marinel Farcaș.
The “Saint Mark” Church in Cleja 2, where Augustin Benchea served, is closed. The parish house is also closed.
A man walking up the street where the church is located explains to us that if the car is not in front of the parish house or in the yard, then priest Felix Marius Roca, who is now the parish priest at Cleja 2, is nowhere to be found. ” He must have gone to town, because he stays there quite a lot ,” the man says.
The people of the village have difficulty remembering priest Augustin Benchea.
After asking a few passersby, frozen by the piercing cold, what they knew about their former parish priest, a woman related a few memories about “priest Augustine.”
” His name was Benchea? We knew him from priest Augustin . From what I heard, he had some serious problems at our church. Someone reported him for something, but we don’t know anything about him anymore. He simply held mass one Sunday, and the next week he didn’t come ,” says the woman we met on the icy streets at the entrance to the commune.
When I asked her if she stopped coming to church because he was arrested, the woman said she didn’t know the priest had been arrested.
” He cried at the mass, it’s clear that there was something there, but we don’t know, ” she adds, saying that a young woman filed a complaint against him for assaulting her, but ” we don’t know if it’s true .”
Locals no longer remember when and under what conditions he actually left the parish.
” He was moved from Cleja ,” says another local, but no one has any information about where the priest was moved before he was detained by prosecutors.
February 24, 2023. Bacau
The police officers from the Criminal Investigation Service within the Bacău County Police Inspectorate are reporting ex officio that priest Augustin Benchea from Cleja, ” taking advantage of his position of trust and authority in the community “, sexually assaulted a minor who was in the process of preparing to receive Holy Chrism.
Thus begins the investigation that ultimately leads to the execution of the prison sentence of priest Augustin Benchea.
It is not clear who actually notified the police about the fact that a minor from the commune of Cleja was sexually assaulted by the parish priest. What is certain is that the authorities were not alerted by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași.
Nine months pass from the moment the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași learns about this sexual abuse until the state authorities actually begin the investigation.
One of the first people questioned in the case, after the minor victim and her mother, is the woman who took care of priest Benchea. It happened in March 2023.
The caretaker is the one who notices the priest’s changed behavior and realizes that something inappropriate is happening with one of the girls who came to church. She is the woman who took care of the priest and who lived in the parish house.
This woman is the one who alerted Cecilia, the minor’s mother, in December 2021.
After hearing the girl and other witnesses, as well as a series of expert reports and computer searches, the prosecutor in the case establishes the legal classification of sexual assault in a continuous form.
Evidence indicates that the assaults on the minor occurred between June and September 2021, when she was not yet 14 years old.
July 24, 2023. Bacau
The investigators summon priest Augustin Benchea, inform him that he is a suspect, but he refuses to give a statement.
The prosecutor orders his detention for 24 hours.
The next day, on July 25, Benchea’s status was changed from suspect to defendant.
Again, he refuses to give statements, and the prosecutor in the case proposes his arrest for 30 days, a measure that is admitted by a judge of rights and freedoms from the Bacău Tribunal.
July 28, 2023. Bacau
Bishop Iosif Pauleț is summoned by telephone and urgently leaves Iași for Bacău, where he is questioned at the Bacău County Police Inspectorate.
In the statement given to investigators, he states that he learned in May 2022 that priest Augustin Benchea ” has problems with a young woman ” involved in church activities dedicated to young people.
In the next sentence of the statement, these ” problems ” are presented as ” relationships forbidden by the Roman Catholic church .”
The wording is euphemistic. In this case, it is not about violating the celibacy imposed by the church, but about the fact that the respective “relationships” took place with a minor under 14 years of age, which constitutes a criminal offense.
In the same statement, Bishop Iosif Pauleț claims that he discussed with priest Augustin Benchea, who did not deny the facts, but tried to diminish their seriousness.
The bishop described to the investigators the procedure followed within the Episcopate and, later, at the Vatican, as well as how the canonical punishment of the priest was reached.
The bishop also stated that he personally identified a center for psychological and spiritual courses in Rome, courses recommended to Benchea by the Vatican itself.
Priest Benchea thus left for Rome for a few months, information that his former caregiver also provided to investigators.
At the end of the statement given to investigators, Bishop Păuleț shirks any responsibility for notifying the criminal prosecution bodies, although the law requires the intervention of the authorities in cases of abuse of minors.
” Personally, I did not suggest to anyone that what happened should not be reported to the judicial authorities ,” he says.
Instead, they shift all responsibility to the victim’s family.
The bishop claims that he did his duty by conducting an internal investigation and that ” we took the measures ordered by the Vatican, leaving the family members […] to proceed as they see fit .”
The spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași, priest Adrian Blăjuță, claims in a response sent yesterday to the PressOne editorial team that, ” immediately after learning of the facts, contact was maintained with the competent state authorities and with the Holy See, following the canonical norms and procedures established by it, including those provided in the documents motu proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela and a motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi” .
He added that, ” because the Diocese of Iași was not a party to the trial, and this trial was non-public, we cannot make additional comments on the details of the case .”
***
In the absence of a report to the criminal authorities, the management of sexual abuse was left within the Church, where the ” solution ” was limited to administrative measures.
After returning from Rome, priest Augustin Benchea was not permanently removed from the pastoral circuit, but was moved to another community, in Roman, to the “Immaculate Heart of Mary” Parish.
The problem was not solved, it was just moved.
This practice – in which Catholic priests accused of abuse are moved from one parish to another, instead of their actions being brought to justice – has been documented in dozens of international journalistic investigations.
The method became emblematic after investigations by The Boston Globe in 2002, which showed that for decades, moving priests from one parish to another was used to bury possible public scandals and protect the Church, not the victims.
In the Benchea case, the documents show the same pattern: the lack of criminal notification was followed by the priest’s move to another city and the ban on being a parish priest for three years.
October 2, 2023. Bacau
The Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Bacău Court is prosecuting Augustin Benchea, who is still in pretrial detention, for the crime of continuous sexual assault of a minor.
Until December 27, 2023, the judges maintained the preventive arrest measure against him, which was replaced, at that time, with house arrest.
March 23, 2024. Bacau
The conviction on the merits of Augustin Benchea is pronounced by the Bacău Court.
The motivation is of maximum hardness.
The judge notes that the gravity of the act is amplified by the position of authority that Augustin Benchea had in the community: the victim was a minor and was part of the choir of the church where he served as parish priest. The court claims that this ”
reveals the degree of moral degradation in which he is, being obviously a person devoid of any kind of scruples and moral benchmarks, who puts the satisfaction of his deviant sexual behavior above the normal physical and mental development of a child .”
In addition to the four-year prison sentence, the court orders that priest Augustin Benchea pay his victim 10,000 euros in moral damages and 1,560 lei in material damages, as well as attorney’s fees, worth 3,000 lei.
He also had to pay another 4,000 lei to the state, as legal expenses.
At the same time, the judges ordered the registration of Augustin Benchea in the National Registry of Sex Offenders, a mandatory measure in the case of sexual crimes committed against minors.
July 30, 2024. Bacau
Augustin Benchea appealed the sentence received from the Bacău Court of Appeal, but the Bacău Court of Appeal fully upheld the first instance decision and definitively sentenced him to 4 years in prison.
After the final sentence was pronounced, Augustin Benchea was imprisoned at Vaslui Penitentiary.
Last week, on January 22, the Vaslui Court heard a first request for conditional release filed by him and postponed the sentencing until tomorrow, January 27.
January 25, 2026. Iasi
In a statement requested by PressOne , the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași conveyed through spokesperson Adrian Blăjuță, among other things, that it ” was not part of the criminal trial” of priest Augustin Benchea, that the trial itself was not a public one and, therefore, that it cannot make ” additional comments on details of the case .”
The religious institution ” expresses its pain and regret for the suffering and scandal ” caused by the case of priest Augustin Benchea, whose act, the Episcopate notes, is ” completely condemnable .”
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași does not explain, however, how such a case was possible within the church system.
Instead, he specifies that at the diocese level ” there is a constant concern for preventing such situations “, including through ” courses and training programs focused on the protection of minors and vulnerable people, pastoral responsibility and compliance with legal, ethical and moral norms “.
* Details about how the minor’s sexual assault took place have not been disclosed to protect any victim of sexual abuse from re-traumatization.
**Mother’s name has been changed for her protection
If you have been a victim of sexual abuse committed by a priest and feel you can speak about your experience, you can write to us, in complete safety and confidentiality, at contact@pressone.ro.