IAșI (ROMANIA)
PressOne [Bucharest, Romania]
January 27, 2026
By Emilia Sercan
[See also the original article in Romanian.]
Catholic priest Augustin Benchea, sentenced in 2024 to four years in prison for continuous sexual assault on a minor – a case revealed exclusively by PressOne – could be released from prison after the Vaslui Court ordered his conditional release today, January 27. However, the decision is not final and can be appealed within three days of notification.
Beyond the court’s decision, however, an essential question remains: what will happen to priest Augustin Benchea after he leaves prison and what will be his status within the Catholic Church?
PressOne requested clarification regarding its situation from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași.
The spokesperson for the Episcopate, priest Adrian Blăjuță , exclusively told PressOne that representatives of the institution have sent the Vatican an official request to receive ” clear instructions ” regarding Benchea’s status and the steps to be taken upon his release.
He also specified that, in such situations, there is no standardized response or fixed deadline from the Holy See. According to Adrian Blăjuță, each case is analyzed individually, and subsequent measures are determined ” on a case-by-case basis .”
The representative of the Episcopate also states that, to his knowledge, this is the first case of a priest arrested within the Diocese of Iași, a first that has put the institution in an unprecedented situation.
At the same time, the Episcopate recognizes the seriousness of the acts committed by Augustin Benchea and admits that, within the institution, there were errors in the management of the situation. At the same time, the Church representative rejects the accusations of intentional cover-up, claiming that there was no desire to hide the case, but to respect canonical procedures and the requests of the victim’s family.Moreover, in a statement made public on Monday by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași, it is stated that
“we commit to cooperate fully, transparently and promptly with the competent civil authorities, respecting the legislation in force and the current canonical norms of the Catholic Church .”
The Episcopate’s statements come in the context of PressOne’s revelations , based on documents from the criminal file of the case, showing that, for months, the case was managed exclusively within the Church, through canonical procedures validated by the Vatican, without the state authorities being notified by the diocese’s leadership.
The criminal intervention began more than a year after a representative of the Catholic Church was informed by the minor’s mother about what had happened, and the Police took action ex officio, starting the investigation that ultimately led to the former priest being sentenced to four years in prison.
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What did the Vaslui Court decide?
The Vaslui Court admitted today, January 27, the request made by priest Augustin Benchea, as well as the proposal of the Parole Commission within Vaslui Penitentiary, and ordered his release.
According to the decision, the period between the date of conditional release and the completion of the four-year sentence constitutes a period of supervision for the convict. During this period, Benchea will have to comply with the legal obligations imposed on persons under supervision, the court drawing his attention to the criminal consequences in the event of committing new crimes.
***
PressOne revealed that Roman Catholic priest Augustin Benchea sexually assaulted a 13-year-old minor from the parish in Bacău County where he served.
The abuse was known to the bishop of Iași, Iosif Păuleț, who learned in 2022 that a priest under his command had sexually abused a 13-year-old minor. He canonically sanctioned the priest, 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.
Augustin Benchea was convicted, in July 2024, of continuous sexual assault on a girl who was under 14 years old at the time of the acts, in July 2024. Both the trial court and the appeal court held that he took advantage of his position of authority in the community and the relationship of trust created with the victim, a minor who attended the church where Benchea was a parish priest.
In the reasoning of the lower court, one of maximum severity, the judge noted that the seriousness of the act was amplified by the position of authority that Augustin Benchea had in the community, and the victim was a minor.
In its decision, 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 .”