The Archbishop of Toulouse appointed a priest who served a prison sentence for raping a minor as diocesan chancellor and episcopal delegate for marriage.
Archbishop Guy de Kerimel said that by appointing Fr Dominique Spina to the post he had “chosen the path of mercy”.
In 2006, Spina was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student while serving as his spiritual director in the 1990s at Notre-Dame de Bétharram school at Lestelle-Bétharram, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of south-west France.
In a statement last week to Agence France-Presse, Archbishop de Kerimel said: “It is true that Fr Spina served a five-year prison sentence, including one year suspended, for very serious acts that took place nearly 30 years ago”.
He added that the Church had “nothing to reproach this priest for in the last 30 years”. The post was administrative, he continued, adding that Spina “no longer” exercised “pastoral responsibility, other than celebrating the Eucharist,…
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