TOULOUSE, France (LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Guy de Kerimel of Toulouse withdrew the controversial appointment of Father Dominique Spina, who was previously convicted for raping a 16-year-old boy, as chancellor and episcopal delegate for the pastoral care of marriages after intense backlash.
In an August 16 press release, the archbishop announced that Spina’s July appointment had been rescinded because of the “divisions” it caused and massive backlash from the faithful and abuse victims, but he defended the initial appointment as an act of “mercy.” Fr. Spina had been convicted in 2006 of raping a 16-year-old boy in 1993 and sentenced to five years in prison, with one year suspended.
READ: French archbishop appoints priest convicted of raping 16-year-old boy as chancellor
“My decision had been interpreted by many people as a snub to victims of sexual abuse; I apologize to the victims. This was obviously not my intention,” de Kerimel wrote in the announcement.
The archbishop then glaringly noted his belief that Spina’s appointment could have served as a “sign of hope” for perpetrators of abuse whose reputation has been tarnished, and he even asked for the disgraced priest’s forgiveness for withdrawing his appointment.
“Others finally saw it as a sign of hope for the perpetrators of abuse who had served their sentence and who are experiencing a very trying social death,” de Kerimel wrote. “(Therefore), I must ask forgiveness from the one I had appointed and in whom I trust, for not having been able to find the right place to which he is entitled.”
The archbishop continued:
Justice does not repay the perpetrator for the harm he did to the victim: ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ It places a limit on the exclusion of the culprit, except in extreme cases of dangerous people.
In the Gospel, Jesus went very far in rehabilitating sinful and guilty people. He called men like Matthew the tax collector, Peter the renegade, Paul the criminal, Mary Magdalene the prostitute, and so many others to positions of responsibility. Paul had caused victims, perhaps also Saint Matthew in another order.
While it’s true that priests and laymen alike who commit heinous sins such as the sexual abuse of minors can repent and receive God’s mercy, that doesn’t give priests who have served a prison sentence for this offense the right to return to priestly ministry out of “mercy,” as de Kerimel suggests.
Prominent priest and canon lawyer Father Gerald E. Murray previously stated that clergy who sexually abuse minors should not only be punished but removed from the priesthood completely rather than receive “pseudo-mercy” for their sins.
“All priests and bishops who commit crimes of sexual molestation of minors are wolves in sheep’s clothing who need to be punished and removed from the priesthood,” the priest wrote. “The same applies to those who protect sexual molesters from discovery and prosecution, allowing them further opportunity to commit crimes.”
“Laxity or pseudo-mercy gives the offender the impression that his crimes are not mortal sins deserving of eternal punishment,” he added. “The message conveyed is that evil priests and bishops can get away with horrific crimes since they have friends in high places.”
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Spina was ordained in the Diocese of Bayonne and served as a high school chaplain, a parish priest in Pau, and a diocesan vocations director before facing criminal charges.
The boy who was abused by Spina later entered seminary and told the rector his story, prompting an investigation. Spina was removed from his position in 2000 and arrested in 2002. In 2006, the priest was convicted of rape and sentenced to five years in prison but was released after serving four years with a suspended sentence.
Upon his release from prison, Spina was scandalously incardinated in the Diocese of Toulouse and assigned to a local parish. He was even put in charge of a children’s ministry.
In 2016, the public was made aware of Spina’s conviction via a report by French news outlet Mediapart. After the news broke, Archbishop Robert Le Gall, de Kerimel’s predecessor, removed Spina from his ministry.
However, according to the official announcement of his chancellor appointment, Spina has served as the vice chancellor of the archdiocese until now despite being barred from public ministry.
Per a 2016 report by Le Monde, psychiatric experts who had testified at Spina’s trial said the priest had “paranoid, narcissistic and perverse dispositions,” lacked a sense of responsibility for his actions, and that he was at risk of committing the same or similar crimes in the future.
Among those who had expressed outrage at Spina’s appointment was his victim, who identified himself as Frédéric. He told French news outlet Charlie Hebdo that he was “not surprised” by the bishop’s decision to promote the abusive priest.
“(Spina) has always enjoyed great goodwill. From the start, all the Church’s leaders have been very kind to him, and this continues quite logically. Being a priest is the only profession where you manage to find a new job despite committing abominable crimes,” Frédéric stated.
Referring to Archbishop de Kerimel citing “mercy” as the reason to promote Spina, he said:
“Taking the side of mercy? Do we take this side for the victims? Not at all.”
“Mercy?” he repeated. “It’s terrible to hear words like that … For the victims, mercy doesn’t exist. There’s nothing at all, to be honest. Spina is supported to the end.”
De Kerimel was appointed as the archbishop of Toulouse by Pope Francis in 2021 after previously serving as the bishop of Grenoble from 2006 to 2021. The archbishop has since become known for his opposition to traditional expressions of the Catholic faith.
READ: Vatican tells traditional French bishop to suspend ordinations of priests, deacons
He has reprimanded seminarians for wearing cassocks, accusing them of appearing “overly clerical.” He was also an enthusiastic defender of the restriction of the traditional sacraments through Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis Custodes.
