Deposed French bishop apologizes for accepting abusive priest into diocese
April 06, 2010
Bishop Jacques Gaillot, who was removed from his French diocese in 1995 after blessing a homosexual union and criticizing the discipline of clerical celibacy, has apologized for accepting an abusive priest into his diocese.
“This was more than 20 years ago,” said Bishop Gaillot. “It was a mistake.”
After Father Denis Vadeboncoeur served a prison sentence for sexually assaulting children in Quebec, Bishop Gaillot permitted him to minister in a French parish. The priest is now serving a 12-year prison sentence for the rape of children in France.
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Posted by: R. Spanier (Catholic Canadian) -
Apr. 07, 2010 1:21 AM ET USA
Rape of "children"? Truth... they were male children. Fr. Vadeboncoeur pled guilty (served 20 months) to two charges of sexual abuse and one of sodomy against four male teens in Quebec before resuming his life as a priest in France in 1988. And in 2005 he was sentenced to 12 years for raping a boy in his Normandy parish. May God please help him and his former bishop, Jacques Gaillot. http://ctestp.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20050921/canadian_priest_050921?hub=CP24Entertainment
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Posted by: -
Apr. 06, 2010 10:15 AM ET USA
Since Canon Law (sec II, chap 1, can. 1740 et al) allows a Bishop to suspend a parish priest, the main source of the failure first lies with our bishops who fialed to take action ecen after repeated offenses. Contrary to what myths and propagnada say about a tightly controlled Church from the top, in reality the Church is administratively fragmented and the local bishop or Ordinary is expected to act with full authority. Rome doesn't examine every particulate of every action.
