Archbishop Appoints Convicted Rapist Chancellor of Families

This is the kind of story that would make the baby Jesus weep while satan did a victory dance.

The Catholic Archbishop of Toulouse, France just appointed a priest who was convicted and served time in prison for raping a 16-year-old boy to the position of chancellor and episcopal delegate for marriages.

The bishop claimed, as these guys always do, that he had “taken the side of mercy.”

That, in my experience, is what  they always say. I personally know of an Episcopal bishop who tried to cover for one of his priests who sexually molested a teen-aged girl at the church youth camp he was supposed to be supervising. When lay members of his diocese confronted the bishop, he — of course — tried to use emotional and spiritual blackmail on them by accusing them of not having “mercy” for the pedophile priest.

Emotional and spiritual blackmail to try to force people to let rapists and sexual predators get away with it seems to be standard behavior for some bishops, priests and preachers.

The bottom line is, bishops who do things like this are the ones who have no mercy. There is no sin that Jesus cannot and will not forgive if the person truly repents and seeks His forgiveness. But why would anyone leave a convicted child rapist in the priesthood, much less place him in a position where he is responsible for marriage and family?

The Catholic Archbishop of Toulouse France named a convicted child rapist as his diocsese’ chancellor and episcopal delegate for marriages. That’s not mercy. That’s promotion. Aside from making him principal of a school, head of the diocesan summer camp for youth or maybe the diocesan director for vocations, can you think of a more obscene choice of placements?

Certainly, we should show appropriate mercy to any convicted person, especially those who sincerely repent. But that does not mean that we should put them in positions to offend again. It certainly does not mean that we should leave sex offenders in the priesthood where they have such power over people’s lives and souls. It absolutely does not mean that convicted rapists should be placed over the ministry to families of a diocese.

Suppose for a moment that this priest had been convicted of embezzling millions of dollars of the diocese’ money. Does anyone seriously believe that any bishop anywhere would be prattling on about “mercy” while they appointed him to manage the diocese’ money? That would never happen.

The reason that would never happen is because the Church values its money.

But crimes of sexual assault against women and children? The Church has got big problems even figuring out that this is a real sin. It absolutely does not accept or respect the hideous destruction that these sick crimes inflict on their victims. It also ignores the simple and well-documented fact that sex offenders re-offend at enormously high rates.

No wonder the Church refused to lift its little finger off its Bible to speak out against electing a repeat sexual offender to high office. They don’t think there’s anything wrong with sexual assault. Not really.

I’ve dealt with this topic a lot in my professional life. I’ve passed more laws concerning sexual assault than I can count. I was one of the founders of the first rape crises center here in Oklahoma. And I can tell you one thing I’ve seen play out over and over again. When someone has an unnatural affinity for sexual predators and an equally unnatural and cruel indifference to the suffering of their victims, there’s something wrong with them.

From Catholic News Agency:

The archbishop of Toulouse, France, has drawn fierce criticism for appointing a priest previously convicted of raping a 16-year-old boy to serve as diocesan chancellor, sparking outrage from victims’ advocates and the local Catholic community.

Archbishop Guy de Kerimel named Father Dominique Spina as chancellor and episcopal delegate for marriages, effective Sept. 1, according to a decree published June 2 on the archdiocese’s website. The appointment became public knowledge on July 7, when the regional newspaper La Dépêche du Midi broke the story.

Spina was convicted in 2006 by the Tarbes Court of Appeals for raping a 16-year-old student in 1993 while serving as the boy’s spiritual director at Notre-Dame de Bétharram school. The court sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment, with four years to be served and one year suspended.

De Kerimel defended his controversial choice in a statement to Agence France-Presse, saying he had “taken the side of mercy” in promoting Spina, who had worked in diocesan archives for five years.