Sex-abuse priest’s promotion draws attacks on Catholic Church
A French archbishop’s decision to promote a priest who was sentenced to jail for raping a teenaged boy has drawn new condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church for its record on sex abuse.
Victim support groups and traditionalists have expressed outrage over the case of Dominique Spina, who was found guilty of raping a 16-year-old boy in 2006 and sentenced to five years in prison.
The archbishop of Toulouse, Guy de Kerimel, set off the controversy in June when he named Spina as diocesan chancellor, putting him in charge of archives.
The canonical code lays down that the chancellor must be “of honest reputation and above all suspicion”.
Because of the sensitivity of the topic, Catholic leaders have been reluctant to speak publicly, but one bishop told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the appointment was “a great shame” for the Church.
In a joint statement, several groups of victims of sexual abuse in Catholic schools expressed their “deep indignation” and “anger” at the appointment.
France’s Catholic Church is already reeling from several sexual scandals in schools it runs and accusations of longtime sexual abuse made against Abbe Pierre, once an icon of the defense of the poor who died in 2007.
https://globalnation.inquirer.net/284633...lic-church
A French archbishop’s decision to promote a priest who was sentenced to jail for raping a teenaged boy has drawn new condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church for its record on sex abuse.
Victim support groups and traditionalists have expressed outrage over the case of Dominique Spina, who was found guilty of raping a 16-year-old boy in 2006 and sentenced to five years in prison.
The archbishop of Toulouse, Guy de Kerimel, set off the controversy in June when he named Spina as diocesan chancellor, putting him in charge of archives.
The canonical code lays down that the chancellor must be “of honest reputation and above all suspicion”.
Because of the sensitivity of the topic, Catholic leaders have been reluctant to speak publicly, but one bishop told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the appointment was “a great shame” for the Church.
In a joint statement, several groups of victims of sexual abuse in Catholic schools expressed their “deep indignation” and “anger” at the appointment.
France’s Catholic Church is already reeling from several sexual scandals in schools it runs and accusations of longtime sexual abuse made against Abbe Pierre, once an icon of the defense of the poor who died in 2007.
https://globalnation.inquirer.net/284633...lic-church
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
