ACI Prensa Staff, 18 August, 2025 / 7:34 pm (ACI Africa).
Archbishop Guy de Kirimel of Toulouse, France, has reversed his decision to appoint a priest convicted of rape as chancellor of the archdiocese and asked forgiveness of the victims of abuse, whom he had no intention of offending, according to a statement released Aug. 16.
“In order not to cause division among bishops, and not to remain at a standoff between those for and against, I decided to reverse my decision; this has now been done, with the appointment of a new chancellor,” the archbishop said.
The reversal of the appointment of Father Dominique Spina, a priest sentenced in 2006 to five years in prison for raping a 16-year-old boy in 1993, came after the French Bishops’ Conference asked the archbishop on Aug. 11 to “reconsider the decision.”
The French prelates stated at the time that “an appointment of such importance, both canonically and symbolically, can only reopen wounds, arouse suspicions, and disconcert the people of God.”
Speaking about sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic Church in France, the bishops noted that “we have learned to look at these events first from the point of view of the people who were their victims and who suffer the consequences for the rest of their lives.”
