Suspended Priest Killed with Crucifix in His Throat

Father Roger Matassoli, 90, was found murdered on Monday in his house in Agnetz, north of Paris.

He had been an assistant-priest and a parish priest for 42 years until 2009, when he was suspended on charges of harassment of altar boys.

After the murder, Oise Bishop Jacques Benoit-Gonnin announced that Matassoli had been banned from exercising his priesthood after two civil cases for abuses had been brought against him.

Matassoli’s alleged victims were two altar boys between the ages of 10 and 14. The prescribed abuses took place in 1962 and between 1976 and 1980.

For Matassoli’s death a 19-year-old suspect was arrested. It is not clear whether the murderer was aware of Matassoli’s past. The prosecution declared that he never indicated that he had been the victim of abuses.

Picture: L'église d'Agnetz © wikicommons CC BY-SA, #newsVwpteoqcei