A Homosexual: From Prison to Chancellor of an Archdiocese
According to Riposte-catholique.fr (3 July), Abbé Spina was sentenced to four years in prison in 2005 for raping a male high school student from Pau in 1993, for whom he was the spiritual director. This sentence was confirmed on appeal in 2007.
During the investigation, the priest claimed that it was a 'consensual relationship'.
In 2007, Spina was granted conditional release and transferred from the Diocese of Bayonne to the Diocese of Toulouse.
This decision was made with the agreement of the respective bishops of the two dioceses, Mgr Pierre Molères and Mgr Robert Le Gall.
The latter specified that 'only very limited duties were entrusted to him: a position as archivist and a small pastoral role working with adults only'.
In 2009, Spina was appointed head of the parish of Fronton and its seven churches, with restrictions on his ministry. Nevertheless, he was relieved of his parish ministry in 2016 at his own request after the situation was publicised in the media.
Guy de Kérimel is the bishop who dismissed the priests of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint-Pierre without reasons nor trial when he was Bishop of Grenoble.
Picture: Mons Guy de Kérimel, Abbé Dominique Spina, #newsDynyrbelzk