Horrific details of Father Spina's crimes. Now the Archbishop of Toulouse is promoting him to be Chancellor of the Archdiocese, a position he could use to protect abusing priests.
The Dominique Spina case is a legal case involving a priest from the Diocese of Bayonne, Dominique Spina, sentenced at first instance (2005) and on appeal to 5 years in prison, one of which was suspended, for the rape of a teenager between the ages of 16 and 17 in 1992-1994.
The publicized revelation in 2016 of his transfer to the Diocese of Toulouse, where he had served since 2009 as pastor of a large parish church, requiring regular contact with children, raised the question of the reinstatement of priests convicted of child sexual abuse.
His appointment in June 2025 as chancellor of the Diocese of Toulouse by Guy de Kerimel once again sparked controversy. Dominique Spina's victim claims that she was also sexually abused at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram institution by its former director, Pierre Silviet-Carricart.
History
Incardinated in the Diocese of Bayonne, Dominique Spina is a vicar in Jurançon in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region. In 1994, he was entrusted with the chaplaincy of the Louis Barthou public high schools in 1994 and Saint-John Perse in Pau, as well as responsibility for the diocesan vocations service.
It was in this context that he met a psychologically fragile adolescent, from a family whose father was absent and occasionally violent. His mother was raising five children alone, one of whom was disabled. Raised in the Catholic faith and educated at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram institution, the adolescent desired to become a priest. Dominique Spina thus became his spiritual guide. The sexual abuse began in September 1992 and continued until June 1994, when the victim was aged 16 and 17. They took place in Nay, where the teenager lived, as well as at the presbytery in Pau where Dominique Spina resided. The priest groped and sexually assaulted him (forced kissing and masturbation) and forced him to perform fellatio on him twice.
Dominique Spina forbade his victim from entering the Bayonne seminary. The young man nevertheless began a year of preparatory studies in Namur, Belgium, which he abandoned after a few weeks. Back in Béarn, he continued to see Dominique Spina and finally entered the Bayonne seminary in 1996, where he reported the acts of which he had been a victim, first to his confessor, then to the seminary director, who, however, cast doubt on his testimony. Four months after his report, he was expelled from the seminary in 1998 due to his "lack of maturity." Dominique Spina, for his part, was removed from the vocations department in 2000.
The victim filed a complaint in February 2002 against the priest, who was taken into custody. He admitted to the sexual assaults (which were covered by the statute of limitations) and the fellatio. Before the investigating judge, Dominique Spina recanted his confession, admitting only to fondling and denying fellatio. He claimed that even though the term had been recorded in the hearing transcripts, he was unaware of its meaning.
Trial and conviction of Dominique Spina
Dominique Spina, who was suspended from his duties as a priest, appeared on May 11, 2005, before the Pau Assize Court "for having committed acts of penetration against the adolescent by obtaining fellatio from him through violence, coercion, threats, and surprise, with the circumstance that he had authority over him." The young man refused to allow the hearings, which were to take place over three days, to be held behind closed doors. According to the newspaper Sud Ouest, they took place "in a detestable atmosphere," fueled by the attitude of dozens of the priest's supporters who came to mark their presence. Thirty witnesses were cited, including the Bishop of Bayonne, Pierre Molères, as well as priests, who, despite being informed of Dominique Spina's actions, did not report them to the courts. The lawyer for the civil party denounced in court a code of silence on the part of the Church.
The priest claims a shared romantic relationship and attributes his confession in custody to "harassment" by the police. For her part, the victim denies any consensual relationship and claims that the priest coupled his actions with blackmail by presenting himself as the only person capable of having him admitted to the seminary. She explained to the jury that, on his part, "this is not an attack on the Church, nor a means of revenge, but a means of rediscovering a lost dignity."
The bishop, called as a witness, denies having any knowledge of the facts, of which no one informed him, while the seminary superior claims to have only been informed by the victim of "unhealthy behavior" on the part of the priest, which he disbelieved, having, according to him, doubts about the morality of the seminarian, who allegedly sought revenge after being caught using the pink Minitel. Psychiatric assessments concluded that Dominique Spina "lacked any sense of guilt and had a perverse personality structure." He was sentenced on May 14, 2005, to five years in prison, one of which was suspended.
He was released in July, after only two months in detention, following an appeal of the first judgment.The verdict was finally upheld at second instance by the Tarbes court on May 20, 2006, with a committal order issued, following hearings held this time behind closed doors.
The bishop spoke of an event that "had a painful impact on our diocesan Church" and "wishes to thank all those who, during this long period of waiting, showed friendship, patience, and generosity to Dominique [and] asks them to pray for him and continue their support."
Conviction of Dominique Spina's victim for sexual assault and corruption of minors
The male victim of Dominique Spina, who works as a history and geography teacher at the private Jeanne d'Arc secondary school in Tarbes, was taken into police custody and charged on May 11, 2016. He is accused of corruption of minors, sexual assault, and rape of his student, a 14-year-old girl. In June 2015, he was expelled from the school after showing a pornographic video on his cell phone to three sixth-grade students during a school trip to Nîmes.
He acknowledges these facts and "a special relationship with the girl" but denies the suspicions of rape and sexual assault: the girl's parents had filed a complaint against him a few weeks after the incident with the sixth-grade students, alerted by their daughter's behavior and "suspicious messages" discovered on his phone.
During his police custody, he told investigators that he had been raped by Dominique Spina. The Pau investigating judge requested a detention warrant, but he was only placed under judicial supervision, in accordance with the request of the prosecutor's office and his lawyer. The charges were reclassified as sexual assault and corruption of minors, for which he was sentenced in February 2019 by the Pau court to a one-year suspended prison sentence, with a two-year probation period and mandatory treatment, as well as a five-year ban on working in an establishment receiving minors, and registration with the FIJAIS. He was also ordered to pay €3,000 to the minor victims and their parents.
Transfer of Dominique Spina to the Archdiocese of Toulouse
Mediapart revealed in April 2016 that Dominique Spina was transferred in 2007, after his release from prison on parole, to the Archdiocese of Toulouse, where Robert Le Gall is bishop, while remaining incardinated in his original diocese. The priest then worked as an archivist, with a pastoral mission exclusively for adults. However, the online media outlet reported that since 2009 he has served as the parish priest of a parish complex composed of seven bell towers (Fronton-Bouloc-Castelnau-d'Estrétefonds). Interviewed by Mediapart, Dominique Spina acknowledged that he participates in retreats organized twice a year to prepare children for their First Communion and that he hears their confessions on these occasions. He specifies, however, that it is "in the middle of the church, in full view of everyone" and that he is never alone with one or more children, who are always accompanied by their parents and catechists.
Robert Le Gall confirms Mediapart's information: "The father has served his sentence. In December 2007, I accepted this father temporarily with very reduced charges. Father Dominique Spina has no direct contact with the children and never hears confessions in an isolated place." The online media, however, judges that the role of parish priest exercised by Dominique Spina is at odds with the recent declarations of Stanislas Lalanne, head of the French episcopate's paedophilia monitoring unit: "Today, we must be extremely clear: a priest who has been convicted of acts of paedophilia must no longer be able to exercise a ministry. In the context of the Philippe Barbarin affair and that of Jean-François Sarramagnan, also a priest of the Diocese of Bayonne, who was simultaneously under investigation for sexual abuse of his 12-year-old nephew, Dominique Spina's placement in a parish has caused controversy.
On May 3, Robert Le Gall announced that the priest, at his request, was being relieved of his duties, arguing that "it is the only solution against widespread mistrust or suspicion." However, the daily newspaper Le Monde points out that the psychiatric experts at Dominique Spina's trial concluded that there was "no guilt" accompanied by "paranoid, narcissistic, and perverse tendencies," which raised fears of a risk of reoffending given his profile. In his statement, the archbishop indicated that "there are also two other cases in the diocese of priests convicted years ago: one for sexual assault of minors under the age of 15, the other for possession of child pornography." In the case of Dominique Spina, he said he was "considering a new situation for him. It should not allow any direct or indirect contact with young people.
The priest's parish leadership team, however, issued a statement of support, which was published on May 10 on the archdiocesan website, in response to the "media frenzy" that amounted to judging Dominique Spina "once again in the public arena [and] smearing him with words that do not correspond to him," such as the term "pedophile, a word [which] was never used before, during the trial, or in the sentence." The press release ironically points out that "for any inmate, it is normal to talk about the future, about rehabilitation, except for him, no doubt." Other parishioners, on the other hand, expressed their incomprehension at the fact that the priest was appointed parish priest despite his conviction by the courts.
In January 2017, the daily newspaper La Croix revealed that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith did not deem it necessary to dismiss Dominique Spina from the clerical state, since "he exercises an administrative but also a pastoral ministry, in a role where he is not in contact with young people." Interviewed by the newspaper, the Vicar General of Toulouse indicated that Dominique Spina's case had led to a reflection on the support of priests convicted of sexual abuse and had provided an opportunity to "also reexamine the diocese's past, [to] recognize that everything had not always been handled ideally." » and to realize "that the bishop is sometimes alone in deciding." A "supervisory commission" comprising a magistrate, an ecclesiastical lawyer, a psychiatrist, and a psychotherapist was established in December 2016. Dominique Spina was appointed in 2020 to the diocese's Catholic Archives Department, which preserves and maintains registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials.
Controversy over his appointment as Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Toulouse
The June 2025 appointments page announces that Dominique Spina, "a priest of the Diocese of Toulouse," has been appointed to the position of Chancellor, which, the newspaper La Croix points out, "carries a high symbolic weight and for which canon law requires that the priest be 'of impeccable reputation and above all suspicion.'" For it is he who ratifies the diocese's legal acts, such as the appointment of priests. And when the bishop's seat is vacant, he plays a very important role".
For Jesuit theologian Patrick Goujon, "while the office of chancellor is indeed an administrative task, […] it is not subordinate, and concerns sensitive matters. For all decisions resulting from a trial, it is up to the chancellor to record and disseminate them. Investigations by the CIASE and the police in certain more recent cases have shown the habit of chancelleries destroying documents concerning pedophile priests.".
This appointment has outraged members of the diocese. Olivier Savignac, spokesperson for the advocacy group "Parler et revivre," a victim of a priest from the Diocese of Pau, sees it as "a provocation." He claims that Dominique Spina was the chaplain of a primary school until 2019. According to him, the decision of the Diocese of Toulouse contradicts the recommendations of the Ciase: "Normally, when a priest has committed one or more rapes of minors, he should be dismissed from the clerical state. Why didn't the Diocese of Toulouse make this decision? We wonder what it's up to."
Archbishop's reaction
Archbishop Guy de Kerimel, for his part, stated on July 7 that he had "taken the side of mercy": "Considering that we have had nothing to reproach this priest for over the past thirty years for acts that could be the subject of legal, canonical, or civil proceedings, I have therefore chosen to appoint him to this administrative position." He published a statement to this effect on the diocese's website three days after his statements to the press.
Reactions from other victims' associations
Mélanie Debradant, president of the association "Fraternité victimes" , which helps people abused in the Catholic Church, believes that "talking about mercy to defend this promotion is simply scandalous" and points out "a real disconnect from the Archbishop of Toulouse when we see the reactions." She also claims that this appointment is contrary to canon law: "It is written in the Code that the chancellor must have an intact reputation and be above suspicion. With a criminal conviction for rape of a minor and imprisonment, I think we can say that the reputation is not intact." For France Victimes, "having people who are promoted based on the fact that they have good conduct, is a very bad message. All the more so for the direct victim of this priest, it is extremely painful" . In a press release dated July 8, groups of victims of Catholic education, including that of the Notre-Dame de Bétharram institution, expressed their "anger" and their "deep indignation" with regard to this appointment which, according to them, "demonstrates that, despite a stated desire to fight against violence against minors, the Church of France continues to protect predators, even those convicted, and goes so far as to promote them" For Loup Besmond de Senneville, deputy editor-in-chief of La Croix, "the leaders of the Catholic Church cannot, today, ignore their 'public opinion,' that is, the faithful."
Testimony of Dominique Spina's Victim
The male victim of Dominique Spina spoke to Charlie Hebdo on July 8. He recounted that he attended the Notre-Dame de Bétharram school, which was located near his family home, from fourth grade to final year. He said he had filed a complaint with the Bétharram victims' collective against Pierre Silviet-Carricart, the school's former director, for sexual assault and rape. According to his testimony, Pierre Silviet-Carricart was his first attacker and then put him in touch with Dominique Spina. According to him, there may be other victims of Dominique Spina who have remained silent. He also looks back on the years that followed, when he was a teacher "in the region in the network of private Catholic institutions." According to his testimony, having "filed a complaint against a priest" had serious consequences: "I had to leave my native region and my work. I received death threats and I didn't want it to go any further. I realized the weight of the local notables."
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