Open Letter to Archbishop de Kerimel concerning his outrageous appointment of a convicted abuser as Chancellor of his Archdiocese

Margot FERREIRA

MEJ Team Leader - Diocese of Toulouse Former Head of Educational Matters/Training - National Centre of the  Eucharistic Youth Movement France

Toulouse, June 30, 2025

To the attention of

Monsignor Guy de Kerimel, Archbishop of Toulouse and His Eminence Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, President of the Conference of Bishops of France

Subject: Reaction to the appointment of Father Dominique Spina as Chancellor of the Diocese of Toulouse

Monsignor, Your Eminence,

It is with profound revulsion and immense disappointment that I address this letter to you. The appointment in June 2025 of Father Dominique Spina as Chancellor of the Diocese of Toulouse constitutes an extremely serious, indefensible decision, and unworthy of the Church of France in 2025

Father Spina was sentenced in 2006 to five years in prison, one of which was suspended, for the rape of a 16-year-old boy, committed in 1993. This was not a suspicion, but a crime that was recognized, tried, and punished. Today, this man is entrusted with a central position in the diocese's organizational chart: that of chancellor. This office is not a simple administrative task. The chancellor is the guardian of the bishop's legal acts; he is involved in appointments, the validation of canonical acts, and the archiving of decisions. He often acts as a direct delegation of episcopal authority. It is therefore not a discreet or peripheral position, but a position of trust, influence, and power at the very heart of diocesan governance

The mere fact that this crime was committed should be enough to rule out any possibility of such an appointment. Yet, today you are placing him in a position of responsibility that his past should have definitively barred him from. This choice deeply offends the ecclesial conscience and amounts to a betrayal of the trust that the Church is trying to rebuild.

This priest has never been removed from his duties since his conviction. He continued to exercise his ministry, was a parish priest, and participated in pastoral care, more or less openly, while remaining integrated into the diocese, then appointed vice-chancellor, before being promoted to chancellor. This is neither an oversight nor a transitional stage. It is an assumed trajectory, and it is disconcerting. This sequence of events makes no moral or institutional sense. It is the very embodiment of a profound rupture between the actions taken by the Church and the principles it claims to uphold

I have been involved in the Church for many years. I have supported youth teams in the Diocese of Toulouse, participated in the training of youth leaders at the national level, and helped to establish, within the Eucharistic Youth Movement (MEJ), mandatory training on the prevention of sexual violence against minors for adult supervisors/ supporters/facilitators. I worked together with the Conference of Bishops of France to bring an end to the culture of silence and blindness. I acted, with others, to make the Church a truly safe, respectful place worthy of the trust of children and families.

And today, you have come to destroy all these efforts. You are trampling on the work of hundreds of educators, facilitators, lay people, and responsible priests, who have upheld this demand for vigilance and truth. You are breaking the trust patiently rebuilt. You are revealing an incoherent Church, blind, deaf to its own commitments

We have all seen the damage caused by decades of inaction, cover-ups, and clergy protection at the expense of victims. The Sauvé report, the damning testimonies, the tears, the shattered lives... How, after that, in this context, is it still possible to promote a man found guilty of destroying a teenager? How can we still talk about prioritizing the protection of the weakest, when your actions so blatantly deny them?

The Church can no longer perpetuate a culture of institutional rehabilitation of abusers under the guise of mercy. This is not about denying the possibility of spiritual forgiveness. It is about fully accepting that certain faults definitively disqualify any access to a position of authority or representation. It is unacceptable, in 2025, to have to remind people of this again

This decision is not only a mistake. It constitutes a serious breach of your moral and pastoral duty, a direct attack on the credibility of the Church, and further violence against the victims and those who accompany them. It is also an insult to the collective conscience which, slowly but firmly, has demanded accountability, transparency, and justice. It betrays your fundamental role as pastors, guarantors of the protection of the most vulnerable.

As a believer, faithful and committed to our Church, children, and their families, I refuse to serve an institution that acts in this way.

I inform you that this letter will be made public. It is time for the voice of the committed, lucid, demanding, and wounded faithful to be heard. It is this fidelity that drives me to speak out today. For this appointment cannot, must not, be regarded as a simple administrative choice. It involves much more than that. It raises a question of moral, ecclesial, and spiritual coherence

I'm not trying to judge Dominique Spina personally. I believe in mercy. I also believe in conversion. But I believe even more firmly that certain functions must remain incompatible with certain pasts. Not out of revenge, but out of responsibility. Out of loyalty to those who have been hurt. Out of respect for the young people we support. Out of concern for justice and truth.

During his trial, psychiatric experts highlighted a risk of reoffending, worrying personality traits—paranoia, narcissism, perversion—as well as a total lack of guilt. These findings, far from being trivial, cannot be dismissed out of hand on the pretext that no acts have been committed since. The seriousness remains. And this documented past should have been enough to rule out any assumption of an institutional role

This appointment does violence to those who, like me, believed and still believe that the Church could truly change. It deeply hurts the victims who hoped to finally be taken seriously. It destabilizes educators, priests involved in prevention, parents, and the young people themselves.

I am not writing to create controversy. I am writing because I cannot remain silent. Because this choice is serious. It is no longer about the image of the Church, but about its conscience. Its word. Its credibility.

As someone responsible for young minors in our diocese, I feel today deeply ashamed and totally discredited following this decision. How can I explain this to my young people, their parents, and my teams? How can I continue to transmit the values of vigilance, justice, and unconditional respect, if the Church itself sets a counterexample at the highest levels of its governance?

I will not abandon my commitment. But I can no longer pretend. And I can no longer defend what seems indefensible to me.

I don't know how the Church still hopes to gather, call, or reach new people if it persists in such actions. How can it claim to inspire vocations, commitment, and sincere adherence when the signals given are those of forgetting, silence, and the denial of wounds?

What you have decided is serious. And the consequences, far beyond the Archdiocese of Toulouse, will be lasting. A press release will not be enough to repair this. It will take humility, truth, and above all, choices that live up to the promises the Church has made to its faithful.

When the Church betrays what it proclaims, it not only weakens itself in the eyes of the world. It also loses those who, from within, believed in it with strength and loyalty

Please accept, Your Eminence, the firm expression of my commitment and determination for a Church faithful to the Gospel and worthy of the trust of the children entrusted to it

Margot FERREIRA

Source

Cathcon:  Incredibly, Father Spina had already bee appointed Deputy-Chancellor and nobody seems to have noticed.