Small-town French priest under investigation in sex case based on complaint, photos

French priest under investigation in sex case

PARIS — A priest in a small town southeast of Paris has been hit with sexual assault and child pornography charges after a 22-year-old man accused him of abuse and pictures of a young parishioner were found in his home, a prosecutor said Friday.

The prosecutor of Troyes, Alex Perrin, says police detained the priest, who lives in Marcilly-le-Hayer, following a complaint of sexual assault by the 22-year-old. Perrin said that the priest contests the assault allegations but doesn’t deny having the photos.

Perrin said that police recovered two or three photos of a pornographic nature involving a minor in the priest’s parish from the clergyman’s home.

He says the priest was charged Wednesday with “sexual assault” and “illegal possession of images characteristic of child pornography” and freed.

The Catholic Church is grappling with a wave of sexual abuse allegations made by church members across Europe in recent weeks, some of which have raised questions of whether Joseph Ratzinger acted aggressively enough against priests under his supervision as an archbishop and cardinal before he become Pope Benedict XVI.

A conservative religious order that had enjoyed the favor of John Paul II apologized to victims of sexual abuse by its founder Friday.

And French bishops said in a letter to Pope Benedict XVI that they were ashamed of priests who committed “abominable acts” by sexually abusing children.

The Vatican insisted again that Ratzinger didn’t know about a Munich archdiocese decision to return a priest in therapy for pedophilia to pastoral work while the future pope was archbishop there.

A report in Friday’s New York Times said Ratzinger was copied in on a memo about the decision.

Lombardi circulated a statement issued by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising stating that the decision to return the priest to pastoral work was made by the vicar general of that time, Rev. Gerhard Gruber.

Gruber, who is now retired, told the AP on Friday that he was warned about the man and consulted with several people to weigh the risk, but never mentioned this to Ratzinger.

Gruber said in a telephone interview from Munich that the psychiatrist who treated the Rev. Peter Hullermann in Munich from 1980 through 1992 warned him the priest was a “risk”.

“Of course he warned me, he pointed out the risk,” Gruber said.

“However, I decided I would take the risk” and send Hullermann, who had a record of child abuse, back to pastoral work in Munich congregations, Gruber said.

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Associated Press Writer Verena Schmitt-Roschmann in Berlin contributed to this report.