Roman Catholic Church officials in Quebec City yesterday denied that they asked a French bishop to give a job to a pedophile priest who went on to sexually abuse boys after moving to France in 1988.Jacques Gaillot, a retired French bishop, said Monday that it was a mistake to take Denis Vadeboncoeur into his diocese in the 1980s, but added that "back then, that's how the church operated."
"We were being helpful. We were asked to take in an undesirable priest and we agreed," said Gaillot, the former bishop of Evreux, west of Paris.
"This was more than 20 years ago. It was a mistake," Gaillot said in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper.
But Alain Fiset, who held a senior position with the St. Vincent de Paul order at the time, said it was Vadeboncoeur's decision to move to France, not his community's.
"He had friends in that diocese and they told him to come there - that he would be welcomed by the bishop," Fiset said yesterday. "The community (in Quebec City) did not send him there."
Fiset said they recommended to Gaillot that Vadeboncoeur not be allowed to work as a parish priest.
"If he decided to ignore what we recommended, that's his business," he said, adding that Gaillot should be more prudent with his comments.
Vadeboncoeur knew it would be difficult for him to continue to work as a priest in Quebec after his criminal conviction in 1985.
Vadeboncoeur was convicted that year of sexually assaulting children and sentenced to 20 months in jail.
After learning that Vadeboncoeur was planning to move to France, the order sent two letters to Gaillot in 1987 and 1988, shortly after Vadeboncoeur's arrival in Evreux.
In the letters, Pierre Lévesque, of the St. Vincent de Paul order, laid out Vadeboncoeur's crimes and and said it was possible he could reoffend.
"It is not unreasonable to entertain ... doubts about his ability to reoffend, especially in difficult times," said the letter, which was released yesterday by the Quebec City archdiocese.
Lévesque also said he believed Vadeboncoeur has "homosexual tendencies."
Gaillot knew of Vadeboncoeur's conviction in Quebec, and yet appointed him priest and vicar in 1988 to a parish outside of Paris, allowing him to have regular contact with children.
Vadeboncoeur was arrested in December 2000 on charges of sexually assaulting a minor.
A French criminal court convicted Vadeboncoeur in 2005 of sexually assaulting several minors between 1989 and 1992, and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
During the trial, Gaillot expressed regret for his decision to provide refuge for Vadeboncoeur.
Large-scale pedophile scandals have rocked the churches of Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, the United States and the pope's native Germany over the last few weeks.
The pope is facing growing anger over the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal and allegations that the church hierarchy worked to cover up crimes committed by their priests.
In the French newspaper interview on Monday, Gaillot said that "things have changed within the church. We now let justice authorities step in. We are slowly coming out of this culture of secrecy."
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