Father Yvon Doiron will be sentenced this afternoon (Monday 30 January 2012) at 1:30 pm at the Campbellton court house, Campbellton, New Brunswick.
As always, please pass on news of the outcome, either with a link to a media coverage or a comment.
*****
I have had Father Denis Vadeboncoeur sv name on the Accused list since last April. There were also several related articles posted on the site and a couple of blogs. At that time I was just starting to get the data base together hence the information was never pulled together and presented in one page. That has now been done.
I think the information speaks for itself. It is a rather unique ‘case’ in that Vadeboncoeur, a Vincentian priest (order of Saint Vincent de Paul) in Canada, was, after his conviction and short time in prison, welcomed into the Diocese of Évreux, France by Bishop Jacques Gaillot. In short order Vadeboncoeur was given a parish.
In 2000 Vadeboncoeur was reported. He had resumed molesting young lads shorty after his arrival in France.
In 2005 Vadeboncoeur entered a guilty plea.
What is interesting here is Bishop Gaillot’s tap dancing regarding what he knew and when. According to a 21 September 2005 article in the Montreal Gazette: “The then-bishop of Evreux, Jacques Gaillot, was caught in a lie when he later claimed he hadn’t been told of Vadeboncoeur’s past.”
According to another article of the same date Gaillot claimed he was told of Vadeboncoeur’s past a few months after the priest’s arrival in France.
In 2010 Gaillot is quoted as saying: “We were being helpful….We were asked to take in an undesirable priest and we agreed,” the implication here that he was asked to take in a known predator.
In response to Gaillot’s trans-Atlantic mud slinging the Archdiocese of Quebec released the two letters.
There’s a little confusion in various media reports as to what exactly triggered the first of these two letters, but the fact is that on 29 October 1987 the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Quebec wrote to Gaillot specifically to inform him of Vadeboncoeur’s past. According to one source Vadeboncoeur was already in France when the letter was dispatched. According to others the letter was dispatched when it was known in Canada that Gaillot had agreed to take Vadeboncoeur in.
And, four months later a second was dispatched. It is unclear if this letter was dispatched by registered mail to ensure that it got into Gaillot’s hands, or if it was, as is indicated in one article, because news had reached Canada that Gaillot had assigned Vadeboncoeur to a parish.
The fact is that that letter was sent to Gaillot and he was informed, and by the sound of it, he was warned! It doesn’t sound at all as though Canadian Church officials were urging Gaillot to take in a convicted sexual predator .
Was Gaillot lying?
Again, and again and again?
I will try to get copies of the letters today, and will also try to get some dates squared away, as well as find out when exactly Vadeboncoeur left the Vincentians.
Enough for now,
Sylvia