Bishop Emmanuel Delmas of Angers, France, has stripped a priest previously convicted of child pornography offenses of all his diocesan responsibilities. He only took action following media attention.
The priest, Rev. Joseph Renaud, 76, was indicted and jailed in June 2017 for possessing and distributing child pornography.
According to Ouest-France.fr, the diocesan statement said, "Aware that the responsibilities entrusted to him, notably as notary and delegate for clergy social protection, could cause misunderstanding and add to the distress of the faithful, Bishop Emmanuel Delmas and the priest concerned decided by mutual agreement to renounce them. His responsibilities ceased as of Tuesday, August 12."
In late 2012, Microsoft detected that several illicit images depicting minors had been uploaded to a U.S.-based cloud storage service. The FBI traced the source and transmitted the information to Interpol [a private association under Swiss law]. It then relayed it to French investigators who identified the IP address as belonging to Rev. Renaud.
He was convicted in 2017 and sentenced to two years in prison, four months of which were served in jail.
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