« Ne no longer living in hiding is a huge relief ”. Marc Fassier can now live his love story in the open, relates Le Parisian. At 43, this former priest had to register with Pôle emploi for the first time in his life, an unexpected consequence of his relationship with Ingrid. The reason ? Then priest of Lilas, in Seine-Saint-Denis, he fell in love with this parishioner three and a half years ago.
A relationship that they tried to hide, but which was denounced to Mgr Pascal Delannoy, the bishop of Saint-Denis, in an anonymous letter a year ago. First “encouraged” to leave his parish, he was struck by “suspense a divini” on May 10. He is accused of having mentioned his situation during a podcast at the end of March. Even if he testified anonymously, his superior would consider that with this testimony he “publicly declares an infringement of canon 1395 paragraph 1” of the Code of Catholic Law. Marc Fassier can no longer celebrate, baptize or confess.
Removed from the Catholic Institute of Paris
“I am sanctioned because I put on the table the question of the emotional life of the priest and shattered the Church’s culture of silence, which is the worst crime in his eyes. She accepts secret relations as long as it remains secret ”, regrets the ex-priest, for whom his eviction from the Church was“ very violent ”. Marc Fassier was also removed from the Catholic Institute in Paris, where he was teaching.
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The establishment explained in a press release that the principal concerned had “chosen a path of life incompatible with the commitments to the priesthood”. “Teaching is an act of his ministry as a priest, but he no longer has the right to act as a ministry”, explains to the Parisian Mgr Pascal Delannoy, without giving more details on this affair: “It is a matter of internal discipline in the Church, I do not wish to communicate ”.
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“No guilt towards the Lord”
Graduated from Sciences-Po, doctor of theology and ordained priest in 2004, Marc Fassier will continue to receive his “monthly salary of 1,000 euros” from the Church until he finds a job. But the obstacle course has only just begun for him, as he realized from his first telephone meeting with a Pôle Emploi advisor, when he cannot receive unemployment benefits.
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“We don’t exist socially. She did not find a priest in her professional categories and had to force the software “, he slips, assuring that he wishes to bring his case to justice so that his eviction by the Church is recognized” as a dismissal “:” The Church takes refuge in her canonical exception. It allows itself what no company can allow itself while it preaches morality. It is an abuse of power ”. Opposed to the celibacy of priests, he will above all be able to “love freely” from now on, without “any guilt towards the Lord”.
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