Colomb has vigorously denied any wrongdoing, expressing “incomprehension at these slanderous allegations.”
Two other priests in the society, both former missionaries in Japan, have also been accused of rape. Father Aymeric de Salvert was sent home from Sapporo by Japanese Church authorities because of a homosexual relationship and was later accused by an alleged abuse victim in France. Father Philippe R. was also sent back from Japan after his superiors at the mission society were made aware that a man had accused him of rape.
Bishop Gilles Reithinger, an auxiliary bishop of Strasbourg and former superior of the Paris Foreign Mission Society, is also accused of having mismanaged the accusations of abuse by Colomb, his predecessor as superior of the society, something Reithinger denies.
The Paris Foreign Mission Society currently has more than 180 priests and sends 150 young volunteers each year as missionaries to Asia.
The missionary religious society has an illustrious history. It has sent more than 4,000 priests as missionaries to Asia since its founding in 1658. Many of its priests suffered martyrdom in past centuries in China, Korea, and Vietnam, 23 of whom have been canonized as saints by the Catholic Church.
The preliminary canonical investigation into the alleged abuse by Paris Foreign Mission Society members will be conducted by the National Canonical Criminal Tribunal, a new legal structure established by the French bishops’ conference to deal with crimes and offenses committed by clerics and laity within the Church.
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