“Emmanuel Macron! O head of c **! We pick you up at your place… . In 2019, Father Francis Michel was filmed during the celebration of a mass surrounded by Yellow Vests. During this one, the man of the Church sang insulting and hostile songs with regard to Emmanuel Macron. Friday May 15, 2020, the parish priest learned of his dismissal of orders.
In a press release, the Diocese of Évreux explains that the former member of the clergy “Loses the rights proper to the clerical state as well as ecclesiastical dignities and offices”, reports The Parisian. "Excluded from the exercise of ordained ministry", he can not anymore "to celebrate the Eucharist, to pronounce a homily, to lawfully administer the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church nor finally to fulfill any charge of leadership in the pastoral setting or to have a responsibility in the parish administration ”. Without the possibility of appealing, the text specifies that the decision takes effect immediately. “This dismissal will remain a suffering for himself, for the faithful of the diocese, for his fellow priests and for his Bishop ”, concludes the press release.
"We are a priest for eternity”
Without specifying the reasons for this return to the secular state, our colleagues recall that it is a question of "the heaviest measure that the Catholic Church can take against one of its ministers of religion ”. Father Normand, for his part, tells the newspaper: “I was summoned and the bishop notified me of my dismissal. He wanted me to sign an acceptance, which I refused to do ”. Far from being let down, he adds: “I am a priest, no matter what people say. Because we are a priest for eternity ”.
The sulfur priest is not at his first punishment. As recalled The Parisian, in 2016 the Rouen Court of Appeal sentenced him to a fine of 15,000 euros for the embezzlement of more than 100,000 euros on quest money between 2006 and 2008. The Church then prohibited him from celebrate mass. However, he continued to receive faithful parishioners in his Planquay church.
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