A French Catholic priest who hit a two-year-old boy for crying during baptism has been forced into instant retirement. Father Jacques ...
A French Catholic priest who hit a two-year-old boy for
crying during baptism has been forced into instant retirement.
Father Jacques Lacroix, 89, said 'I am finishing my
ministry now' and that 'there is an end to everything'.
Denying that the assault was too severe, Father Jacques
told France Info radio on Friday: 'It was somewhere between a caress and a slap,
I hoped to calm him down, I didn't know what to do.
'The child was screaming a lot and I had to turn his head
to pour water over it.
'I told him to "calm down, calm down" but he was
not calming down. I tried to hold him close. I just wanted him to calm down.
'I apologised for my clumsiness to the family. I am
finishing my ministry now, it was my last baptism, there is an end to
everything.'
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