Romania: Catholic priest convicted of raping a 13-year-old parishioner after diocese handled it canonically for two years

Proceedings

1. Date in cited record · conviction, final

   Judecătoria Vaslui (Vaslui District Court), Romania. Augustin Benchea was convicted of the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl from his parish and sentenced to four years' imprisonment with execution. Bishop Iosif Păuleț of Iași had learned of the abuse in May 2022 but did not report it to police or prosecutors, instead applying canonical sanctions (removal as paroh of Cleja, a three-year bar on parish leadership and on unsupervised pastoral contact with minors) validated by the Vatican; Romanian state authorities intervened roughly two years after the bishop's knowledge, following press reporting. The bishop later publicly acknowledged 'errors in managing the case' while maintaining he acted in good faith, and announced Benchea would be laicized on release. As of mid-2026 Benchea was granted conditional release from the Vaslui sentence.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• his standing as the girl's parish priest and the family's trust in that office
• the diocese's choice to resolve the matter through internal canonical sanction rather than reporting to police, which delayed any external check on him for roughly two years after the bishop learned of the abuse