SSPX Priest on Trial for Abusing 7 Children

A priest of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is on trial for abusing seven children.

On April 4, Fr. Arnaud Rostand, former U.S. district superior, appeared in criminal court in Gap, France, where he is charged with sexually assaulting multiple minors from 2002 to 2018 in France, Switzerland and Spain.

In his court testimony, the 58-year-old priest admitted to his crimes and apologized to victims, saying he has “always struggled against this attraction” to adolescents. 

Significantly, Rostand made his SSPX superiors aware of his struggles as early as 1998, writing a letter to his superiors admitting his attraction to children. He repeated his concerns to superiors in 2000, 2006 and 2016. 

Rostand himself confirmed in a 2010 interview, “In August of 2008, Bishop Fellay, the General Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X, appointed me as Superior of the District of the United States.” He served as district superior from 2008–2014.

In spite of these warnings, the SSPX, primarily through Fellay, continued placing Rostand in positions of authority in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Rostand’s victims were former students of SSPX academies.

The priest said he has been receiving psychiatric care since 2019. 

“I realize today that I should have acted differently,” he conceded in court. 

In response to questioning over why he never turned himself in to police, he said, “I ask forgiveness from the victims and regret profoundly everything I have done.”

TRACK RECORD OF ABUSE

The charges against Fr. Rostand come less than a year after fellow French SSPX priest Fr. Pierre de Maillard was convicted in court for abusing 27 minors over the course of 25 years.

The trial was reported across French media as a "horror trial," with de Maillard gaining the singular reputation of being named “the greatest serial predator” in France.

Rostand’s trial also comes a year and a half after American SSPX priest Fr. Matthew Stafki pleaded guilty to molesting his six-year-old niece over the course of three years.

In December 2020, an SSPX teacher in France was convicted for abusing 13 children, and just two months prior, in October 2020, SSPX priest Fr. Frederic Abbet was apprehended and imprisoned in Switzerland for abusing at least five boys in his care.

In 2017, SSPX priest Fr. Christophe Roisnel was sentenced to 19 years in prison for raping and torturing three female teachers at an SSPX academy in France.

Because victims are largely shunned and ostracized by their SSPX community if they accuse a priest, and leadership has used heavyhanded tactics to silence witnesses, it remains unknown how many actual victims exist, and how many SSPX priests have abused their flock. (Read this archive for more reports.)

Former U.S. District Superior Fr. Jürgen Wegner admitted in a leaked phone call that he knew of "hundreds of cases" of abuse within the Society. 

GRAPHIC TESTIMONY

According to one victim, a former student at an SSPX academy where Rostand taught: “He gave me massages on my penis. During a boat trip, he offered to drive me, then he held me by the shoulders until he caressed my stomach and my genitals under my swimsuit.”

Another former student testified that during a scouting trip in Spain, “He asked to take a shower with me. Then he touched my penis and took my testicles in his hands in dead silence.”

Various victims spoke about how the abuse affected them:

• “I was petrified.”
• “I have a deranged vision of sexuality.”
• “Today, I have a lot of anger that I find hard to channel.” 
• “I had a disgust for sexuality. I had to break off my engagement.”

The attorney representing two of the victims said they were just “the tip of the iceberg.”

Lawyers for Rostand tried to minimize his harm, dismissing claims that Rostand was a dangerous predator, instead calling him “a weak, fragile, reprehensible man.”

Public Prosecutor Violaine Perrot is asking that Rostand be sentenced to four years monitored probation, with treatment, and a total ban on volunteer work or any professional ministry involving minors. She is also asking for financial compensation for the victims.

The court will issue its judgment and sentence on June 6.

SSPX RESPONDS

The SSPX issued an official statement (now deleted) on April 5, claiming that superiors suspended Rostand in 2014 “after ambiguous and inappropriate attitudes were brought to their attention.” 

“For ten years, the accused has been subject to appropriate disciplinary supervision within the Society,” the statement continues.

The SSPX notes that it reported Rostand to law enforcement in 2019.

The statement ends with a call to prayer for the victims.

“As usual, Menzingen issues a press release full of half-truths and self-congratulation,” said one European source whose family member was abused by an SSPX priest. He requested anonymity to protect his family.

In recent years Rostand served in an administrative capacity at SSPX headquarters in Menzingen, Switzerland, until the current superior general, Fr. Davide Pagliarani, promoted him to the post of prior (equivalent to parish priest) in 2018.

“I also know that catechism classes for children are given in the part of the general house allocated to this priory,” the source said, indicating that Rostand would have had access to children, in spite of the SSPX’s claims that he was under “disciplinary supervision.”

The SSPX's statement omits the fact that superiors, according to Rostand, knew of his pedophilic tendencies as early as 1998, yet placed him in positions of authority on several continents. These include Asia (Ceylon and Manila, Philippines) and North America.

Local Massgoers confirm Rostand was allowed to baptize children and offer Sunday Mass at St. Césaire chapel during his time in Canada from 2020–2022. None of the families was informed of his predatory past.

"[W]e saw him preaching and leading Mass in St. Césaire or in Montreal at different times between 2000–2021 or 2022," said one Canadian. "When he went back to France we all wondered why he left!"

In 2022, Rostand was sent to Montgardin, France — nicknamed the “Golden Prison” because it serves as the SSPX’s home for troubled clergy. 

For instance, SSPX priest Fr. Damian Carlile, accused of abusing young boys in Gabon, Africa, and later in New Zealand, also spends his days in Montgardin.

PLACING PREDATORS IN POWER

Numerous reports show that Fellay has a track record of placing predators back in ministry, after a short stint in “prayer and penance.” The abusers often go on to continue their abuse — and so it seems in the case of Fr. Rostand.

Bishop Fellay was replaced as superior general in 2018 by Fr. Davide Pagliarani, who has been accused of following the same modus operandi as his predecessor.

“Pagliarani has acted with the same criminal recklessness and deliberate endangerment,” said the European source, “since as soon as he took office (July 2018) he moved Rostand, physically in the same building in Menzingen, from bureaucrat with no pastoral function (‘communications officer’) to prior, therefore necessarily in contact with the faithful, families, children, etc.”

Pagliarani also placed admitted pedophile Fr. Patrick Groche — longtime collaborator with Abp. Marcel Lefebvre and founder of the Gabon mission, where he is accused of molesting African boys — in Maison Saint-Ignace in Lourdes, France in 2020, near the world-famous shrine. While he technically placed restrictions on Groche to be strictly supervised, there is evidence that Groche comes and goes as he pleases and that he has access to children.

One of his victims visited the Lourdes priory in July 2022, where Groche was seen surrounded by altar boys before Mass. When Groche learned that one of his victims was present, he disappeared and remained absent throughout Mass.

Concerns remain that Rostand may have unnamed victims in India, the Philippines and North America.

(4/24/2024: This article was updated with information about Fr. Rostand's time in Canada)