French priest stripped of clergy status for abusing Scouts

PARIS (AP) — France’s Catholic Church has stripped the priest at the center of a high-level misconduct scandal of his clerical status while finding him guilty of sexually abusing Boy Scouts.
A French church tribunal said in a statement Thursday that its internal investigation found Bernard Preynat committed “criminal acts of sexual character against minors under 16.”
The tribunal inflicted the maximum punishment allowed under church rules. Citing repeated abuse and the la