The bishop who knew that a priest under his command sexually abused a 13-year-old girl, but did not report him, is now under criminal investigation
Bishop Iosif Paulet. Photo: Youtube capture
The Roman Catholic bishop of Iași, Iosif Păuleț, is the subject of a criminal case for the crime of failure to report, after the prosecutors found that he knew about the sexual assault committed three years ago by the priest Augustin Benchea on a minor, but did not notify the authorities, writes the independent publication PressOne.
- On January 26, a PressOne investigation revealed that the diocese of Iași and the Vatican kept hidden the sexual abuse committed by a priest on a 13-year-old girl.
The prosecutor's office attached to the Bacău District Court filed a formal complaint on January 27, 2026, one day after the revelations made by journalist Emilia Șercan. The criminal case for failure to report, an offense provided for in art. 266 of the Penal Code, was taken over on the same day by the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Bacău Court of Appeal.
When investigators opened the case of sexual assault on the minor in 2023, they did not open a separate investigation into the possible crime of failure to report. This crime is provided by art. 266 of the Criminal Code.
Minor sexually abused by priest
The sexual abuse file was sent to court in October 2023, and the priest Augustin Benchea was definitively sentenced in 2024 to four years in prison with execution for continued sexual assault on a 13-year-old minor from Cleja parish, Bacău county, where he served.
At the end of last week, Bishop Iosif Păuleț sent a video message on the Facebook page of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iasi, in which he admitted that “there were errors” in the handling of the abusive priest's case, but claimed that he acted in “good faith”.
The case covered up by the Vatican and the bishopric
According to PressOne, the Roman Catholic bishop of Iași, Iosif Păuleț, found out in 2022 that a priest under his command had sexually abused a 13-year-old minor, canonically sanctioned, but did not notify the Police or the Prosecutor's Office.
The documents in the criminal file show that, before the Romanian state found out and intervened, the case was handled exclusively within the Catholic Church, through canonical procedures initiated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iași and later validated even by the Vatican.
Although Vatican rules explicitly recommend cooperation with state authorities in cases of abuse of minors, the Church has limited intervention to administrative measures.
The priest accused of sexual abuse may be released from prison
Priest Augustin Benchea was arrested, tried and sentenced definitively, in 2024, to four years in prison with execution, according to the cited source.
On Tuesday, January 27, the Vaslui Court decided on the conditional release of the former priest from Bacău.
The court established that in the interval between the date of conditional release and the date of completion of the sentence, Augustin Benchea must comply with a supervision program. The judge drew the attention of the former priest “to his future conduct and the consequences to which he is exposed, if he commits more crimes”, the court also says.
The court's decision is not final and has already been challenged by prosecutors.
