Lebanese paedophile priest Mansour Labaki defrocked by Vatican

The Vatican defrocked former Lebanese priest and convicted paedophile Mansour Labaki on Tuesday, ten years after he was found guilty of the sexual abuse of minors.

The Assembly of the Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon issued a statement saying that Pope Francis decided that both Labaki and Priest George Karim Badr, will be "returned to their secular state."

The statement added that they will "pray for the priests … so that the Lord may strengthen them in their testimony …. and help them over their weakness and we pray especially for the victims of sexual abuse."

Labiki, 82, was a famous Maronite priest in Lebanon before the revelations of sexual abuse, founded an orphanage and has written several books. He abused the young girls in the orphanage he opened.

Before Wednesday's defrocking, Labiki had been forbidden from practising as a priest but was not fully defrocked.

In 2021, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a French court in absentia for sexually abusing three girls in France. One of the victim's lawyers said at the time that he estimated Labiki had sexually abused at least 50 people in France and twice that number in Lebanon.

Labaki did not attend the court hearings and would be imprisoned if he travels to France.

Despite his conviction and the issuing of an international arrest warrant by Interpol in 2016, he has faced no consequences in Lebanon.

Labiki is believed to have the protection of powerful political players in Lebanon.