BOISE, Idaho — The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith told the Diocese of Boise on Saturday that the Vatican is laicizing, or dismissing, Father W. Thomas Faucher from the clerical state.
Faucher was sentenced to 25 years in prison last December in one of the most horrific criminal cases that the City of Boise has seen in its history.
"All child pornography is terrible, your Honor. All child pornography is gut-wrenching," Prosecutor Kassandra Slaven said during one of Faucher's court appearances last year. "But when you have videos with sound of infants and toddlers being brutally raped, when you have videos of children being tortured, when you have videos that focus solely on extreme violence to children - that's just on a completely different level."
The Vatican said their decision to dismiss Faucher is “serious and unappealable.”
Faucher pleaded guilty to two counts of distribution of child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography and one count of possession of LSD. The plea deal also dismissed 19 other criminal charges.
In a statement released by the Diocese of Boise, "The letter from Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, secretary to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, states that Faucher’s case was presented to Pope Francis after which the Pope decreed that Faucher is involuntarily laicized (removed) from the clerical state. Faucher opposed the laicization, exercising his right of defense through a canonical advocate who presented his case to the Vatican."
The dismissal of Faucher from the Clergy comes about ten months after he was sentenced to prison.
