Fr. Mansour Labaky

Lebanese Catholic Maronite priest. Musician, composer. Established and directed a children’s choir in Lebanon. Worked in the U.S. in the early 1970s. Established homes for children in Lebanon and France. In 2011 a woman alleged sexual abuse by Labaky in France as a child. Others then came forward. The abuse occurred 1976-1997, and his victims were girls as young as age 7. His niece was among the abused. Believed to have sexually abused more than 50 in France and twice that in Lebanon. On 4/23/2012 the Vatican decreed that Labaky live a life of prayer and penance with restricted ministry for sexually abusing three minors and committing the crime of solicitation on one. On 2/12/2012, while the case was being considered first in Paris, Labaky presided at a mass at St. Garabad Armenian Church in Baton Rouge, LA. He was living in Lebanon in 2016 when Interpol issued an arrest warrant; Lebanon refused extradition. In 11/2021 Lebasky was convicted in absentia in Caen, Normandy France, of the rape and sexual assault of three children at an orphanage that he opened in 1990.  He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He reportedly continued to remain free in Lebanon. Laicized in 2022.