Montreal - A Roman Catholic priest in Sorel-Tracy who was reportedly active for many years in a splinter arm of the scouting movement will remain behind bars until his next court appearance on Monday.
Father Daniel Moreau was charged Thursday with possession and distribution of child pornography.
Believed to be in his mid-50s, the priest was arrested at the Saint-Gabriel-Lalemant church on de Roi St., near Lalement St. in Sorel-Tracy, about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal. The TVA network said neighbours looked on in stupefaction as the parish priest was taken away in handcuffs and placed in a patrol car - then driven away by police.
The Sûreté du Québec was acting on a request from a police force outside the province, Sgt. Daniel Thibaudeau of the SQ said.
"This arrest is related to child pornography," Thibaudeau added. "Computer equipment and data was seized and is being examined by our experts."
Investigators made the arrest as they were executing a search warrant on Moreau's living quarters.
Moreau made a brief court appearance on Thursday via video link.
A profile of Moreau on a church website was taken down sometime before 10 a.m. Friday. It stated he was responsible for liturgy at the Sorel-Tracy parishes of Ste-Anne, St-Joseph and St-Pierre.
A news release from the diocese of St-Hyacinthe, issued Friday morning, stated that Moreau has been relieved of his functions and has been banned from performing any pastoral work.
"This had the effect of a bomb," Monseigneur Jean Marc Robillard, general vicar of the diocese, said in a brief interview with The Gazette.
The diocese was advised of Moreau's arrest "about mid-day" on Thursday "from someone in Sorel," he said.
"We never had any indication, any suspicions" about Moreau, Robillard added. "No denunciations either."
The release said that the diocese "deplores and condemns" the fact that these kinds of acts could have been committed.
"We understand the turmoil that such an event could cause across the Sorel-Tracy community, and with all other persons with whom he was in contact during his ministry."
Moreau was apparently active in a splinter scouting group; a church website listed him as a national trainer for the Adventurers Association of Baden-Powell. That association is listed on the ScoutWiki website as "a traditional scouting association" with more than 1,000 members in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick.
François Ménard, the association's president, could not immediately be reached Friday. However, a report from the TVA network quoted him as saying that Moreau has been suspended from the organization.
Before that, "never did anyone - any parent, any child - make any complaint" against Moreau, TVA quoted Ménard as saying: "We had no suspicions about this person."
Ménard told TVA that Moreau had led scout troops in Cowansville as well as Beloeil.
Following an early-morning records search Friday, Scouts Canada told The Gazette that Moreau had never worked with that arm of the scouting movement: "Father Moreau has had no known connection or history with Scouts Canada," John Petitti, executive director (marketing and communication) at Scouts Canada, said.
Subsequently, the francophone Association des Scouts du Canada issued a press release stating that Moreau "has not been part of our movement for more than 30 years.
"Not sharing the same vision of scouting, he quit the Association des Scouts du Canada to found his own group, not recognized by the World Organization of the Scout Movement," the statement added. It was issued by Marie-Hélène Giguère, communications director of the Association des Scouts du Canada.
"According to the information we have, he left in 1982-1983 on his own will," Giguère told The Gazette. "There were no suspicions raised regarding his comportment while he was active in the association."
Moreau holds a bachelor's degree in theology from Université de Sherbrooke.
He also has a master's degree in pastoral studies and a diploma in advanced studies in bioethics. The latter two are from Université de Montréal, according to the church website.
Moreau was listed as dealing with young people aged from 12 to 17, as the priest responsible for a preparation-for-life team. For his diocese, he was shown as responsible for the training of catechism teachers for youth from 11 to 14.
