Two young men in Kenya have demanded that an Italian Catholic priest acknowledge that he is their father.
Fr Mario Lacchin, an 83-year-old Consolata missionary priest, reportedly fathered the two with separate mothers when he served in the country in the 1980s. According to reports, Steven Lacchin was born in 1980 in Nanyuki, while Gerald Erebon was born in 1989 in Archer’s Post in Maralal diocese.
The two met recently after The Standard newspaper published a lead story about Erebon’s search for his priest father. He said his mother before her death in 2012 had told Erebon his father was Lacchin. He had impregnated her when she was 16.
Steven’s mother had maintained contact with the missionary order and the son had persistently written to the order. In 2016, he received a gift of $250 from Lacchin’s bishop, Virgillio Pante of Maralal after he requested funds to buy land to build a home for his family, according to The Standard.
The priest is under a Vatican investigation, according to reports, but he refuses to take a paternity test.
Pope Francis visited Kenya in 2015.
Children of Catholic priests are supported by an independent charity, Coping International, that has helped bring the plight of these often-unackowledged children to greater public awareness.
In 2014, in a letter to Coping International on behalf of Pope Francis, the Holy See said: “Please be assured of His Holiness’ appreciation for the concerns and charitable sentiments that motivate your initiatives together with a remembrance in his prayers.” On the specific issue of children of priests, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, representing the Vatican, said in an address to the United Nations: “Concerning the children of priests, a father must fulfil his obligations under the law of the state in question and assume the natural responsibilities that came with fathering children.”
The Vatican commented to Coping International regarding this case at the end of November 2019: "If the facts which [...] are true, the woman in question would have been considered a victim of violence, but not of child abuse."
Vincent Doyle of Coping International told The Tablet: "If the facts which you report are true, the words 'woman' and 'not child abuse' are worrying, considering the girl in question was 16 years and one month at time of conception. Both the author of this comment alongside the case itself, have been referred to the CDF at the Vatican. A Vatican official further commented that canon law can not be applied retroactively, even though the alleged perpetrator is still alive. Canon Law should, as a code of discipline, apply retroactively where harm against a minor is known, particularly when the alleged perpetrator is still in ministry, so as to ensure the highest levels of safeguarding."
Doyle continued: "Any attitude which directly or indirectly condones sex with a 16 year old, regardless of what archaic canon allowed it at the time, might be interpreted as enabling ephebophilia and thus an ephebophile currently. Thus improved retroactive canons must apply, retroactively. The 2001 amendment concerning age of consent must be an ex post facto law if zero tolerance is actually real, otherwise 'zero tolerance' means tolerating something up to a certain date in 2001."
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