The religious man requested such photos on a gay dating site and admits to having received one.

A priest serving in southwestern France was charged on Thursday with possession of child pornography and placed under the intermediate status of assisted witness for rape of a minor, according to information obtained Friday from the prosecutor's office and the archdiocese of Bordeaux, which has taken "precautionary measures".

The 40-year-old religious man was taken into custody on Thursday, before being brought before an investigating judge, said Loïs Raschel, the public prosecutor in Libourne, confirming information from the local weekly newspaper "Le Résistant".

The man in his forties was charged with "acquisition and possession of images of a minor of a pornographic nature," the prosecutor's office added in a statement Thursday evening.

According to a source close to the investigation, the suspect frequented gay dating sites where he told his contacts he was looking for child pornography. While in custody, he only admitted to having received one image.

In regular contact with young parishioners

This priest, in regular contact with young faithful, also had "extremely worrying exchanges" on these sites, mentioning acts of rape committed on a minor, but he assured investigators that these were "fantasies", which the investigation will have to establish, according to the same source.

He was placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness regarding this aspect of the case.

"In mid-December, a priest from the diocese working in Libourne came to see me to tell me about a reprehensible use of the internet," reacted Jean-Paul James, the archbishop of Bordeaux, in a statement on Friday, explaining that he had made a report to the public prosecutor's office.

"I immediately took precautionary measures against this priest: removal from Libourne and a ban on contact with minors," the prelate explained. "To date, to my knowledge, no complaint has been filed with the Diocese of Bordeaux or the courts."

Placed under judicial supervision, the priest is subject to a ban on appearing in Libourne, an obligation to receive treatment, a ban on engaging in any activity related to minors and a ban on accessing the websites concerned, the prosecutor's office specified, recalling that the man in his forties "remains presumed innocent at this stage of the procedure".