v2.0

from The Spec, Hamilton ON

Former Roman Catholic priest Donald Grecco is to be sentenced Friday for sexually abusing three former southern Ontario altar boys — including Hennessy — during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The abuse occurred at parishes in Cayuga, Welland and Fonthill.

Grecco, 70, pleaded guilty last March to three counts of gross indecency.

But Hennessy, who was abused as an altar boy at St. Kevin’s Roman Catholic Church in Welland in 1985, believes Grecco’s victim total is higher.

“I know for a fact there is one more victim out there,” Hennessy told The Spectator in a recent telephone interview from England, where he now lives.

“The person knows about the court case. The person chose for his own personal reasons not to come forward,” Hennessy, 41, said, adding the other victim told him personally about the abuse.

It’s the very real possibility of other victims that has motivated two of the victims, Mike Blum of Dunnville and Hennessy, to ask that a court-ordered publication ban protecting their identities be lifted.

Blum, who was a 15-year-old altar boy at St. Stephen in Cayuga, was sexually abused by Grecco in 1978. Blum has launched a $3-million lawsuit against the former priest, the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Catharines and former Bishop James Wingle.

A third victim, who also came forward to the police, remains shielded by the publication ban.

“I know there are more out there. I couldn’t even try and put a number on it,” Hennessy said, adding he would hope that there are no more than four victims. “But if I had to put my hand to my heart, I would have to say there are more out there and hopefully they have the courage, not necessarily to come forward, but the courage to deal with it,” he said.

Hennessy, like the other victims, had suppressed the memories of the abuse. For the past eight years, he had been living a quiet life as an elevator/escalator salesman in Rossett, a village of 4,000 about 45 minutes northwest of Manchester in the northwest part of England. He had been a happy, outgoing father of three young sons, married about six years to wife Catherine.

That was until his stepfather sent him a newspaper clipping in September 2008 detailing the arrest of a family friend who had been very close to his mother. Don Grecco.

Hennessy remembers receiving the clipping in September 2008 and an extraordinary conversation he had with his wife shortly after reading the account of Grecco’s arrest and charges. The clipping said anyone with information should contact the OPP.

Before that night, his wife and the mother of his three sons, aged 3, 5, and 7 had no idea what happened to her husband when he was just 15 and growing up in Welland.

“The night the clipping arrived I said to my wife, ‘I know for a fact that this (crime) happened.’ And she said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said ‘It happened to me.’ She actually got quite upset and said ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ And I just simply said, ‘Well, it’s not something that comes up in conversation, is it? Like, ‘It’s a real sunny day isn’t it? And oh, by the way, I was sexually abused as a child,’” Hennessy said.

But Hennessy, Blum and the other victim found they would pay a horrific price since coming forward. The memories have left all three men, all in their early 40s, just hollow shells of who they used to be.

All three have become withdrawn, depressed, angry. They suffer insomnia. They’re loners. They live painful lives.

“You were a predator who enjoyed the cloak of the church and you preyed on the very innocence you swore to protect,” Blum said of Grecco in his victim impact statement.

“I have lived and relived every terrible thing you did to me, every day and every night. I have no rest from you, no escape. You consume my thoughts every day and you haunt my nightmares every night.”

The abuse followed a similar pattern. Grecco would befriend the victim’s families. He would employ the youths to do odd jobs or take them on trips. Once alone with the teens, Grecco would initiate play fights that would escalate into the abuser performing a “humping motion” on his victims before ejaculating.

“I came forward to make sure justice was done,” Hennessy said of his decision to contact the authorities. “I didn’t realize what I was in for.

“Before I had shut this away in my memory and never ever thought of it.”

But those days are gone, at least for now.

Hennessy said Crown counsel Gregory Smith, who is based in the Crown’s Cayuga office and is prosecuting the case, has asked each of the three victims for their thoughts on the sentencing for Grecco, who is in ill health. Hennessy wants the predator to serve time.

“I personally want to see a minimum of two years,” he said. “I think he deserves to do time for what he did.”

Hennessy hasn’t attended the court sessions because of the cost. But he has given some thought about what he would say to the man who turned his life into a living hell. It’s encapsulated in a single word.

“Just Why? Why did you do it? Why didn’t you think about what it would do to the three or four of us or how many out there that are still hiding?”

The emotional turmoil aside, Hennessy’s faith has been shaken. Just one of his three sons has been baptized.

A Roman Catholic all his life, Hennessy attends church sporadically these days, perhaps just on Christmas and Easter. It’s all he can muster.

Hennessy does have one hope for the future. He hopes to be able to return to the happy, outgoing, personable man he was once.

“I don’t think I will ever forget it. I don’t think I will ever be OK with it. But I think I will learn to live with it as part of my life,” he said.

v1.9

If everyone could take a moment of silence today to show your respect for the death of Jesus Christ so many years ago today it would be truly appreciated. Let's show our support while he looks down on us from up high...

v1.8

More bad news in Nova Scotia concerning Catholocism....this is getting ridiculous.


from the CBC:

An Anglican priest living in Conception Bay South, N.L., was charged with possession and distribution of child pornography Tuesday following an investigation by police in both Ontario and his home province.

Robin Barrett, 50, was arrested after the child exploitation section of the Toronto Police Service contacted the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary on Nov.18, police said.

Barrett was arrested early Tuesday morning. Police said they searched his home.
He appeared in court in St. John's Tuesday.

Barrett was the rector of the church of the Good Shepherd in Mount Pearl, from May 1999 to the fall of 2008. He is currently the rector of St. Paul's Church in Goulds. Both churches are in communities near St. John's.
Conception Bay South is 10 kilometres southwest of St. John's.

In a news release, the Diocesan Synod of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador said Barrett has been relieved of his duties with the church in order to allow the investigation to proceed.

"We as a faith community, are deeply concerned with the continued issue of sexual exploitation of children and we will do all we can to address this issue," said the statement, signed by Cyrus C.J. Pittman, Bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador. "Given the gravity of these charges, we are co-operating fully with the authorities."

Barrett is scheduled to appear in provincial court for a bail hearing Wednesday morning.

v1.7

Well, well, Mr. Leahy from the previous post got into some trouble of his own....

from the CBC:

Bishop Raymond Lahey was released on $9,000 bail after turning himself in to Ottawa police on Thursday afternoon to face charges of possessing and importing child pornography.

The Roman Catholic cleric, who resigned his post in Nova Scotia on the weekend before news of the charges broke, has been ordered to stay away from parks and from children. He is not allowed to use the internet, and while he is free he is to stay in Rogersville, N.B. The town is the site of a Trappist monastery.

His next court date is Nov. 4 in Ottawa.

A Canada-wide arrest warrant had been issued for Lahey, 69, who brokered a $15-million settlement for victims of sexual abuse by priests of the diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia.

Lahey was returning to Canada on Sept. 15 when he was detained at Ottawa International Airport. Canada Border Services agents checked his laptop and found images "of concern," Ottawa police said in a release.

Lahey was allowed to leave, but his computer and other media devices were seized. Police alleged a forensic examination ultimately found child pornography.

On Friday, Ottawa police charged Lahey with possession of child pornography and importation of child pornography.

The next day, he resigned as bishop of the diocese of Antigonish, citing the need for "personal renewal."

'Ultimate revictimization'

Anthony Mancini, the archbishop of Halifax who is overseeing the Antigonish diocese, went to Sydney on Thursday to speak with Lahey's former parishioners and hold a news conference.

"I am well aware that everyone is in shock," said Mancini.

"I am concerned with all who are trying to find any meaning in this devastation. I do not have the solution to this problem or the capacity to take away the pain or the means to erase this tragedy."

Mancini has said he wasn't aware of the charges against Lahey until Wednesday.

In a letter to parishioners in Newfoundland — Lahey's native province, where he was also a bishop — Mancini wrote that child pornography is equivalent to child abuse and exploitation.

"These latest allegations are another setback for the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland and Labrador, a church in which we have been trying to restore people's faith after years of scandal," he wrote.

Ronald Martin said his faith was shattered when he learned of the allegations.

Martin launched a class-action lawsuit on behalf of himself and others who were sexually abused by priests in the Roman Catholic diocese of Antigonish. He met with Lahey, then bishop of the diocese, many times over the years to reach a deal.

"The one thing I said to the bishop from the very beginning was that I do not want the survivors revictimized, and I think yesterday was the ultimate revictimization for every single one of us," Martin told CBC News Thursday.

In St. Peter's, Cape Breton, many parishioners were shocked to hear about the charges against Lahey. Some are already upset that they have to help pay for the $15-million settlement, one woman told CBC News.

John McKiggan, the lawyer behind the class-action suit, fears the allegations against Lahey may reflect poorly on the settlement.

"These unfortunate charges have now raised questions about a process to do right, and that's unfortunate," he said Thursday.

Legal obligations

The settlement, approved by a Nova Scotia court on Sept. 10, has been described as the first time the Roman Catholic Church has apologized and set up a compensation package for complainants without fighting the charges in court.

Rev. Paul Abbass, spokesman for the diocese of Antigonish, said Wednesday the charges would not affect the legal obligations of the diocese to the settlement.

Lahey was appointed bishop of the Antigonish diocese in 2003 by Pope John Paul II. The Vatican accepted his resignation.

Before that, Lahey served as bishop for the diocese of St. George's in Corner Brook, Nfld. He was also a priest and pastor in the archdiocese of St. John's and a professor of theology at Memorial University in St. John's.

Lahey is a graduate of the Saint Paul University seminary in Ottawa, the Gregorian University in Rome and Cambridge University in England.

v1.6

Sometimes it takes something to hit you close to home before you realize that it is real. Now that cases like this are popping up ALL OVER THE WORLD, you'd think Catholics would take a second look at abstinence. Instead they choose to gamble and pay off the abused when their horrors go public. It's amazing people still pray to, believe in, and pay into an institution like this...

from the CBC:

Roman Catholic parishes in the diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia are being told they will fund a $13-million settlement agreement for church members who alleged they were sexually abused by priests.

In a series of meetings held this week in Sydney, Antigonish and Port Hawkesbury, members of parish councils and finance committees met to discuss how they will come up with the money.

The settlement was announced in Halifax last week for people who claimed they suffered sexual abuse going back more than 50 years.

Tom Langley, chair of the legal settlement committee, said the diocese and parishes have enough assets to pay the settlement. He said surveys were taken of the diocese's properties and cash flow in February, months before the settlement was announced.

"The first thing that will occur is that parishes will be asked to pool their cash and liquid resources into a fund to begin the process," he said.

Langley said no churches or glebe houses currently in use will close. The other assets of a church, such as land, may be sold, but Langley said the settlement committee wants the parishes to make their own decisions about what they'll have to give up.

Michael Campbell, a member of the Parish of St. Leonard in New Waterford, said some parishioners are wondering where the money will come from.

"Many would say that parishioners weren't the ones responsible, and that's true," Campbell said. "However, because of our faith and understanding the challenge before us, as a community of Catholics, we will work together to help in any way that we can."

The settlement came out of a class-action lawsuit filed last year. The suit, spearheaded by a New Waterford man who said he was abused by a priest, claimed the church knew that children were being sexually abused and didn't protect them.

Bishop Raymond Lahey also apologized to the victims and their families when announcing the settlement last Friday.

v1.5

tsk, tsk

Dr. George Tiller, one of the few providers of late-term abortions in the United States, was shot and killed Sunday in a Kansas church where he was serving as an usher.

The gunman fled, but a 51-year-old suspect was arrested about 275 kilometres away in suburban Kansas City three hours after the shooting, Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz said.

The suspect's name was not released. Police had been looking for a gunman who fled in a car registered in the Kansas City suburb of Merriam.

Stolz said all indications were that the shooter acted alone, although authorities were investigating whether he had any connection to anti-abortion groups.

Stolz said the suspect was being brought back to Wichita, where he would likely be charged Monday with one count of murder and two of aggravated assault. Stolz said the gunman threatened two people who tried to stop him.

There was no immediate word on the possible motive of Tiller's assailant.

But the doctor's violent death was the latest in a string of shootings and bombings over two decades directed against abortion clinics, doctors and staff.

Long a focus of national anti-abortion groups, including a summer-long protest in 1991, Tiller was shot in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church, Stolz said. Tiller's lawyer, Dan Monnat, said Tiller's wife, Jeanne, was in the choir at the time.

The slaying of the 67-year-old doctor is "an unspeakable tragedy," his widow, four children and 10 grandchildren said in a release. "This is particularly heart-wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace."

Tiller's Women's Health Care Services clinic is one of just three in the United States where abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy. The clinic was heavily fortified and Tiller often travelled with a bodyguard, but Stolz said there was no indication of security at the church Sunday.

Anti-abortion groups denounced the shooting and stressed that they support only nonviolent protest.

"We are shocked at this morning's disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down," Troy Newman, Operation Rescue's president, said in a statement. "Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice.

"We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning."

At the church, Adam Watkins, 20, said he was sitting in the middle of the congregation when he heard a small pop at the start of the service.

"We just thought a child had come in with a balloon and it had popped, had gone up and hit the ceiling and popped," Watkins said.

Another usher came in and told the congregation to remain seated, then escorted Tiller's wife out. "When she got to the back doors, we heard her scream, and so we knew something bad had happened," Watkins said.

He said the service continued after an associate pastor announced that Tiller had been injured.

"We were just really shocked," he said. "We were kind of dumbfounded. We couldn't really believe it had happened."

Tiller had in the past endured threats and violence. A protester shot Tiller in both arms in 1993 and his clinic was bombed in 1985.

More recently, Monnat said Tiller had asked federal prosecutors to step up investigations of vandalism and other threats against the clinic out of fear that the incidents were increasing and that Tiller's safety was in jeopardy.

Stolz, however, said police knew of no threats connected to the shooting.

© The Canadian Press, 2009

v1.4

Happy Mother's Day!

Luke 1:43
But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?