A Disgraceful Act by the Catholic Church in
Refusing to be Responsible for its Sins
Sex abuse survivor urges Catholic diocese to drop Supreme Court appeal at silent vigil
Omar Sachedina
National Affairs Correspondent, CTV National News
Ben Cousins
CTVNews.ca Writer
Irene Deschenes is seen at a silent vigil at the St. Peter’s Basilica in downtown London, Ont.
TORONTO -- A woman who was sexually abused by a priest as a child has taken her decades-long legal fight with the Roman Catholic Church to its front steps as she urges the London, Ont. diocese to drop its Supreme Court appeal against her.
Irene Deschenes was abused by Father Charles Sylvestre for two agonizing years that began when she was just 10 years old, at St. Ursula Catholic School in Chatham, Ont.
Deschenes said Sylvestre was friendly at first, taking her and other children for bowling outings and to the beach, but things turned sinister quickly.
“I remember a nice, caring man that was friendly, funny,” Deschenes told CTV News. “Now in hindsight, I see that was all grooming.”
In 2006 and decades after the abuse, Sylvestre pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 47 children in parishes across southern Ontario. He died in prison a year later.
Deschenes settled with the church for $66,000 after lawyer’s fees, but later found out the church knew about allegations concerning Sylvestre’s conduct for almost a decade prior to Deschenes’ abuse, without divulging this information to her.
Police reports dating back to 1962 had alleged that Sylvestre assaulted three young girls. The documents show the young girls -- one of them 11 years old -- alleged Sylvestre touched them inappropriately and exposed himself to them.
As a result, Deschenes is trying to reopen her case.
“Their failure to act on the statements back then is what allowed Irene to be abused in the first place,” said Deschenes’ lawyer Loretta Merritt.
Ontario’s lower courts have all ruled that she can reopen the settlement, but the church continues to appeal the decision, which is now under consideration at the Supreme Court of Canada.
“I'm just one little person,” Deschenes said. “Why are they taking me to the Supreme Court of Canada when I did nothing wrong? And something that happened to me when I was a little girl.”
“I'm pissed off. I'm pissed off because I didn't do anything wrong.”
This year’s annual vigil for the survivors of sex abuse at the Catholic Church was cancelled because of COVID-19, but it didn’t stop Deschenes, who instead held a smaller demonstration on Tuesday. Deschenes and a handful of supporters took turns standing silently along the pathway to the St. Peter’s Basilica in downtown London.
The Catholic Diocese of London declined to comment on the legal situation as it’s before the courts, but did acknowledge Deschenes’ demonstration, saying the church respects “her right to peacefully gather with her supporters outside of our churches.”
The Catholic Diocese of London’s spokesperson Matthew Clarke also forwarded a previous statement from when the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which notes that it believes the church has “treated victims with the empathy and respect needed to help them receive justice and begin the healing process.”
Empathy and respect? Is it respectful to be dishonest with victims when settling accounts? When you stand before Jesus, will you be so dishonest?
“Being fair and just means that settlements are reached based on the specific circumstances of each individual case, including that of Irene Deschenes,” the statement reads. “The Diocese believes there are important legal issues that need to the considered by the Supreme Court.”
Meanwhile, another one of Sylvestre’s victims believes the church is simply trying to prevent large payouts. “They will stop at nothing to protect the old boys' club,” said Joanne Morrison.
Morrison said Sylvestre began abusing her when she was just eight years old.
“We got abused regularly: weekly, daily some of us,” she said. “He could walk into any classroom and point a finger … and off we'd go. No one did anything to protect us.”
Sydney Catholic schools to remove name of Marist brother
accused of child sexual abuse
Exclusive: Brother Geoffrey ‘Coman’ Sykes’ name will be removed from a school building and scholarship program after campaigners say ‘he is not a role model’
..
Was victim pressured into suicide by Vatican?
Christopher Knaus
The Guardian
Two Sydney Marist schools say they were never told of the allegations against Brother Geoffrey ‘Coman’ Sykes’ despite the Marist Brothers Catholic order having substantiated a complaint against him three years earlier. Photograph: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
A group of prominent Catholic schools are expected to remove the name of a brother accused of sexual abuse from a school building and scholarship program after campaigners warned he was “clearly not someone who should be honoured”.
The two Sydney Marist schools say they were never told of the allegations against Brother Geoffrey “Coman” Sykes, despite the Marist Brothers Catholic order having substantiated a complaint against him three years earlier.
Sykes worked at Marist schools across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, including Parramatta Marist and Marist College Canberra, for decades and was honoured by senior colleagues as an “amazing man and a wonderful Marist” after his death in 2013.
Investigating a case of historical child sexual abuse in NSW schools
A new book by investigative journalist Suzanne Smith contains allegations that Sykes abused Glen Walsh, an aspiring brother. It says the abuse occurred on an almost nightly basis at a retreat in the NSW southern highlands. When Walsh was 18, he was allegedly abused more than 100 times.
Walsh left the order, became a parish priest, and made allegations about Sykes to Marist in 1997, which the order found to be unsubstantiated.
In 2017, Marist Brothers conducted a review of its initial investigation. Marist says the review found Walsh’s allegations against Sykes were substantiated.
Despite this, both Parramatta Marist and Marist North Shore say they were not informed of the findings or earlier allegations.
Not surprising when you have your head buried in the ground. You might change the name of Sykes wing to Ostrich wing!
Both schools continued to honour Sykes. Marist College North Shore has an entire wing named after the brother. A scholarship program, named the Coman Sykes Memorial Scholarship, also exists at Marist Parramatta.
Bravehearts ambassador Damian De Marco, a survivor of abuse by a different Marist brother in Canberra, said Sykes’ name must be scrubbed from the building and scholarship program.
“He’s clearly not someone who should be honoured or placed on an altar,” De Marco said. “He’s not a role model.”
De Marco said his efforts to raise the issue with individual schools and the Marist Brothers had been met with silence. “The problem as well is that they’re saying the right things on websites and media releases,” he said. “In reality they’re slamming the door in our face.”
The Marist Brother provincial, Peter Carroll, said in a statement that the matter of names was up to each individual school. “In respect of any names of awards and buildings, these are matters for individual school communities,” he said.
The Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta said that Parramatta Marist had only “recently learned of the allegations against a former teacher at the school, Brother Coman Sykes”.
“These allegations were published in a book released in August 2020 and the school was informed subsequently,” it said in a statement.
The school will remove Sykes name from the scholarship.
“Though these remain allegations, the Parramatta Marist High school community takes very seriously its responsibility to victims of child sexual abuse,” the diocese said. “For this reason, and out of solidarity with all children and young people who have suffered as a result of abuse, a scholarship last awarded in 2018 will no longer be named for Brother Sykes.”
A spokeswoman for Sydney Catholic Schools, responding on behalf of Marist North Shore, also said it had received no information about abuse crimes involving Sykes. But she said signage at the school was to be replaced next year regardless.
“Marist College North Shore is currently being redeveloped to become co-educational in 2021, and all school signage is being replaced at the end of this year as part of that expansion plan,” she said.
Sykes’ victim, Walsh, became a whistleblower priest in recent years.
He had agreed to be a prosecution witness in the case against archbishop Philip Wilson, the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing abuse.
Walsh took his own life in 2017, the night before he was due to meet with Marist for mediation on the Sykes claim, and two weeks before he was to be called as a prosecution witness in the Wilson case. Wilson was convicted but later acquitted on appeal.
Smith’s explosive book, The Altar Boys, details the treatment of Walsh after he decided to give evidence.
Summoned to the Vatican!!!
The book reveals that Walsh, a low-ranking parish priest, was summoned to the Vatican to meet the Pope on 9 February 2016, after he had signalled he would give evidence for the prosecution in the Wilson matter.
Smith and Greens MP David Shoebridge have called for a police investigation into the last two years of Walsh’s life and his treatment by the church.
“Given the Pope’s authority over Glen, these actions can clearly be seen as an effort to intimidate him in order to protect the church,” Shoebridge told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Carroll, the Marist provincial, said in his statement that it was “disappointing” that the book may be interpreted as suggesting “some malignant Church conspiracy”.
He said the timing of the mediation was not forced upon Walsh.
“The timing was to coincide with an appointment Father Walsh had in Sydney,” he said. “The meeting at the Marist Brothers’ Professional Standards Office was scheduled for 9.30am to allow Father Walsh to keep his afternoon appointment. Tragically, Father Walsh did not appear, because as was later revealed, he had taken his life the night before.”
German bishops announce higher payments to Catholic abuse victims
By Clyde Hughes
The Catholic bishops conference said the new panel will be comprised of medical and mental health professionals and attorneys. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo
Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A conference of German Catholic bishops introduced a new model on Thursday to pay survivors of abuse within the church, which could pay each more than $50,000.
The German Bishops Conference announced the creation of an independent committee to investigate complaints of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy. The panel would also determine compensation.
Conference Chair Georg Batzing detailed the new model Thursday at a meeting in Fulda.
Under the change, survivors are eligible for a one-time payment of up to $58,000. Victims will also be able to request that the church pay for therapy.
The independent committee will be comprised of medical and mental health professionals and attorneys. The proposed model would take effect next year.
While the increase in compensation is a tenfold increase over what survivors in Germany have previously been entitled to ($5,800), it's far less than advocates were hoping for.
Batzing called the improvement a "genuine step forward" in addressing past abuse, but acknowledged that some will find the change "unsatisfactory."
One German victims group had called for an increased payout to $466,000 per victim, arguing the amount would be appropriate for a lifetime of trauma some survivors have experienced.
A 2018 study paid for by the German Bishops Conference found that more than 1,600 clergymen had committed some form of abuse against thousands of minors, mostly boys, between 1946 and 2014. Victims groups believe the actual numbers are higher.
$50,000 should be a minimum payment with many of the victims deserving 3 or 4 times that.
Number of WNY priests accused in Child Victims Act suits grows to 173
By Jay Tokasz Buffalo News
The headquarters of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo on Main Street. Derek Gee/Buffalo News
BUFFALO — Child Victims Act lawsuits filed over the past year have accused 173 Catholic priests in Western New York of sexually abusing children.
More than 30 of those priests were accused publicly for the first time only in recent weeks, including one cleric who has continued to run a South Buffalo parish despite being linked to abuse in a July lawsuit.
The Rev. Donald J. Lutz said he wasn’t aware of the lawsuit when The Buffalo News contacted him last week. Lutz is pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a small parish on O’Connell Avenue in the Old First Ward neighborhood of the city.
The Rev. Donald Lutz, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Buffalo, on Jan. 12, 2014.
Attorneys Steve Boyd and Jeffrey Anderson filed a lawsuit July 30 in State Supreme Court on behalf of an anonymous plaintiff accusing Lutz of engaging in “unpermitted sexual contact” with the plaintiff from 1975 to 1976. The plaintiff was 13 to 14 at the time and attended St. Leo the Great Church, according to court papers.
The lawsuit named the Amherst church as a defendant, but not Lutz, which means he would not have been served with a summons and complaint. Lutz said no one from the diocese had contacted him about the case. He acknowledged being assigned to St. Leo in 1975 and 1976 but denied sexually abusing a child.
“It didn’t happen,” he said, before hanging up the phone.
A Buffalo Diocese spokesman said diocese officials will present the complaint in the lawsuit to a review board that examines abuse allegations at the board’s next meeting.
“At this time, the diocese has no information other than the limited allegations set forth in the anonymous complaint and has not made any determination (including the imposition of administrative leave) regarding this matter,” spokesman Greg Tucker said.
Tucker said the diocese encourages any victim-survivor to file a formal complaint with the diocese’s victim assistance coordinator.
There is much more to this article on the Post-Star.
New lawsuit claims Diocese of Savannah covered up allegations
of child molestation
By Jessica Savage
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - A new lawsuit filed against the Diocese of Savannah claims the Diocese covered up allegations of child molestation more than 30 years ago.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday is the third one involving convicted child molester Wayland Brown who was a priest in Savannah from 1987 to 1988. This lawsuit accuses the Diocese of Savannah of conspiracy and fraud.
Like the civil cases filed in the past, it outlines the sexual abuse of Priest Wayland Brown against boys enrolled at St James Catholic School. But more than that, this lawsuit includes a transcript and a memo from the Diocese.
The attorney in this case says that shows the extent of what the Diocese knew. Outlined in the 11-page lawsuit filed Wednesday are accusations of child molestation and a cover-up by the Diocese of Savannah.
The facts of the case are from more than 30 years. But the wounds are still fresh. “He has absolutely led a devastated life in fact he is still recovering from his last relapse into drug abuse,” Tate said.
WTOC doesn’t normally name victims of sexual assault and rape, but in this case his attorney Mark Tate says his client, who is recovering at a drug and alcohol rehab facility, wanted to be named in the public filing of the lawsuit.
“This man is an adult. He’s lived with this his whole life and he doesn’t want the catholic church hanging anything over his head. So, he wanted to come public,” Tate said.
In 1987, Bill Baker Jr. was a 9-year-old at St. James Catholic School in Savannah when he says Priest Wayland Brown molested and raped him.
The Diocese defrocked Brown in 1988. He was convicted in 2002 in Maryland on charges of child sex abuse. And in 2018, he was convicted of sexual crimes against children - including boys who attended St James during the same time. He died last year while serving a 20-year prison sentence.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday is largely focused on what the Diocese of Savannah knew a year before the molestations at St. James.
In the 1986 transcript attached to the lawsuit, it describes a meeting called by then acting Bishop Raymond Lessard after he learned of a police investigation involving Priest Brown and allegations, he molested boys in another Georgia county.
In the transcript, the priest admits to a molestation encounter with a boy, but says it was not sexual. Instead of turning him over to police, Tate said the Diocese sent the priest away.
“They sent him off to a priest pedophile rehab camp in Maryland called St. James,” Tate said.
Less than a year later, a May 19, 1987, internal memo from the Diocese of Savannah shows his return and what the diocese knew when it placed him in Savannah. Tate included those documents in the initial complaint filing on Wednesday.
He said he obtained some of the documents from diocese in a previous civil lawsuit he settled in 2016.
I did ask the Diocese for comment about the lawsuit. A spokesperson said the Diocese of Savannah has not seen the lawsuit yet nor had it been served, and therefore the diocese could not comment.
This is not the first lawsuit against the Diocese of Savannah involving Priest Brown.
In 2016, the diocese reached a $4.5 million settlement through mediation of a lawsuit that named Brown and two bishops. And another in 2009, the diocese agreed to pay $4.24 million to another victim.
Both victims attended school at St. James where the priest was assigned between 1987 and 1988.
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