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Buffalo Diocese places Msgr. Leo McCarthy on leave
following allegation of sexual abuse
McCarthy assists in parish ministry at Blessed Sacrament Church
By: Sean Mickey
Posted at 6:40 PM, Jul 09, 2021
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A retired Buffalo priest with numerous accolades was placed on administrative leave by Bishop Michael Fisher on Friday after an allegation of child sexual abuse.
Rev. Msgr. Leo McCarthy, 88, is alleged to have sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl at St. Matthew’s Church in 1982, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in State Supreme Court against St. Matthew’s Church and School.
McCarthy, a popular priest who assists in parish ministry at Blessed Sacrament Church in the Town of Tonawanda, denied committing any acts of abuse, the Diocese of Buffalo said in a news release.
According to the lawsuit, McCarthy asked the young girl to help at the church, then showed her pornography and forced her to sit on his lap as he allegedly hugged and touched her.
During the two months the girl was asked to help at the church, McCarthy is alleged to have had sex with the 12-year-old girl six or seven times in an area where priests and altar boys changed before and after Mass.
The girl reported McCarthy’s behavior to a teacher at the school, but the teacher didn’t believe her and did nothing to investigate or protect her, the lawsuit stated. The victim said she was later expelled by the school when McCarthy learned that she reported allegations of abuse.
When the girl’s mother suspected that she was pregnant, she told her mother about the abuse, the lawsuit stated.
McCarthy will remain on leave while an investigator appointed by the diocese completes an investigation and a final determination is made by the Diocesan Review Board. The diocese also stated that it reported the allegations to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.
“Bishop Fisher wishes to emphasize that the decision to restrict Msgr. McCarthy’s priestly faculties at this time is in no way intended to indicate his guilt or is it a determination about the truth or falsity of the complaints,” the diocese stated in a news release.
The Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo honored McCarthy at the 2017 Curé of Ars Awards Dinner for “his extensive work in promoting vocations to youth as an educator, coach and mentor.”
In 2018, the gymnasium at Baker Hall School in Lackawanna was named in honor of McCarthy, who was involved in athletics at Catholic schools in the region for decades. McCarthy chaired the fundraising drive and renovations for the gym.
McCarthy is the fifth priest to be placed on administrative leave by Bishop Fisher since June.
Bishop Fisher previously announced the administrative leaves of Rev. Msgr. James G. Kelly, Fr. Adolph Kowalczyk, Fr. Gregory Dobson and Fr. Mieczyslaw (Matt) Nycz.
To date, more than 220 clergymen or Catholic nuns in the Diocese of Buffalo have been accused of some form of sexual misconduct. Fisher’s predecessor, Bishop Richard J. Malone, resigned after a Vatican investigation of his handling of abuse claims, and State Attorney General Letitia James last year sued the diocese for “failing to follow mandated policies and procedures that would help to prevent the rampant sexual abuse of minors by priests within the Catholic Church.”
Why some Catholic Quebecers are turning their backs on the Church
over residential schools
Some are formally and completely renouncing their religion through apostasy
Gretel Kahn ·
CBC News ·
Posted: Jul 11, 2021 4:00 AM ET
Children's shoes are placed in front of a church in Kahnawake, Que., after the remains of an estimated 215 children were found in unmarked graves near the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., in May. (Chloe Ranaldi/CBC)
WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.
On Canada Day, while thousands of Montrealers gathered to denounce the country's legacy of Indian residential schools, Danielle Poirier was protesting in her own way.
She was submitting her apostasy, formally renouncing her Roman Catholic faith.
"I wanted to poser un acte, to do something concrete and official that said, 'I'm really disappointed,'" she said. "For me doing that with the Church and demanding apostasy was the thing that seemed to be the most relevant."
Like many Quebecers, Poirier grew up immersed in Catholicism. But like others around the world, she has been distancing herself from the Church for the past few years. Apostasy takes place when someone who was baptized in the Church publicly and completely rejects their faith.
I hope and pray that such apostates reject their church, but not reject God. Jesus Christ is still the only way to salvation, and the alternative is horrendous.
The recent discoveries of unmarked burial sites near former residential schools across the country and the subsequent lack of apology by the Pope and the Catholic Church as an institution were the tipping point that brought about her official break.
"For me, it was something to say it's official, 'walk the talk,'" she said to CBC Montreal's Daybreak.
Their numbers may not be huge, but other Quebecers are doing the same.
Most Catholics in Quebec abandoned the church over the past half-century. Most, rejecting the excessive authority of the church in Quebecois life. Unfortunately, many abandoned God at the same time. God the Father and Jesus the Son should never be confused with the Catholic Church.
The Church does not compile provincewide figures, but in a statement, the Quebec City Catholic Diocese said that it has seen an increase in the number of requests for apostasy.
"Usually, we receive between three and five per month. In June, we received 16, six of which explicitly mentioned the residential school issue," Valérie Roberge-Dion, the diocese's director of communications, said in a statement.
But Roberge also pointed out that close to one million Catholics are still part of the diocese, "despite the current crisis."
Kim Verreault, a resident of Granby, east of Montreal, is another Quebecer in the process of submitting her apostasy after growing up Catholic.
"I wanted to show my support to the First Nations," she said. "So I wanted to send a strong message and say, 'Well, I'm done.' I don't want my name to be attached to the Catholic religion anymore."
For Verreault, whose mother was a former nun, the lack of apology from Pope Francis is what drove her to take an official stance.
In early June, the Pope addressed the residential school issue from his balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. While he expressed sorrow for the discoveries, he did not apologize.
"With sorrow I follow the news from Canada about the shocking discovery of the remains of 215 children, pupils at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in the Province of British Columbia," he said.
"I join the Canadian bishops and the whole Catholic Church in Canada in expressing my closeness to the Canadian people, who have been traumatized by this shocking news."
Later that month, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops announced that a delegation of First Nations, Métis and Inuit would meet with the Pope later this year, between Dec.17 and 20.
While the Pope and the Catholic Church have yet to apologize, Montreal Archbishop Christian Lépine issued an apology to Indigenous communities for the role the Church played in the residential school system in Quebec.
"Our most fundamental values are undermined when the integrity of families and the respect due to every human being are so blatantly disregarded," Lépine said. "In this instance, the Church was dramatically out of step with Jesus Christ."
For both Poirier and Verreault, however, an apology from the Pope is needed.
"Why wait so long and meet the First Nations at the end of December?" Verreault asked. "It [an apology] should be automatic."
Priest slams 'pitiful' lack of Catholic fundraising
for residential school survivors
Saskatchewan's 5 bishops have agreed to resume fundraising,
while dozens elsewhere remain silent
Jason Warick ·
CBC News ·
Posted: Jul 10, 2021 2:00 AM CT
A Catholic priest is speaking out against his own church, saying he's ashamed it used a legal "loophole" to escape its $25-million promise to residential school survivors.
"It's scandalous, really shameful," said Saskatoon priest and Order of Canada recipient André Poilièvre. "It was a loophole. It might be legal, but it's not ethical."
But this is typical of the Catholic Church's dealings with survivors of child sex abuse all over the world.
One of the Catholic Church's promises in the landmark 2005 Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement was to give its "best efforts" at fundraising $25 million for survivors.
After a decade, more than $21 million of that remained unpaid. All other churches involved in the settlement — United, Anglican and Presbyterian — paid their full shares without incident.
Catholic Church dedicated nearly $300M for buildings since promising residential school survivors $25M in 2005
Several years after the settlement, the federal government asked the church to pay. The church's legal team instead went to court and pointed to the "best efforts" clause, saying the church had tried its best. On July 16, 2015, a judge agreed and absolved the church of its legal obligation.
In an interview, Poilièvre said he was disgusted with the church's meagre fundraising effort, the "unethical" legal manoeuvring to get out of it, and the fact more than $290 million was committed to cathedral and church construction across Canada during this time.
"It's pitiful," he said. "I think money should be spent on people first, and buildings and cathedrals last."
Poilièvre said he welcomed this week's announcement of local fundraising for survivors by Saskatchewan's five bishops — even if it is 16 years late. But he noted dozens of other bishops across Canada have remained silent this week on the money question.
"As a Catholic church, we were responsible. We need a collective, corporate response," Polièvre said. "We were complicit with the government in the design, the implementation and the management of these schools."
Threw his collar into the trash
Poilièvre, 85, has seen the legacy of residential schools and its devastating impact on Indigenous families. In 1978, frustrated with the church's and society's treatment of Indigenous people, he threw his white clerical collar into a trash can and moved to Yellowknife. He then worked for co-operative businesses in more than 30 Indigenous communities.
"I wanted to learn, and they taught me so much," Poilièvre said.
Six years later, he returned to Saskatoon and resumed work as a priest, but insisted everyone call him only by his first name. He's now worked for decades with thousands of inmates and former gang members through the group he founded, STR8 UP.
"I am not Indigenous, but I identify more with Indigenous people than with the church, to be honest," he said.
Poilièvre and others say the Catholic Church's structure is a big part of the problem.
In many ways, the church is hierarchical and synchronized, they say. From the top, the Vatican dictates the rituals of the mass, the rules for living and the belief system. From the bottom, the Vatican receives revenue from each individual region or diocese.
But when it comes to compensating residential school survivors, producing documentation of unmarked grave sites, revealing the names of abuser priests or securing a Papal apology on Canadian soil, Poilièvre and others argue the top levels suddenly deny all responsibility. Each diocese acts as an independent legal and financial unit.
"The Catholic Church has organized itself very deliberately this way to avoid corporate responsibility," said Thomas McMahon, former lead counsel for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
"Governments could easily pass a law saying, 'Yes, Catholic Church, you are a legal corporate entity.' But our politicians are too afraid of Catholic voters. They let the Catholic Church play this game."
McMahon said the Catholic Church hired a "bazillion" lawyers at every stage, from compensation to a simple document request by survivors or the TRC. No other church group did that, he said.
"It's so obvious that was the strategy," he said.
Michele Dillon, a University of New Hampshire professor who has written four books about Catholicism, said the church is in crisis. Dillon, McMahon and others say the church's recent abuse and financial scandals are compounded by coverup, denial and broken promises.
"It's certainly regrettable that the church is still struggling to find ways to hold people accountable and to make reparations," Dillon said.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) declined an interview request. An official said they don't have the authority to speak on behalf of individual bishops.
CBC News also asked the CCCB whether any bishops outside Saskatchewan have committed to further raising money for residential school survivors. The official said it's "outside the mandate" of the CCCB to ask its members questions on behalf of outside organizations.
Poilièvre called that response typical and said he wants it to change. That change, he said, can start with all Canadian bishops agreeing to get that $21 million to survivors.
"It didn't happen then, but it needs to happen now," he said. "The effort wasn't there. The commitment wasn't there. The energy wasn't there. Hopefully, it will be now."
Good luck with that!
Former auxiliary bishop is one of two Catholic clergy named
in new sex abuse lawsuit
Author: Steve Brown, Joseph O'Rourke
Published: 7:54 PM EDT July 13, 2021
WGRZ
BUFFALO, N.Y. — “Get your hands off my grandson.”
Attorney Steve Boyd says those words were fired at then-Auxiliary Catholic Bishop Edward Grosz at a reception celebrating the grandson’s confirmation. The event was in Genesee County in 1990.
Boyd says the grandmother and other family members, “did not know the extent of what had gone on.”
What is alleged in a new lawsuit is that Grosz sexually abused the boy, who is today a man in his late 40’s.
The accuser is only identified in court papers as “AB 393 Doe.” But that man alleges Grosz was one of two Catholic clerics who abused him. The lawsuit make Grosz the highest ranking Catholic clergy to be accused of abuse.
Boyd says the diocese was notified Monday the filing of the lawsuit was imminent. But before that paperwork reached court, the Buffalo Diocese put out a statement. In it, it was announced Grosz had “voluntarily agreed to step aside from active ministry” pending an internal investigation.
The statement included a denial by Grosz of ever having abused anyone.
The suit also accused Father Richard Keppler of repeatedly abusing the accuser when he was between the ages of 10 to 15.
Keppler died in 2011. But seven years earlier, he was removed from active ministry after the Diocese received what it describes as credible accusation of sexual abuse.
Another attorney for the accuser, Jeff Anderson, says his firm has filed five other Child Victims Act (CVA) cases against Keppler and the Buffalo Diocese.
Boyd predicted that in the coming days and weeks there would be new accusation against priests not included on the Diocese's “credibly accused clergy list."
The deadline to file a CVA case is midnight on August 13.
Genesee Co., NY
Former Michigan priest sentenced to 8-15 years in 2nd child sex abuse case
Updated 1:45 PM
By Justine Lofton
LANSING, MI - A former Upper Peninsula priest was sentenced to eight to 15 years in prison in a second child sexual abuse case for crimes he committed in 1984.
“This sentencing in Dickinson County marks the end of more than a year’s worth of work to secure justice for survivors of Mr. Jacobs’ heinous crimes,” Michigan Attorney General Dana said in a statement. “It is my sincere hope this prison sentence brings some closure to those who trusted him. This case would not have been possible without their courage to speak up and my clergy abuse team’s commitment to amplifying those voices in court.”
In addition to the prison sentences, Jacobs will be a lifetime registered sex offender, will have lifetime electronic monitoring and is required to attend sex offender counseling.
The charges involved sexual assaults between 1981 and 1984 in Ontonagon County and in early 1984 in Dickinson County when Jacobs was a priest for the Catholic Diocese of Marquette. Several charges involved a child between 13 and 16 years old and one charge involved a child younger than 13.
After more than two years of investigation, Nessel’s clergy abuse team has secured convictions against four individuals. Last month, former Catholic school music teacher Joseph Comperchio pleaded guilty to sex abuse charges that will result in at least a decade in prison. Former priests Patrick Casey and Brian Stanley were sentenced to 45 and 60 days in jail, respectively.
As of October, the investigation into sexual abuse in Michigan’s Catholic churches had identified 454 accused priests and 811 victims, and led to charges against 11 clergymen.
To learn more about Nessel’s investigation into clergy abuse or to submit information, visit the Attorney General’s website. Tips can also be provided over the phone by calling 844-324-3374.
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