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Northern Ontario diocese ignored decades of sexual misconduct
allegations against priests, volunteers
From 1950s to 2010s, 12 priests and volunteers are said to have abused 40 people
Natasha MacDonald-Dupuis, Gil Shochat · CBC News ·
Posted: Mar 04, 2023 1:00 AM PST |
The Notre-Dame Chappelle in Moonbeam, Ont., is part of the Hearst-Moosonee diocese.
The diocese is one of Ontario's most isolated. (Natasha MacDonald-Dupuis/Radio-Canada)
WARNING: This article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
A Catholic diocese in Northern Ontario protected priests who faced allegations of sexual misconduct for decades, an investigation by Radio-Canada's Enquête has found.
From the 1950s to the 2010s, 12 priests and volunteers are said to have abused some 40 people; almost all were minors at the time. Rather than being punished, some priests were transferred to other parishes, with these transfers happening well into the 2010s.
The diocese, now known as Hearst-Moosonee, is about 11 hours north of Toronto and comprises about two dozen parishes, many along the northern edge of Highway 11, deep in the boreal forest.
Hearst-Moosonee is one of Ontario's most isolated dioceses, and the church remains an important institution there. It also helped settle the area with a mostly francophone population in the 1920s. This double isolation — geographical and linguistic — made the church an influential player in the region, and it remains involved in several local organizations.
"I think you can get away with more when you're hidden up in Francophone Ontario. It isn't going to be picked up by the Anglophone mainstream media. There isn't going to be as much attention," said Rob Talach, a London, Ont.-based lawyer who has frequently sued the Catholic Church over claims of abuse.
Today, some of the 12 priests are either dead or retired, but Enquête found that five priests and volunteers who faced allegations of past misconduct still worked in the diocese up until late February 2023.
'I was ashamed'
The 2020 arrest and trial on charges of abuse of Fernand Villeneuve, a longtime parish priest in Hearst-Moosonee, shocked many people in the area and prompted Enquête to dig further.
Villeneuve was found not guilty.
Enquête found other allegations of abuse going back decades – not only against Villeneuve, but other priests, too.
The testimonies Enquête collected regarding Villeneuve extend from the 1970s to the 2000s. Enquête spoke to three men who accused Villeneuve of masturbating in their presence.
Enquête also spoke with two women, who CBC agreed not to identify out of concern for their privacy. One complained of unwanted touching by Villeneuve and the other of sexual assault.
Villeneuve didn't reply to Enquête's request for comment.
The complainants who spoke to Enquête say they denounced other priests over the years to the diocese — to little effect.
Enquête spoke with four other people who claim they suffered voyeurism, exhibitionism or sexual touching when they were children or adolescents at the hands of Catholic priest Roger Pronovost, pictured here in December 2022. (Carl Mondello/Radio-Canada)
Gilles, who asked to be identified by his first name only due to what happened in his past, says he was abused when he was 14 by Roger Pronovost, a theology student who worked with the local Catholic youth movement. For Gilles, who says he was also abused by his father, the church was a refuge.
"Roger showed me affection that I wish my father had given me. But by touching me … I fell in love with my abuser. Then I was ashamed afterwards," said Gilles, who is now in his 50s.
Pronovost went on to become a priest and worked in several parishes in the diocese.
Gilles called the bishop's office at the Hearst Diocese and denounced Pronovost almost a decade ago. He said he had confirmation from an official in the diocese that they were "going to do something."
Peterborough, UK, priest Dennis Finbow jailed for child sexual abuse
Dennis Finbow described the allegations "as nonsense and a fabrication"
in police interview
A 74-year-old Catholic priest has been jailed for abusing a young girl in the 1980s despite trying to dismiss the claims as "nonsense".
Dennis Finbow was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault against a girl aged between 10 and 13 while he worked in Dogsthorpe in Peterborough.
Judge Philip Grey told him he had been "unmasked for what you really were".
Finbow, of Bealings Road, Martlesham, near Ipswich, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
The Diocese of East Anglia said Finbow, who had also served in St Neots in Cambridgeshire, had retired and not been in active ministry since 2001.
His trial at Cambridge Crown Court was told the defendant had touched the girl while she was in bed.
Prosecutor Nicholas Bleaney said when he was voluntarily interviewed, the defendant described the allegations "as nonsense and a fabrication".
'Psychological harm'
In an impact statement read to the court, the victim said Finbow was a cigar-smoking "larger than life" character who had a "secret life" as a paedophile.
She said she now saw "every man I meet as a potential abuser".
Judge Grey said the offence was "the clearest abuse of trust" and told Finbow: "Your actions... have caused significant lifelong psychological harm."
He said that Finbow had targeted a "particularly vulnerable victim" and that it was "particularly heinous" he took advantage of his position.
The judge heard Finbow had prostate cancer and acknowledged the defendant's "significant ill-health".
Finbow was told he would be on the sex offenders' register for life.
At the time he was convicted, the Right Reverend Peter Collins, Bishop of East Anglia, said he would be "seeking urgent legal advice" about removing Finbow's clerical status and rights.
John Paul II knew of and concealed child sex abuse as archbishop,
Polish TV reports
Monika Scislowska - Associated Press
March 07, 2023
in an undated photo. He was ordained a bishop in 1958 at age 38, then Poland's youngest bishop.
He will be canonized April 27 with Blessed John XXIII.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Pope St. John Paul II knew about sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority and sought to conceal it when he was an archbishop in his native Poland, according to a television news report.
In a story that aired late Monday, Polish channel TVN24 named three priests whom the future pope then known as Archbishop Karol Wojtyla had moved among parishes or sent to a cloister during the 1970s, including one who was sent to Austria, after they were accused of abusing minors.
Two of the priests, Eugeniusz Surgent and Jozef Loranc, eventually served short prison terms for the abuse, TVN24 said its investigation found. Wojtyla served as archbishop of Krakow from 1964 to 1978, when he became Pope John Paul II. He died in 2005 and was declared a saint in 2014 following a fast-tracked process.
He became Pope after the murder of Pope John Paul only days in office, who, according to David Yallop, "In God's Name", was about to clean up the astonishing mess in the Vatican before he was disposed of.
TVN24 quoted from documents of Poland’s communist-era secret security services, which sought to discredit the Catholic Church and had informers there. Journalist Marcin Gutowski also spoke with a number of victims and to a man who said he informed Wojtyla during the 1970s about the abuse by Surgent. None of the priests was defrocked.
TVN24’s investigation concluded that there was no doubt Wojtyla knew about abuse by priests in his archdiocese and sought to conceal it.
The TV channel also quoted from a letter that Wojtyla wrote to the archbishop of Vienna at the time, Franz Koenig, recommending a priest to his care. Wojtyla did not say in the letter that Boleslaw Sadus had abused young boys, and he was made a parish priest in Austria.
The broadcast featured a journalist who has written about cases of priestly abuse in Krakow and who argued that Wojtyla reacted in line with Catholic Church procedures of the time. But a philosopher who knew Wojtyla and visited him at the Vatican after he became pope said it would be hard for Poles in general to accept these new facts about him.
The channel’s investigation has unleashed heated reactions in Poland, with some observers deriding it as an attempt by left-wing forces to destroy the memory of John Paul II and others demanding for the Catholic Church to reveal the truth.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, a Catholic, tweeted a photo of John Paul II greeting a crowd in Poland and added the late pope’s motto “Do not be afraid,” without any comment.
A Polish Jesuit priest, Krzysztof Madel, wrote on Twitter that the focus should be on the victims, who need the truth to be told.
An official at the Ministry of Education, Radoslaw Brzozka, said on Twitter that John Paul II’s reputation was under attack from people who want to eliminate Catholicism from Poland’s national identity.
The choice of Wojtyla for pope in 1978 energized Poland’s predominantly Catholic population to openly oppose the nation’s communist system and eventually topple it.
Until recently, the Catholic Church in Poland has played a significant role in the country’s public life. Revelations about pedophile priests and the church’s close ties with the current right-wing government have depreciated its standing.
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