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  Canada: Former Top Catholic Armed Forces Chaplain Recently Settled 2nd Abuse Allegation

Catholic Culture
February 18, 2010

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=5484

CANADA -- A day after the former chief Canadian Catholic armed forces chaplain was charged by military police for an alleged 1972 homosexual assault, the chancellor of a Canadian archdiocese said an additional abuse allegation was settled in 2006.

Msgr. Roger Bazin, who retired from the armed forces in 1995, was charged with one count of buggery, one count of indecent assault on a male, and one count of gross indecency for the 1972 incident. Msgr. Bazin now lives with his sister in his Manitoba hometown, which is located in the Archdiocese of Saint-Boniface.

After his retirement, Msgr. Bazin served in the Diocese of Thunder Bay (Ontario). A family there alleged in 2005 that Msgr. Bazin engaged in "inappropriate behavior" with their son and reported the incident to Archbishop Émilius Goulet of Saint-Boniface. Archbishop Goulet suspended Msgr. Bazin from ministry, and a settlement was paid to the family.

"It would have been in the line of $24,000, I believe," said Father Léonce Aubin, chancellor of the archdiocese. "He had already contributed a fair amount for (the boy's university) studies."

Bishop Frederick Colli of Thunder Bay said he had no knowledge of the incident, even though it allegedly took place in his diocese.

"I was never contacted, I was never asked any questions, it never went through my office at all," said Bishop Colli, who has governed the Diocese of Thunder Bay since 1999. "I don't even think I have that or anything like that in his file."

"I'm not well and I have nothing to say," said Msgr. Bazin about the more recent allegation.

 
 

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