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  Ex-Chaplain in Sex Case Paid off Teen: Officials

By Allan Woods
Toronto Star
February 18, 2010

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/767250--ex-chaplain-in-sex-case-paid-off-teen-officials

CANADA -- OTTAWA–The former top chaplain with the Canadian Forces paid in excess of $24,000 to a teenage boy whose family complained that the Roman Catholic priest had engaged him in inappropriate behaviour, church officials have told the Toronto Star.

The revelation comes one day after Roger Bazin, 72, was charged with buggery, sexual assault and gross indecency for an incident that occurred while the chaplain, then a captain, was posted to CFB Borden two years into his illustrious career.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service confirmed on Wednesday that Bazin is alleged to have committed the illegal acts in 1972 against an underage boy at the base near Barrie.

But a shocking secret has apparently been lurking for at least four years in the confines of the Manitoba Archdiocese of Saint-Boniface, where Bazin was assigned as a pastor before joining the military in 1970 and after his retirement in 1995.

In late 2005, a family from Thunder Bay contacted former Saint-Boniface archbishop Monsignor Emilius Goulet with serious allegations involving Bazin.

The family said the retired chaplain had engaged in "inappropriate behaviour" with their 16-year-old son while living and helping out in Thunder Bay's Roman Catholic community after leaving the Canadian Forces, Father Léonce Aubin, chancellor of Saint-Boniface archdiocese, said in an interview.

The family did not want to file a criminal complaint with the police, which allegedly occurred when Bazin was living in Keewatin, Ont., and volunteering as a pastor at St. Louis parish.

"If I remember correctly, the family said ... 'We just think maybe this priest needs help,'" Aubin said.

Aubin would not say what alleged behaviour led to the complaint.

A lawyer for Saint-Boniface archdiocese was appointed to work with Bazin and arranged for a cash settlement that the retired pastor paid to the family in 2006.

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

Bazin was contacted Wednesday at his home in St. Claude, Man., but the conversation ended abruptly after about 30 seconds.

"I'm not well and I have nothing to say," he said. When asked about the financial settlement he negotiated in 2006 to deal with the boy's complaint, he hung up the telephone.

In an earlier published report, Bazin said he was surprised by the criminal charges announced earlier this week and intended to "give it a good fight" when his trial goes to court in Barrie on April 28.

"All of my life was helping people," he said. "I can see that it's all going to come to a screeching end because of those allegations."

Bishop Fred Colli – head of the Thunder Bay diocese, which oversees Keewatin – said he was shocked by the allegations against Bazin, who was helping to run the diocese when he arrived in 1999.

"He was a retired chaplain. He's not a priest of this diocese. He was just retired and living here. He had a home here, outside of Keewatin with his sister," Colli said.

"When I came as the bishop I took over and he worked for a couple of years in a little parish in the north, just on weekends. But he wasn't really hired by the diocese per se. He was just doing this as a kind of a favour as a retired priest. After a few years I appointed a pastor there ... and he moved to Manitoba where he lives now with his sister."

Bazin was penalized for his alleged transgression by the Saint-Boniface archbishop, Aubin said. He was barred from performing at religious services or taking any official functions in the archdiocese.

Bazin was never sent for counselling or psychological evaluation, Aubin said. The incident also appears to have been hushed up in the church, which is extremely sensitive to alleged wrongdoing.

"I was never contacted, I was never asked any questions, it never went through my office at all. I don't even think I have that or anything like that in his file," said Colli after being informed by the Star of the Thunder Bay family's accusation and the financial settlement that allegedly stemmed from an incident in his jurisdiction.

"In all the years I've been here as the bishop, no one's ever come to me with an accusation against Monsignor Bazin. I've never handled anything concerning him."

Bazin was the Forces' chaplain general, leading all Roman Catholic military chaplains at Borden between 1992 and 1995. Borden is headquarters for the military's central region cadet operations and has hosted camps since the 1950s.

 
 

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