Priest Preyed on Boy As a Relative, Ottawa Archdiocese Says

By Megan Gillis
Sun News
September 17, 2013

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2013/09/20130917-184405.html

A dead and defrocked Catholic priest accused of raping an altar boy decades ago preyed on him as a family member, not a man of the cloth, the archdiocese of Ottawa said Tuesday.

But the lawyer for the victim, "John," says the brutal abuse happened in the context of their faith and is angry that the diocese revealed his client is a relative of Jean Gravel's.

"They did it in a vindictive way to punish him for coming forward, I believe," Robert Talach said.

"I'm really disappointed in the archdiocese."

Monsignor Kevin Beach was reacting to reports about a lawsuit filed against the archdiocese over abuse the man says he suffered from age eight to 15 in the 1950s and 1960s.

His painful story is a reminder most child sex abuse is committed by family members or close friends, Beach said in a statement.

"By the facts known to us, it appears that the late Jean Gravel had access to John, not by virtue of his role as a priest or pastor but by reason of his being a member of the Gravel family," he said.

Beach said they listened with a "sympathetic ear" and tried to help him heal.

They'll seek a "just solution" now that he's chosen to sue rather than settle.

John agrees they were compassionate but his lawsuit seeks $2 million, if only because he has to name a sum before the evidence is known.

What he really wants is the truth, Talach said.

"The lawsuit will make sure they have to tell him everything about Gravel," he said.

"He wants to know what happened and what they knew. This is a very disturbed priest. It's unbelievable he wasn't caught before.

"He wants to reach out to other victims."

John alleges that the parish priest at Sainte Jeanne d'Arc and Saint-Remi churches subjected him to escalating abuse including oral sex and penetration on the property of the church that failed to protect him.

All the while, Gravel made him feel that "his soul was in jeopardy" and heard his confessions.

The archdiocese calls Gravel's case "scandalous" and said he had "behavioural problems" that required officials to intervene for his "correction and rehabilitation."

That's code for sexual impropriety, Talach charges.

Gravel was convicted of criminal charges in the late 1960s -- sex-related, according to John -- and was dismissed from the clergy at the archbishop's request in 1970. He committed suicide in 1980.

John says he's struggled with depression, feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness, flashbacks and nightmares for which he'll need counseling for life.