Antigonish Continues Sex Abuse Reconciliation

By Deborah Gyapong
The Canadian Catholic News
November 24, 2013

http://www.catholicregister.org/news/canada/item/17246-antigonish-continues-sex-abuse-reconciliation

Bishop Brian Dunn

OTTAWA - Nova Scotia’s Antigonish diocese plans a series of public encounters to reach out to sexual abuse victims and those hurt by a former bishop’s child porn conviction.

“As a diocese, we want to express solidarity with those who are hurting and make an effort to accompany all who are hurt or who are disconnected with the Church,” said a Nov. 29 news release.

“To those who have found it necessary to absent themselves from our faith communities, we will continue to try to regain your trust and remind you of how much we miss your presence.”

The meetings follow the multi-million dollar class-action sexual-abuse lawsuit settlement announced by then-Bishop Raymond Lahey in August 2009. About a month later Lahey was found with child pornography on his computer at Ottawa’s airport. He was charged and subsequently pleaded guilty to importation of child pornography.

“This is about providing an opportunity for the victims of abuse to have their voices heard,” said diocesan spokesman Fr. Donald MacGillivray in an interview from Antigonish. The deanery meetings will be a preparation for a service of reconciliation planned for Pentecost, he said.

“As a result of hearing their voice, it helps us to appreciate the pain and the suffering they have endured.”

Antigonish Bishop Brian Dunn will attend all the meetings, MacGillivray said.

“Since he’s come here, he has really worked hard to try to move this whole process along, to be faithful to this particular aspect of the class-action lawsuit,” he said. “He’s provided very good leadership on where we are in the history of this particular diocese.”

The meetings in the seven county-wide deaneries start Nov.26 in Stellarton and end in North Sydney on Dec. 11. The meetings are part of a three-year effort on the part of diocesan faithful “to restore confidence of its members in practicing and re-engaging the faith,” said the press release.

On top of the painful divestment of properties and parish savings accounts to meet a $16 million settlement to dozens of victims of several priests dating back 60 years, the charges against Lahey “really broke the back of some people,” said MacGillivray. “It was really just too much.”

“Some people have dealt with it and are ready to move on; others have not,” he said.

Lahey pleaded guilty in May 2011 and opted to go to jail prior to his sentencing hearing in Jan. 2012, when the judge sentenced him to 15 months but granted him two-for-one for time served and released him after eight months. The Holy See removed Lahey from the clerical state later that year.

The diocese has made the last payment required by the courts to meet the $13 million pay-out to victims and the additional $3 million in administrative costs for those victims not part of the class action lawsuit.

But the diocese continues to sell properties to repay the loan the diocese took out to pay the settlement.

“We are a community,” said MacGillivray. “This class-action lawsuit is the just thing to do. It’s the Gospel thing to do. It’s also fair to say that people don’t always have an appreciation that it’s a fair thing to them.”

The diocese has enough property it can sell to pay off the loan, but selling property is a slow process, he said. “No church has been sold; no rectory or glebe house or parish hall.”

Parish funds, however, have been taken and extra land not being used for core parish activities is up for sale, he said. About 150 properties have been put up for sale, and 100 parishes have contributed their savings.

The diocese recently held a renewal congress to come up with a five-year plan that MacGillivray said was led by the faithful of the diocese with a great deal of grassroots consultation.

“I think I’m always pleasantly surprised by the dedication of people,” he said. “It’s been very difficult here with the class-action lawsuit, the selling of properties and the Bishop Lahey stuff.”

“Sometimes I am amazed at how people hang in and stick with it.”