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Leona’s Story : “i Don’t Want This Happening to Anyone Else’

By Douglas Todd
Vancouver Sun
January 30, 2016

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2016/01/29/leonas-story-i-dont-want-this-happening-to-anyone-else/

On her honeymoon, Leona pretended she was a virgin. After all, she was a devout Vancouver Catholic who was taught that sex outside marriage was sinful. But Leona had a great deal of early teenage sexual experience before she married -- all of it with her own Catholic priest, Father John Edward McCann (photo).

A letter to the editor in today’s Vancouver Sun brought back memories about the years in which I wrote more than 120 articles about clergy sex abuse, including in residential schools.

The surprising letter came from Coquitlam’s Leona Huggins, a survivor of teenage abuse at the hands of Catholic priest John Edward McCann.

Leona’s letter thanked The Sun for publishing accounts of priestly sex abuse long before the Boston Globe did it’s now-famous 2002 expose, which is featured in the riveting Oscar-nominated movie, Spotlight. Leona also warns that the goal of rooting out clergy abusers is not yet over.

I interviewed Leona in 1994. Re-reading what she went through brought back painful emotions and, of course, strong empathy.

I’ve attached my 1994 story about Leona to the bottom of this posting, which begins with her gracious and hard-hitting letter to the editor:

Letter to the editor:

Sun exposed scandal before Spotlight film

Vancouver Sun / Fri Jan 29 2016 / Page: B7 / Section: Issues & Ideas

Re: Shining ‘Spotlight’ on corruption, Douglas Todd column, Jan. 23.

I know first hand of the time Douglas Todd has taken to listen to the stories of the survivors of clergy abuse in British Columbia.

Father John Edward McCann was convicted of four sex charges involving Leona, aged 14 in this photograph, and another female. Leona had been lured into near-daily sex when she was a teenager in the 1970s. {Photo used with permission.}

As a survivor who came out publicly well before the Spotlight team’s expose in 2002, I was interviewed by Todd in 1994, and The Vancouver Sun published a story. The Boston scandal seemed like old news to me due to the pioneering efforts of this reporter.

I have seen (the movie) Spotlight twice and both times I wanted to skip out of the theatre thrilled that the story I lived was finally being heard.

I have a box similar to the one Phil Saviano brought into his meeting with the (Boston) Globe reporters. I, too, felt that I was perceived as a little bit crazy when I mentioned that I was sure there had to be more victims.

To see how that group of reporters followed every lead, knocked on doors to find the truth was a vindication for me.

As the Vancouver representative for SNAP (Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests), I have received numerous phone calls from survivors who indicate there is still much work to be done in how abuse complaints are handled by church officials.

SNAP’s revelation that Fr. John Edward McCann, a former Vancouver priest, had been working in a parish in Ottawa despite being a convicted offender, and the recent story of Fr. Damian Cooper – who had credible allegations against him but had been working with young women in the Fraser Valley – indicate that there is still work to be done.

We know that without the work of survivors, these men could still be working in the church.

LEONA HUGGINS

Coquitlam

Here is the story I wrote in 1994 about Leona, who at the time had a different last name:

Leona’s Story: “I don’t want this happening to anyone else”

Vancouver Sun Archives

Saturday, October 1, 1994

By Douglas Todd

On her honeymoon, Leona Munnalall pretended she was a virgin. After all, she was a devout Catholic who was taught that sex outside marriage was sinful.

But Munnalall had a great deal of sexual experience before she married — all of it with her own Catholic priest.

Father John Edward McCann, who has been convicted of four sex charges involving Munnalall and another female, had lured Munnalall into near-daily sex when she was a teenager in the 1970s.

Leona’s Facebook photo (used with permission)

They had sex in the popular priest’s bedroom at St. Peter’s parish in New Westminster. They had sex in his shower, at movie theatres, on trips and even in a basement crawl space.

McCann, who was in his late 40s at the time, commanded young Munnalall never to tell whomever she married about their sexual activity. He told Munnalall only the Pope could forgive her.

”He never said anything about him doing anything wrong,” said Munnalall, who is now the mother of a young child and working as an elementary school teacher in Greater Vancouver.

Clear-thinking, focused and determined, Munnalall remained dry-eyed as she told her story to The Sun. Occasionally, however, strong emotion seemed to simmer just below the surface. She did not hide that she still feels pain.

Unlike most abuse victims who prefer court-sanctioned anonymity, Munnalall went public because she thinks the only way the Catholic church will face up to priestly sex abuse is when pressure comes from the outside.

Three years ago Munnalall went to police with her complaints against McCann — after hearing he’d been transferred to a Catholic parish on Saltspring Island and started a youth group.

”I thought, ‘Oh my God.’ I don’t want this happening to anyone else.”

The resulting police investigation uncovered another McCann victim, who was a teenage girl at St. Augustine’s parish in Kitsilano when she met McCann. After Crown prosecutors went to court against McCann, 15 Catholic families wrote the judge letters of recommendation for him.

But McCann pleaded guilty in 1992 and was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

McCann initiated Munnalall’s tribulations when she was 13.

”I was a saint at church. I loved it more than anything,” Munnalall said.

In the 1970s, most everyone at St. Peter’s was happy to have McCann as their priest. He joked, played guitar and boasted about how successful his youth group had been in Lethbridge. Some parishioners found him a touch arrogant, and critical of women, Munnalall said. But generally he was a hit.

Yet all the time McCann was drawing praise from parishioners — including Munnalall’s parents and her many siblings — the priest was using his wiles to seduce her.

”He was my mentor. My philosophy of life was based on him.”

A loner as a child, Munnalall played the organ at St. Peter’s and helped out with mass. McCann befriended Munnalall’s family and smothered her with affection and support when her brother died.

He offered her consoling massages. He soon shifted to fondling, then oral sex and more.

McCann eventually hired Munnalall as his secretary, carpenter’s helper and church organist. She stayed at the parish from morning until night, when most of the sex occurred. She also travelled with him.

”All the while I felt I shouldn’t be doing this.”

At one point, when Munnalall told McCann she would miss some time at church because she wanted to be in a high school play, he threatened to fire her.

It took Munnalall three years, until she was 16, to say no to McCann, and stick to it.

But even after that, she stayed involved with the Catholic church. She ended up teaching at a Catholic school in Maple Ridge.

Her first marriage, a bad one in part because she felt she had to be dishonest with her husband about McCann, fell apart after she had a child.

But when a Catholic official told her the church would not allow her to remarry because she had divorced, she couldn’t see committing herself to a life of celibacy. Now Munnalall feels she didn’t endure only sexual abuse. She says she also experienced spiritual abuse.

Faced with what she considers the Catholic church’s unhealthy denial of sexual reality, Munnalall is currently questioning most of the Vatican’s teachings.

She is in secular counselling after unpleasant sessions with a Catholic therapist. She has regretfully cut most of her ties with the church — yet she misses the music and sense of community.

At age 65, her seducer, McCann, is already out of prison.

He is retired from parish ministry.

© 1994 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 




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