Clergy Abuse Victim Says of Springfield Catholic Diocese Discipline: Too Little Too Late (photos, Video)

By Stephanie Barry
Mass Live
March 9, 2018

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/03/clergy_abuse_victim_says_of_sp.html

Richard Koske sits at a restaurant not far from the Roman Catholic parish where he has worked as a janitor and handyman for 15 years.

It seems a suitable role for a devout man who traces many of his 62 years of memories back to the Catholic church -- for better or for worse. A longtime South Hadley Falls resident, Koske and four siblings were students of Catholic schools growing up.

But he and the church remain at odds over the discipline of a once-trusted pastor who sexually assaulted him once when Koske was an adult -- reflecting a hangover of sorts more than a decade after an international clergy abuse scandal enveloped the church. Massachusetts was ground zero for that calamity.

Catholic upbringing wasn't always easy for Koske. He recalls being harangued by nuns for being left-handed, and being beaten with yardsticks in a coat closet for bringing a brown bag lunch without permission or forgetting a teacher's name.

Koske was nonetheless comforted by and in awe of the church and its principles his whole young life.

This led him to the Rev. Eugene Honan as a teenager. Honan was a charismatic new parish priest at St. Patrick's in South Hadley Falls in the 1970s. Honan was a military guy, a former athlete who was plain-spoken, even boisterous, and commanded a room.

"He was the new guy on the block. He was really on fire with his homilies and that," Koske said during a recent interview at Munich Haus in Chicopee. "He'd always say: 'Koske, I'm going to find you a good Catholic woman!'"

But that never happened. Koske said Honan did much more to thwart his relationships and mar his view of the church. Honan sexually assaulted him in the 1990s, according to him and a church official who confirmed Koske's claim was found credible by a review board. Honan could not be reached for comment for this story.

A father twice married and divorced, Koske in 2006 reported to the diocese that Honan assaulted him in the mid- to late-1990s when he was an on-call fix-it guy for the priest. Koske said the priest plied him with liquor; he suspects he was also drugged.

"The last thing I remember was I was lying on a bed and he was opening a dresser drawer, then I was out like a light," Koske said. "Then I woke up and my shirt's all undone and my pants are around my knees, and I said, 'Oh s---, what happened here?'"

Koske said he scrambled out of the rectory of the former St. Mary's Church in downtown Northampton and went home. Honan later called and demanded to know where he had gone.

Koske returned to the rectory and Honan said, "Koske, you wanted that to happen as much as I did," according to Koske.

To which Koske replied: "Father Gene, you're a sick man."

Koske initially asked a diocesan counselor not to act on his complaint, according to records provided to The Republican.

Koske returned to the diocese to tell the full story in 2011, the documents show. He brought his claim to the diocesan review board and ultimately received a settlement check for $20,000 in 2013 -- plus many years of therapy paid for by the church, Koske said.

However, he and his daughter became angry when they began to spot Honan at various parishes performing priestly duties in the years that followed.

Under the "Dallas Norms" drafted by the Roman Catholic Church at the peak of the clergy abuse scandal, it has become customary to strip abusive priests of their faculties. In the most severe cases, abusive priests were defrocked by the Vatican.

Mark Dupont, spokesman for the Springfield diocese, said that after the review board found Koske's complaint to be credible, Honan was stripped of of some duties and was kicked out of the rectory where he was staying after his retirement in 2010.

However, since the complaint was over abuse that occurred when Koske was an adult, church law was murkier on the topic at the time, Dupont said in a lengthy statement.

"Then-diocesan Bishop Timothy McDonnell, recognizing that Rev. Honan was already out of regular full time ministry by virtue of his retirement, withdrew his priestly faculties outside the diocese and allowed only supervised ministry when he was in the diocese. Bishop McDonnell also ordered Rev. Honan to vacate the rectory where he had taken up residence when he retired," the statement read, in part.

"Bishop McDonnell's decision was based on Church guidance at the time this matter was being reviewed which treated misconduct against adults differently than with minors," Dupont said.

"Last year the Review Board brought up this matter with Bishop (Mitchell) Rozanski who in turn agreed to meet with the victim and a family member. After that meeting Bishop summoned Rev. Honan and told him he was re-considering this matter. (Rozanski) subsequently has informed him that he will no longer have any priestly faculties in the diocese or elsewhere," the statement concluded.

Dupont said the diocese also referred the matter to the Northwestern district attorney's office in 2011, since it may fall within the statute of limitations since a change in the law in the wake of the clergy abuse scandal. First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne declined to discuss a potential investigation.

"We typically do not comment on whether or not a particular person was investigated for possible criminal conduct, as doing so could tarnish a person's reputation, regardless of whether the allegations were founded or not," Gagne said.

For his part, Koske has aligned himself with Olan Horne, a vocal adversary of the church and an equally vocal advocate for victims. Koske sought Horne's help after becoming dissatisfied with the diocese's seeming lack of initial vigor to bar Honan from priestly benefits and publicly disclose the abuse.

In fact, Honan in 2014 received the Monsignor Timothy J. Leary award as a graduate of and faculty member at the former Holyoke Catholic High School, and is in its Hall of Fame. A parish bulletin in 2017 also celebrated Honan's 50th anniversary as a priest. The recognition made The Republican.

The continual honors have stoked Horne's anger and ratcheted up Koske's bewilderment.

"This is the filthiest garbage can," said Horne, never one to mince words.

Koske said he still holds his faith precious.

"Christ was crucified by his own people. I feel like I'm being crucified by my own people. It's not Christ. It's his workers," Koske said.

In response, Dupont said the lack of full disclosure initially was a product of a dearth of guidance in adult abuse cases.

"The diocese must accept responsibility for this unfortunate circumstance, which stands in stark contrast to our efforts to hold those who have abused accountable for their actions as well as to reach out with compassion to all victims of abuse and continue our efforts to prevent a repeat of past failures. When we do fall short, we try to learn from our mistakes," he said.

Dupont added that while the Holyoke Catholic organization would not have known of Honan's disciplinary history, Honan should have declined any public honors.

To date, Honan's name does not appear on the public list the diocese publishes of former priests who have been tarnished by credible allegations of abuse. Once again, it is because Koske was not a minor at the time of the incident, Dupont said.

In a cruel twist of irony, Koske notes that Honan was once among a minority of local priests involved in abuse victim outreach.

"Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing," Koske said.