Another List of Abusive Priests Reveals Deep Ties to St. Michael’s College
By Colin Meyn
The Society of Saint Edmund, the Catholic order that founded St. Michael’s College, has released a list of 10 priests who worked in Vermont that have been accused of sexually abusing children, adding to the 40 priests named by the Burlington diocese. Two of the accused priests, John Stankiewicz and Nelson Ziter, were prominent educators and administrators at St. Michael’s. And in both cases the congregation describes the allegations of abuse as being “substantiated.” As with the list of priests released by the Burlington diocese, the Saint Edmund’s list is short on details. It names the accused priests, when they were ordained, when they died, and when the church became aware of the accusations against them. “We Edmundites are profoundly sorry for any and all incidents involving the sexual abuse of minors by members of our Society,” said a statement released with the list. “In the interest of transparency we have examined our records for the past seventy-five years and have decided to publish all allegations that have been received, whether or not they have been substantiated.” Rev. David Cray, the superior general of The Society of Saint Edmund, said that in cases where a priest was still in the ministry when an accusation was received, he was removed within 24 hours. However, no reports were filed with civilian authorities, and the church did not conduct internal investigations to determine if other children had been abused. “It just wasn’t common practice at the time to do that,” Cray said in an interview Wednesday. “Today they would be reported to the law immediately.” Instead, some of the priests were placed in “safety programs,” in which they lived with other clergy members and were monitored “for the rest of their lives,” Cray said. For Stankiewicz, this secret punishment meant that he died in 2000 with his reputation largely intact. Two victims came to the Society of Saint Edmund in 1992 with accusations against Stankiewicz and a request for the congregation to pay for their counseling, Cray said. Two years later, Stankiewicz was inducted into the St. Michael’s athletics hall of fame, according to Seven Days, due to his long career organizing and coaching sports at the school. He was also vice president of student affairs and dean of men at the college. “The college did not know about that,” Cray said of the allegations against Stankiewicz. “Anyone who was in authority at the time is deceased, so I can’t tell you why that was not reported to the college.” A few references to Stankiewicz on the St. Michael’s website, such as his founding of a community garden, appear to have been scrubbed in recent weeks. A spokesperson for the university did not return calls seeking an interview about the accused priests who once worked at the college. However, he did provide a statement saying it “fully supports the transparency and accountability” from the Society of Saint Edmund. “While this research has not uncovered cases of abuse that occurred on campus, nor any cases since the 1980s, the College recognizes the wounds of abuse are deep – no matter where or when they occurred,” the statement said. Ziter’s abuse allegedly occurred in the 1970s, after he had left Vermont and founded the Don Bosco Boys Club in Selma, Alabama. He was named in a list of accused priests released last year by the Mobile archdiocese. A man filed a lawsuit against Ziter and the church in 1994, according to a report in the Connecticut Post, alleging a litany of crimes including alleged assault and battery, and negligent hiring and supervision. But it was tossed out due to Alabama’s statute of limitations.
Cray said he initially thought the Society of Saint Edmund’s list would be released in coordination with a separate list compiled by a lay committee assembled by the Burlington archdiocese, which revealed its work during a press conference last month. He said he spoke with administrators at the diocese, who said they would include a reference or link to the society’s list in their report. “They just didn’t do it,” Cray said. So instead almost nobody knew the list even existed — despite it being posted on the society’s website in early August — until Seven Days published an article about it on Wednesday. “We didn’t put it in the press,” Cray said, claiming it would have been too complicated to place announcements in publications in each of the states where the accused priests — all but one of whom are now dead — had once lived or worked. “The easiest way to do it was to put it on the website,” he said. The Seven Days report said that Mike Donoghue, a longtime reporter in Vermont who served on the diocese review committee, spoke with Cray while they were each working on their lists. But Donoghue said there was no consideration of including priests from the independent order on the diocese’s list. Donoghue, who was the subject of a recent VTDigger article looking at his potential conflicts of interest, did not return a call Wednesday seeking comment. Vermont Catholic Bishop Christopher Coyne did not return an email Wednesday requesting comment. One priest appeared on both the diocese and Saint Edmund lists: Charles Many, who was accused of abuse in the 1980s and removed from the ministry in 1986, according to the Saint Edmund’s report. Just last year, the Colchester-based order and the Catholic diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, split a nearly $1 million settlement paid out to Andrew Aspinwall, 50, of New London, according to the Burlington Free Press. Aspinwall said he was molested by Many at the Sacred Heart Church in Groton, Connecticut, in the late 1970s and 1980s. Many denied the allegations, and did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement. Many, who lives in a retirement home in Williston, is the only priest on the Saint Edmund’s list who is still alive.
Cray said that four other men in the order helped him compile the list, which he personally edited before release. The accusations against four of the priests were labelled “substantiated.” Allegations against seven of the 10 priests were received by the order after they had died or retired from the church, the report says. Saint Edmund priests received allegations that Paul Pinard abused minors in Vermont in 1991. Cray said Pinard spent the rest of his life, until his death in 2017, living in the congregation’s “safety program.” However, he continued to conduct Mass and hear confessions into the 2000s, when he was removed as a priest at St. Edmund’s Retreat on Enders Island in Mystic, Connecticut, after the Norwich diocese learned of the decades-old accusations, according to the Hartford Courant. “We believe we have taken a responsible position by placing [him] where he can be monitored, to be sure no future abuse occurs,” Rev. Richard Myhalyk, one of Cray’s predecessors at the helm of the Saint Edmund’s order, told the Courant in 2005. Cray said Wednesday he did not regret how the church handled the priests who had been accused of abusing children. “I think we dealt with them well and we dealt with them according to the knowledge and wisdom of the time,” he said. The Edmunite priests who the society received allegations of sexual abuse are: Laurence A. Boucher John A. Lanoue Edward A. Leary Charles G. Many Paul A. Pinard Paul I. Plouffe John A. Stankiewicz Edward J. Stapleton Aime J. Trahan Nelson B. Ziter
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