Catholic Leaders in Nashville Face Scrutiny over Handling of Sexual Assault Allegation against Former Aquinas College Priest

By Holly Meyer
Tennessean
July 21, 2020

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2020/07/21/aquinas-college-sexual-assault-accusation-nashville-catholic-diocese/5471835002/

A woman has accused the former chaplain of Aquinas College of sexually assaulting her nearly three years ago while she was a student at the Nashville school.

Catholic leaders in Tennessee are now facing scrutiny for how they handled her allegation against the Rev. Kevin McGoldrick, the 46-year-old priest from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who ministered in Nashville for almost six years.

Last week, the London-based Catholic Herald published an extensive report that detailed the woman's accusations. It also raised questions about why the Dominican Sisters of the Congregation of St. Cecilia and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville did not do more when the woman first came forward about the August 2017 attack.

Eventually, the woman took her allegation to the Philadelphia archdiocese, which found it to be credible, and she filed a report with Nashville police.

The woman, identified by a pseudonym in the publication's report, told the Catholic Herald she reached out to the Nashville diocese in March 2019 and gave the victim assistance coordinator a full account of what McGoldrick did to her.

But Catholic leaders in Tennessee say they initially were not given all the details now available about the allegation against the priest.

Susan Vance, a leader with the Tennessee chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, criticized them for their inaction.

"This is gross malfeasance on the part of the nuns and the diocese of Nashville," Vance said in a Sunday statement. "The journey of this woman is complicated by the lack of responsibility, accountability and transparency of all the institutions involved."

Nashville diocese receives report, relays it to Dominican Sisters

The Nashville diocese confirmed in a Monday statement that a woman did make a report about McGoldrick in March of last year, but the diocese said the inappropriate activity described did not appear to be against civil or church laws.

"The report made to us was significantly different than the description of sexual assault subsequently reported to others and contained in published media reports," the Nashville diocese said.

The diocese did relay in 2019 the details of her report to the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia but withheld the woman's identity due to her request for anonymity. The diocese said the Dominican Sisters had authority to investigate or respond since they hired McGoldrick to serve as a chaplain on their Nashville campus.

The religious order, which reports directly to the Vatican, owns and operates Aquinas College as well as the high school and combined elementary and middle school also located on The Dominican Campus in Nashville.

The Dominican Sisters said in a Monday statement that if they had known more, they would have acted differently.

In 2019, the diocese told them a former student had reported imprudent and unprofessional behavior involving McGoldrick, but the accusations shared with them did not include sexual assault, the Dominican Sisters said.

"Had the Congregation initially known the seriousness of the allegations and that the woman was a student at the time of the incident, we would have immediately taken more severe action regarding Father McGoldrick," the Dominican Sisters said. "However, unfortunately, that was not how the situation unfolded."

Instead, the Dominican Sisters allowed McGoldrick to finish out his contract, which ended when the semester did in June 2019. When McGoldrick's contract expired, the Nashville diocese also withdrew his faculties, which gave him the ability to perform religious duties, like celebrating Mass, within the diocese.

Neither the Nashville diocese nor the Dominican Sisters alerted the Archdiocese of Philadelphia about the report involving McGoldrick.

Philadelphia archdiocese launches an investigation

But soon after McGoldrick's contract expired in Nashville, the archdiocese would receive its own report of misconduct against the priest. The woman told the Catholic Herald she reported him to the archdiocese, which has oversight of McGoldrick's ministry, in July 2019.

The archdiocese's office of investigation, which is led by a former assistant district attorney with more than 35 years of experience, looked into the report, which alleged a violation of the standards of ministerial behavior and boundaries, Kenneth A. Gavin, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said in a Monday statement.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, who led the archdiocese at the time, determined the allegation against McGoldrick to be credible and the priest was stripped of his faculties and restricted from public ministry, Gavin said.

The archdiocese did tell the Nashville diocese and the Dominican Sisters about the administrative actions taken against McGoldrick, Gavin said, but he did not specify when the archdiocese notified the Nashville entities.

McGoldrick did not respond to The Tennessean's requests for comment.

The priest has requested to be removed from the clerical state and his petition is with the Vatican, Gavin said.

The woman told the Catholic Herald she reached back out to Nashville church leaders about her allegation earlier this year. She also went to the Metro Nashville Police Department.

A police report and a settlement

She told police McGoldrick plied her with alcohol and fondled her at his home in August 2017, a Metro Nashville police incident report states.

The Davidson County district attorney's office declined to prosecute the case because a sexual battery offense carries a two-year statute of limitations, police records show. By the time the woman alerted law enforcement in February, the statute of limitations had expired.

The woman's attorney also approached the Nashville diocese earlier this year about the possibility of filing a lawsuit, the diocese's statement said. In May, they settled out of court with the diocese agreeing to pay her $65,000 so she could "work toward a level of healing." The diocese specifically denied any liability, the statement said.

The Dominican Sisters said they also heard directly from the woman in February and learned more details about what transpired in August 2017. They followed up with the Nashville diocese as well as the archdiocese and learned from Philadelphia leaders about the administrative actions taken against McGoldrick.

"We apologize for not communicating more quickly with our Dominican Campus community and for any pain our decisions have caused them. As educators, we are committed above all to the safety and well-being of our students and those entrusted to our care and we strive for transparency in all we do," The Dominican Sisters said.

"We join in prayer for the healing of the woman who has made the report and others affected by this situation."

Reach Holly Meyer at hmeyer@tennessean.com or 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.