Valley Priest Admits Fathering Child
Ex-Parishioner Says 1970s Encounters Not Consensual

By Bill Hart, Nena Baker and Joseph A. Reaves
Arizona Republic
May 7, 2002

A Scottsdale priest who has been active in several Valley congregations since the 1970s admitted Monday that he fathered a child 24 years ago with a parishioner who came to him for counseling.

"I violated my vows. I violated her boundaries. That was terrible," Father Patrick Colleary said. "The words shame, guilt, I don't know what to use. It's almost like the line from the Old Testament: My guilt is before me always."

But the woman who bore his child was unswayed by biblical references.

"I want to see him removed from any position where he's working with women and kids," said Sharon Roy of Glendale, who claims Colleary raped her in 1977.

Colleary, 52, denies the sex he had with Roy was forced.

"I am not like an animal," he told The Arizona Republic with his lawyer present. "There was a very long relationship. It was not a one-night stand."

Disclosure in mid-'90s

Roy denies they had a romantic relationship. But Father Mike Diskin, assistant chancellor of the Diocese of Phoenix, said church officials believed Colleary's claim that the sex was consensual and noted the priest admitted paternity in the mid-1990s and agreed to pay child support.

Diskin said church officials found out about Roy's child only years after she was born and felt punishment was unwarranted because the diocese did not then have a sexual misconduct policy in place.

Roy said she believed Colleary also is guilty of other wrongdoing.

"I want more people to come forward with other charges of sexual acts on his part," Roy said Monday.

She said Colleary complained to her more than once that he had been accused of other sexual improprieties, including an incident alleged to have happened in Tempe in 1979. In that case, a parishioner claimed the priest groped her11-year-old son in her home.

Doris Kennedy of Ocotillo Lakes said she and her husband, Jack, then an Arizona State University economics professor, were living in Holy Spirit Parish in Tempe in 1979 and became friends with Colleary. They invited him to dinner one evening and were clearing the dishes when, unseen by them, Colleary went down the hall with one of their sons, then 11.

A few minutes later, Kennedy said, Colleary came out and announced he was leaving.

"As soon as he was gone, my 16-year-old son came to me with his eyes as wide as saucers and said, 'Mom, Mom, Father Pat had (his brother's) pants down.' "

'Are you all right?'

When Colleary left, Kennedy said she noticed the 11-year-old was missing. She found him in the bedroom.

"He had the covers up over his head," she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "I said: 'Are you all right? And he didn't answer me. His eyes were like little slits and he was white as a sheet. I patted his head and asked him if he wanted water and he said: 'No, no.' Why I didn't ask him what Father Pat did, I don't know."

Colleary remembers the night but denies any wrongdoing.

"Nothing inappropriate happened," Colleary said Monday. "This was investigated. I took a polygraph. They came back to me about a week to 10 days later and said there was nothing to indicate anything inappropriate happened."

Diskin declined to say whether the diocese was aware of any sexual allegations against Colleary besides the paternity case.

"I'm not going to answer that," Diskin said.

Intensive counseling

Colleary said he spent six months from July 1997 to January 1998 undergoing intensive counseling at a Maryland religious retreat known for treatment of priests' alcohol and behavioral problems.

"I went there for a major overhaul -- rehab," he said. "I was mixed up, messed up."

Roy said she tried for years to get the church to take some action against Colleary but was stonewalled.

In addition, Roy claims Colleary helped turn her daughter against her. She said she hasn't talked to their daughter in six years.

Colleary says he maintains a strong relationship with his daughter.

"I see her at least once a week. We go hiking a lot," he said.

Roy said she was especially upset at Colleary's claim that the two had had a serious relationship. "There was no long, serious relationship. I went to him for counseling because my sister died and I needed help for that. He should quit lying about relationships."

After a couple of months of sessions, she said, Colleary came by her apartment one night to discuss future sessions.

"The minute he came in, he was saying weird things like, 'You don't know how long I've waited for this moment,' " Roy said. "Then he raped me, on the floor."

Afterward, as she sat crying, Colleary flipped on the TV news, Roy said. She said the priest promised to return the next night to discuss what had happened. He did return, she said, but he "came through the door and did the exact same thing."

When Roy told Colleary she was pregnant, she said, he urged her to get an abortion or give the baby up for adoption. She said she contemplated suicide, then "cleared my head and resolved that I was not going to hide what he did, and not going to kill a child."

Roy did not go to the police.

"Part of it was protecting my children. Part of it was guilt," she said."He's a priest! You're raised to keep your mouth shut about things like that."

Possible lawsuit

Roy said she plans to speak with an attorney about the possibility of alawsuit.

"I want an apology from the diocese and financial restitution for what they've done to me for the last 24 years," she said.

"But I don't know if I'm ever going to get it."