ST. JOHN’S (CANADA)
CBC News
December 14, 2017
By Roger Bill
Alphonsus Penney led St. John’s Roman Catholic archdiocese during sex abuse scandal; dead at 93
Somehow it seems fitting that no picture accompanies the obituary of the former Archbishop of St. John’s at the Telegram website.
The Catholic church has wanted Alphonsus Penney to disappear ever since the first priest in the archdiocese was charged with sexually assaulting boys during his watch. That priest was Jim Hickey, and Alphonsus Penney knew Jim Hickey from the time Penney was an assistant priest at St. Joseph’s church on Quidi Vidi Road and Hickey was a member of the church choir.
Their long association made it difficult to believe the archbishop in 1988 when he told a hastily arranged press conference following Hickey’s conviction that he never had any indication that Jim Hickey was abusing children. Penney said he had no knowledge of any complaint about anybody. “None,” he said.
Later, an inquiry commissioned by the Church concluded that Penney had lied about what he claimed he didn’t know.
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