OTTAWA (CANADA)
Canadian Broadcast Corporation
July 4, 2019
A man who suffered at the hands of a serially abusive priest is welcoming changes made by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon aimed at preventing future abuses.
Over the last several months, the diocese has been working to update policies around abuse and misconduct, establishing several new positions outside of the bishop’s office and the Saskatoon pastoral centre to receive and investigate claims of abuse.
The new positions include an intake officer, a serious misconduct investigator and a victim support co-ordinator.
Brenda FitzGerald, who led the committee reviewing and updating the policies, said positions such as the intake officer will be filled by people who have an academic and professional background in the field of sexual assault, abuse and trauma.
“This was a really significant move to ensure that we would have [a system] as open and as transparent and as … sensitive to concerns of someone coming forward as possible, by not having the diocese investigate themselves,” she said. “That was a major change.”
Gary Mulligan, 73, was abused by Rev. William Hodgson Marshall while he attended Saskatoon’s St.Paul’s High School in the ’60s. It’s been reported that Marshall had a two-way mirror into the boy’s locker room at the school and had abused several of his students.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.