Category: Priests In Trouble

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Dutch bishop investigated for alleged abuse in Kenya

The Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office in Arnhem is investigating whether there is enough evidence to prosecute Bishop Cornelius Schilder for the sexual abuse of an underage boy in Kenya 18 years ago, a spokesperson has confirmed to Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

Bishop Schilder, now living near the Dutch village of Oosterbeek, has been interrogated by the police, according to an insider. On Monday his lawyer told RNW that Schilder denies all allegations against him.

The Dutch Public Prosecutor launched an investigation after a report surfaced earlier this year through the Deetman Commission, which is researching abuse in the Dutch Catholic Church.

Complicated

The Commission refused to comment directly on the matter, but confirmed that it submits serious complaints to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The police officially logged the accusation following a request to investigate from the Public Prosecutor.

Spokesperson Ellen Prummel confirmed that the Arnhem Public Prosecutor’s vice squad is considering whether or not the case “truly indicates a criminal offence, and if there are enough leads to warrant further investigation”.

Prummel could not confirm how long this will take. The fact that the victim is living in Kenya and has not notified the police in the Netherlands makes it a “complicated case.” It is also unclear whether the abuse happened too long ago to be prosecuted under Dutch law.

‘Passed on’

The accuser, 32-year-old Michael ole Uka, claims he was abused for years by various foreign priests in Kenya. He came forward in 2005 and informed the church authorities of his allegations when he suffered such severe injuries from abuse that he required urgent medical treatment.

The treatment was paid for by the Mill Hill Missionaries, the congregation to which the accused priests and Dutch bishop belong. Uka also received financial compensation and further aid.

The congregation expatriated an Irish priest involved in the abuse. Mill Hill has relieved the priest of his duties but is still waiting for a Vatican decision to laicise him.

Uka says the abuse started when he was seven years old.

Several members of the clergy allegedly ‘passed him on’ to each other.

The abusers paid Uka’s school fees, which made him feel obliged to permit the abuse, although he says: “I knew it was wrong what they were doing.”

In addition to Schilder, Uka says he was also abused by another Dutch priest who has since passed away.

“He gave me a coffee, showed me my room and started touching me immediately” says Uka, describing his first encounter with Cornelius Schilder.

Touch him

Uka told of his apparent ordeal in a documentary shown on Irish television last month and says the bishop began abusing him in 1993 when he was 14 years old.

At the time, Schilder was a priest in the Kenyan diocese of Ngong.

In 2003, he was promoted to bishop in Ngong.

“He asked me whether this other priest had touched me as well, and I said yes. Then he told me to touch him too and do the same things I had done to the other priest. At the time I thought all priests did these kinds of things.”

The documentary on the Irish RTE network also quoted the father superior of the Mill Hill Missionaries, Anthony Chantry.

According to Chantry, the case has not been reported to the Kenyan police because homosexuality is still a crime in Kenya.

Serious conversation

Mill Hill earlier told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that a congregation official in Kenya had discussed the accusations with both the bishop and the victim.

It was then decided to ask the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Kenya and the Papal Nuncio, the Ambassador to the Vatican in Nairobi, to conduct an ecclesiastical investigation.

Both declined to take action.

After repeated failed requests by the Mill Hill Missionaries, the Vatican finally intervened three years later, according to an insider.

In August 2009 the Dutch bishop was summoned to Rome for a “very serious conversation”.

He did not return to Kenya but went into immediate retirement in a Mill Hill home in the Dutch town of Oosterbeek.

False and inappropriate

Rome’s official line is that Bishop Schilder has health problems.

Since 2009 he has no longer been allowed to carry out the duties of a bishop and as a priest he has been placed under supervision of Mill Hill.

This makes him the first Dutch bishop to be punished by the Vatican for sexual abuse of a minor.

As Michael ole Uka sees it, justice has not been done. His life has been ruined, “while the bishop enjoys his pension in Europe”.

Bishop Schilder denies the accusation and has until now been unwilling to speak to the media.

On Monday, however, he told RNW via his lawyer that “Michael ole Uka’s accusation of sexual abuse is false.”

Bishop Schilder also added that he “considers it inappropriate to issue a statement as long as an investigation is ongoing.”

He says he regrets that the media have publicised the matter before investigations are completed.

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Massachusetts diocese mourns loss of priest who committed suicide

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (CNS) — Many Catholics in the Springfield Diocese mourned the loss of Father Paul J. Archambault, a 42-year-old priest who was found dead July 3 at the rectory of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish in Springfield.

Springfield police confirmed that the priest, a chaplain at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and a part-time parochial vicar at St. Mary Parish in Hampden, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“We are all diminished by the tragic death of Father Paul Archambault. He was a good and pastoral priest, a caring chaplain and a devout man,” said Springfield Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell in a statement.

“Yet he was not immune to illness,” he added. “Most of us realize that physical illness can be fatal; we sometimes forget that the same is true of illnesses that have no physical cause but wrack the spirit still.”

He prayed that God would bring the priest “safely home, rewarding all the good he accomplished and relieving the burdens he found unbearable.”

Bishop McDonnell was scheduled to celebrate a funeral Mass for Father Archambault July 12 at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Northampton, to be followed by burial at St. Mary’s Cemetery there.

Mark E. Dupont, diocesan spokesman, said Father Archambault celebrated 4 p.m. Mass July 2 at St. Mary Church in Hampden and was later called to Baystate Medical Center’s emergency department to minister to a Catholic patient. He was last seen leaving the hospital at 6:45 p.m.

“We know that he had been quite busy performing his priestly duties throughout the holiday weekend, which was very typical as he was a very dedicated and devout young priest,” said Dupont.

Father Archambault was scheduled to celebrate Mass at St. Mary’s again July 3. When he didn’t show up, friends and family members became concerned and started a search.

“Throughout the day Sunday, with assistance from Springfield police, calls were made to anyone who might have had contact with Father Archambault. Later, in the afternoon, based on some information that had been received, another search of the rectory was conducted and his body was discovered,” Dupont said.

George D’Astous, Father Archambault’s cousin, said his family is devastated. “Father Paul was a people’s priest,” D’Astous told the diocesan news website, www.iobserve.org.

The priest graduated from St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, Mass., in 2000 and was ordained in the Diocese of Springfield in 2005.

For the last several years he led a eucharistic rosary procession through the streets of Northampton, where he grew up. The priest was also very involved in the diocesan pro-life efforts. He took part in prayer vigils for life and was often seen praying in front of the Planned Parenthood League of Springfield.

Robin Sheehan, who knew Father Archambault through the pro-life community and the rosary procession, said he gave many Catholics the courage to witness for Christ.

“He was so consistent. He didn’t mince his words. That’s what I saw in him,” said Sheehan.

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Father Bob ‘pressured to quit’ post

VICTORIAN of the Year Father Bob Maguire says he is being made to quit his post as parish priest against his will, and that his ejection could unravel his community work.

Father Maguire is due to step down as parish priest at South Melbourne’s Church of St Peter and St Paul on February 1 next year, as he agreed in a letter to the Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, in 2009.

But the celebrity Catholic priest said yesterday that he was ”pressured” into writing the letter and in fact wants to remain in the job beyond that date, as his position as parish priest is integral to the church’s work in the community.

”Why would you go to the trouble of breaking up the relationship when in fact everybody seems to be agreeing that it’s a bloody good thing?” he said.

Father Maguire resisted an attempt by Archbishop Hart two years ago to nudge him into retirement upon his 75th birthday, winning an extension in the role until February 1, 2012.

”In 2009 I was pressured into signing a letter of resignation,” he said. ”I turned 75 and [Archbishop Hart] said ‘look, the custom now is to offer your resignation and if you offer it, I’ll take it’. So I said, ‘I don’t know that I’ll offer it’.”

Father Maguire – best known for his appearances on TV and radio alongside comedian John Safran, but also for his work with the homeless and the poor – said he could not understand why he was being singled out for retirement when many Catholic priests continue to work well beyond the age of 75.

But Archbishop Hart said the move was ”consistent with canon law, which asks a priest who turns 75 to offer his resignation”.

”While there may be older parish priests in Victoria their appointment is dependent on the assessment by the local bishop of the circumstances of the priest, parish and diocese,” the archbishop added.

Now 77 but still committed to his church and community work, Father Maguire questioned whether it was his attention-grabbing style, rather than his age, behind the move.

”Maybe the Roman style currently prevailing in the Catholic Church thinks that I’m a bogan,” he said.

Father Maguire was named Victorian of the Year last week for his community service work.

He dedicated the award to his parishioners, saying they had joined him in reaching out to the local community, especially those living in South Melbourne’s public housing estate.

Archbishop Hart also praised Father Maguire’s community work, saying he had ”thoroughly deserved the Victorian of the Year award”.

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US bishop resigns after alleged paedophile flees

Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday accepted the resignation of a US bishop accused of allowing an alleged paedophile priest from his diocese to flee to Mexico, as the Vatican takes action on abuses.

Bishop Daniel Walsh of the diocese of Santa Rosa in California resigned under an article in Catholic Church law invoking a “grave cause”, which can include a failure by the prelate in question to denounce a case of paedophilia.

Walsh, 74, is one year younger than the minimum retirement age for bishops.

Benedict last year called for a zero tolerance approach to child abuse by clergymen and called on bishops to work together with local law enforcement, following thousands of paedophile scandals across Europe and the United States.

Father Xavier Ochoa admitted to the bishop in April 2006 that he had abused young boys but the police were only told three days later by a diocesan lawyer.

By that time, Ochoa had fled to Mexico where he is still at large.

The diocese was ordered to pay five million dollars (3.5 million euros) to the three victims, as well as 20,000 dollars from Walsh personally.

The alleged acts committed by Ochoa included rape and forced oral sex.

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Priest apologises for abusing parishioner

A 79-year-old Catholic priest has apologised in court to a former parishioner for the ‘torture’ of sexual abuse he subjected her to over a number of years.

Paul McGennis had pleaded guilty to eight sample counts of sexual abuse against the young girl in the 1980s.

The abuse began when she was aged ten and continued for a number of years.

The victim said she lived in fear of the priest who threatened that her family would be expelled from the church if she told anyone.

The abuse took place in the priest’s house at a Dublin City Centre parish and continued after he moved to another parish in Dublin.

The victim said he would give her sweets and toys in the early days of the abuse.

In later years, he gave her money after having sex. In statements to gardaí, she said the abuse continued because she was a child and was scared.

She said she would run errands for the priest and the abuse began one day when she was late returning from an errand and he ‘gave out’ to her. It then took place almost every fortnight in the bedroom of the parish house and in a waiting room.

She said she would be admitted to the house by a housekeeper who was often present in the house, although not in the room, while the abuse took place.

Throughout the abuse she would cry and ask him to stop but he continued, she said. She did not tell her family because she thought she would be ‘battered’ and was afraid to bring shame on them.

She complained to gardaí a number of years ago after receiving counselling following a suicide attempt.

When interviewed by gardaí in 2009, McGennis denied the allegations. He pleaded guilty earlier this year.

At the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last Friday, McGennis apologised to the victim and her family for the ‘stress and torture I have put them through and for the fact that my initial denials must have made it worse’.

In her victim impact statement, the victim said she would serve a sentence until the day she dies because of the abuse.

She said she lived in fear of seeing her abuser who had ‘taken away my innocence, my childhood memories, my chance of an education and my prospects for the future.’

It continued to threaten her marriage and denied her the chance to have children, she said. It left her without self esteem or the ability to form and maintain relationships. As a teenager she engaged in destructive behaviour.

Lawyers for Paul McGennis said his remorse and apology were genuine and said he was at low risk of reoffending. They asked the judge to take into account his age and medical condition when considering sentence.

The court was told he now lives at a diocesan centre at Clonliffe College and is living under a direction from the archbishop which governs his ministry and his contact with young people.

He has previous convictions for indecent assault and has served a prison sentence.

He is also co-operating with garda investigation launched as a result of the Murphy Report but Judge Desmond Hogan said that was not related to the current charges.

Judge Desmond Hogan said he needed time to consider the victim impact statement, along with medical and psychological reports submitted by the defence, and adjourned sentence to 29 July next.

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