Tag: Discontent

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For Inuit delegates in France, facing alleged abuser together helped heal a deep wound

After an emotional few days in France, Steve Mapsalak speaks to reporters about his experience meeting with Johannes Rivoire.

By April Hudson

When Steve Mapsalak left the meeting with his alleged abuser on Wednesday, he felt a weight lift from inside him.

Mapsalak, one of the Inuit delegates from Nunavut who went to France this week to press for the extradition of retired priest Johannes Rivoire, said Thursday the short-notice meeting with Rivoire brought memories flooding back to him.

It also gave him an opportunity to tell Rivoire face-to-face about the pain he and other delegates have gone through.

“It is still painful to have the memory when I see the building, the room [where the abuse happened]. And yet, when I was able to speak to him and share how deeply he had hurt us, I could feel that inside, the deep hurt I have carried for so long, some of it is lifted,” Mapsalak said in Inuktitut Thursday.

Aluki Kotierk, the president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., translated Mapsalak’s words into English for a crowd of reporters.

“I will be returning to Canada, my community, a little bit lighter, to be back with my children,” Mapsalak said.

He said he still feels Rivoire needs to be returned to Canada to face trial.

Steve Mapsalak, left, Tanya Tungilik and Jesse Tungilik spoke to reporters in Lyon, France, on Thursday about their meeting with Johannes Rivoire.

Tanya Tungilik, whose father Marius Tungilik had accused Rivoire of sexual abuse, said it was “liberating” to finally tell Rivoire the things she has wanted to say for so long.

She left the room as soon as she finished speaking to him, and wept. With those tears, weight lifted from her as well, she said.

“Just the relief, and the anger and everything — I let it all out. Cried my hardest,” she said. “Saying what I needed to say to him meant everything to me.”

Nunavut Tunngavik — the group that sent the delegation to France — has said it has a plane ticket to Canada ready for Rivoire if he chooses to return voluntarily. Rivoire has repeatedly said he has no intention of coming back to Canada and that he denies the charges of abusing Inuit children in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Provincial House of the Oblates in Lyon, France.

Delegates met with Rivoire and other members of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate on Wednesday in Lyon, France.

“Personally, I felt a great burden going into the room with Rivoire, wanting to articulate in a clear and persuasive manner how much it would mean for all of us if he would just get on the plane,” said Kotierk.

“I did share with him that we have an airplane ticket for him to get on the plane on Friday with us and that we deserve the truth and he needs to face justice.”

While France’s Justice Ministry said Wednesday it was ready to respond to any request from Canada for “mutual legal assistance” in regard to Rivoire, Canada’s justice department has yet to hear from France.

Canada’s Justice Minister David Lametti said Thursday the Department of Justice “has not received any formal response from the French government.”

Canada has made a request to France to extradite Rivoire on charges of sexual abuse, though France has said it has a longstanding “constitutional tradition” of not extraditing nationals.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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French Oblates plan to kick out Johannes Rivoire

NTI, victims of former Nunavut priest’s alleged abuse met with Rivoire Wednesday, demanding he return to Canada

Kilikvak Kabloona, NTI’s chief executive officer, speaks to the media following a meeting between Rev. Johannes Rivoire and the NTI delegation inside the French Oblates’ headquarters in Lyon, France, while David Aglukark, an NTI employee also part of the delegation, looks on.

By Emma Tranter

For years, Inuit in Nunavut have called for Rev. Johannes Rivoire to return to Canada to face justice over allegations of sexual abuse, but they were met with silence.

On Wednesday, one of the victims of his alleged abuse, Steve Mapsalak, and two children of another victim, Marius Tungilik, met face to face with the now 91-year-old priest, at the French Oblates’ headquarters in Lyon, France.

Rivoire, a Roman Catholic priest in Nunavut from 1960 through the early 1990s, was charged with historical sexual abuse in relation to allegations in 1998, but those charges were stayed in 2017.

RCMP laid a new charge of indecent assault against Rivoire earlier this year.

Rivoire left Canada in 1993 and has lived in France since. Even though France has an extradition treaty with Canada, French nationals are protected from extradition.

Rev. Vincent Gruber speaks to reporters outside the Oblates’ headquarters on Wednesday.

The delegation, which arrived in Paris on Monday, had just pulled into the Lyon train station on Wednesday when its members were notified Rivoire had agreed to meet with them.

Clearly emotional, delegation members took seats at a boardroom-style table in the French Oblates headquarters, sitting across from Rev. Vincent Gruber, who leads France’s Oblates, also known as the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

The delegation’s meetings with Rivoire — which lasted two hours — and with Gruber were both closed to the news media.

Gruber told reporters in French that the Oblates have begun the process of removing Rivoire from their congregation, a process that takes up to three months and that could go all the way to the Vatican.

Gruber said he had to act, given Rivoire’s repeated refusal to co-operate.

Members of the NTI delegation settle into the room where they met with Rev. Vincent Gruber before meeting with Rev. Johannes Rivoire in another room.

“He loses all his rights on our side,” Gruber said. “It’s because he didn’t obey the order to present himself to justice [in Canada].”

“I believe the victims. Since the beginning. I have no problem with that,” he added.

The meeting with Rivoire came less than 24 hours after the delegation, led by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., appealed again to French authorities for Rivoire’s extradition. That appeal was met with refusal.

Gruber also said the Oblates plan to appeal to the Vatican to push Rivoire to face his charge in Canada.
He said he believes it’s essential that Rivoire face justice in Canada.

“Not only for the presumed victims, for the Inuit Peoples, but also for the Oblate missionaries and the Catholic Church,” he said.

Gruber said the Oblates also want a commission to look into past actions and why there was so much “delay and silence” from the Catholic Church regarding the allegations against Rivoire.

Rivoire refused to speak to media who were waiting inside and outside the Oblates’ headquarters, though at one point it seemed like he might come out, Gruber said.

A view from the street of the French Oblates’ headquarters in Lyon, France.

Before NTI arrived in France on Monday, Rivoire had told the delegation through his lawyer that he would not meet with them.

Kilikvak Kabloona, NTI’s chief executive officer, told reporters that in the meeting, Rivoire denied all allegations of abuse.

“He does recall individuals in Nunavut and then he completely denies any allegations,” she said, adding language was not an issue.

“It is clear to me that Rivoire understands English. He acknowledges that he remembers Steve and other individuals in Naujaat,” Kabloona said.

“He had nodded his head when Steve was speaking, and yet he denies everything.”

Kabloona also said Rivoire speaks Inuktitut and that he understood Inuktitut when it was spoken in the room.

He refuses to travel to Canada because of his “skin condition,” Kabloona said.

Gruber said getting Rivoire to agree to the meeting was “very, very, very difficult.”

He said the Oblates plan to continue to urge Rivoire, who was still in the Oblates’ headquarters on Wednesday evening, to fly to Canada to face justice.
NTI, which is leading the delegation, has purchased a plane ticket for Rivoire to return to Canada on Friday with the delegation.

“I want to see Rivoire on that plane. That is clear,” Gruber said.

A view of the back of the French Oblates’ headquarters.

“We will speak with him again strongly … I can’t force him. I will do everything possible to try to convince him.”

Gruber was also clear that the Oblates are not paying for Rivoire’s living expenses, his lawyer or his pension.

“We are not paying for Rivoire for a very long time,” Gruber said. “We are determined to pursue our efforts to the maximum to convince Johannes to present himself to the Canadian justice system.”

The other members of the delegation declined to speak to media immediately following the meeting.

NTI is expected to hold a press conference in Lyon Thursday morning.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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B.C. victim sues estate of priest sex offender and Catholic church officials

In May 1989, Harold McIntee, then aged 59, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of sexual assault against males.

1989 file photo of Harold McIntee being led away by a Williams Lake sheriff.

By Keith Fraser

A B.C. man who claims he was one of 17 young men who were sexually abused by a Catholic priest over a period of 25 years is suing the perpetrator’s estate and Catholic Church officials for damages.

The victim, who is only identified by initials in the lawsuit, says that while on assignment in and around Terrace in 1981 or 1982, Father Harold Daniel McIntee sexually abused him and two other young men.

He says that while staying overnight at the Secret Heart rectory with McIntee, he was experiencing abdominal pain and McIntee asked him to remove his pants to see if he had a swollen testicle.The plaintiff, who was then aged 17 or 18, says that in the remote mining community of Kitsault, where the priest helped him to gain employment, McIntee climbed into his bed asking for a hug and proceeded to place his hand inside his shorts and masturbate his genitals.

McIntee allegedly committed the abuse in the context of a pattern of grooming that was designed to gain the plaintiff’s trust, break down his boundaries, and maintain his silence.

In May 1989, McIntee, then aged 59, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of sexual assault against young men, including an offence against the plaintiff, according to the lawsuit, and was sentenced to two years in jail and three years probation.“The grooming and abuse by McIntee were not isolated occurrences perpetrated by a lone deviant,” says the lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court.

“The grooming and abuse suffered by the plaintiff was a perpetuation of a nearly 2,000-year history, pattern and continuum of systemic abuse suffered by children and vulnerable persons in dioceses and at institutions run by various Roman Catholic entities in Canada and throughout the world.”

The lawsuit says that prior to being in Terrace, McIntee was involved in the First Nations Ministry at St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School in Williams Lake between 1959 and 1963, serving alongside Glenn William Doughty, who was also ordained by the religious order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Doughty was later charged with and convicted of multiple counts of sexual abuse of young males, says the suit.McIntee also served alongside and under Father Hubert O’Connor, who was the principal of St. Joseph’s and later became Bishop of Prince George until 1991 when he resigned amidst multiple charges of sexual abuse of Indigenous girls, it says.

“At all material times, the (Oblates of Mary Immaculate) knew or ought to have known that many of its priests and brothers, including but not limited to McIntee, had a propensity to groom and sexually abuse vulnerable persons,” says the writ.

The plaintiff claims that the cause of the grooming and abuse of the plaintiff is rooted in the culture of the church, which he says permitted “dark networks” to form where clergy abusers identified and communicated with one another about their abuse of children.

“The plaintiff says the culture permitted similar dark networks to form in Western Canada, causing or contributing to his grooming and abuse.”

As a result of the alleged abuse, he claims he has suffered injuries including post-traumatic stress disorder, a major depressive disorder, chronic sleep disturbance and fatigue, diminished capacity for intimacy impacting his social relationships and confusion over his sexual orientation.

He is seeking a declaration that the church’s culture constitutes a public nuisance and is seeking damages.

No response has yet been filed to the lawsuit, which contains allegations that have not been tested in court. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver, one of the named defendants, could not be reached for comment.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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A French priest suspected of sexual assault in Canada: his congregation in embarrassment

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An extradition request from Canada for 92-year-old Father Joannes Rivoire, suspected of sexually assaulting young Inuit between 1968 and 1970, places his French congregation in a delicate situation: forced “to assume” this cumbersome heritage, she vigorously refutes having “concealed” it.

In the living room with obsolete armchairs of a house in Lyon (south-east), which houses the French headquarters of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), Provincial Vincent Gruber, who acts as national leader, readily admits: the Rivoire affair, “it’s a poisoned package”.

The subject is at the heart of the next visit of a delegation of Inuit who will travel from September 12 to 15 to Paris and Lyon in the hope of obtaining justice.

In the Canadian Far North, the case is seen by many as the symbol of the impunity of sexual aggressors within the Catholic Church, especially since the recent “penitential pilgrimage” of Pope Francis to Canada, centered on the violence perpetrated in the residential schools.

The nonagenarian, who lives in a retirement home in Lyon, has never been worried. Targeted by an extradition request filed in early August by Ottawa, he disputes all the charges.

The order, which has 3,700 missionaries worldwide, including 87 in France, says it was not informed that in 2013 of the existence of the first warrant of arrest issued against him… in 1998 in Canada.

Why and how, this congregation could not know anything during all these years?

Inexcusable dysfunctions

“It is incomprehensible, insane… There were inexcusable dysfunctions. We have had no documents from the Oblates in Canada. Nor did the French government seek to inform the Oblates in France. Unless someone knew about it and didn’t say so…”, assures AFP Mr. Gruber.

“It creates the situation of today, with time running out and victims facing emptiness. Everything should have been settled in 1998! “, laments the manager, in office since 2014.

Mr. Gruber knows that this “situation” exposes his congregation to criticism.

The Order “overprotected” Father Rivoire, “those who should know knew that serious questions were being asked about him,” says Mr. Devaux, whom the Inuit contacted to prepare for their visit. And to launch: “nobody asked the question about his arrival in Lyon in disaster in 1993? “, when two first complaints were filed against him.

In a recent email to Mr. Gruber, of which AFP had a copy, Kilikvak Kabloona, an Inuit representative, assures that in 1993 the bishop of the diocese of Churchill-Baie-d’Hudson on which Joannes Rivoire depended had been informed of these complaints. And that, “shortly afterwards”, the missionary fled “with only a rucksack, probably under the instructions” of the bishop, “in order to avoid any negative publicity” to the Oblates.

“I know that in the Church, people have hidden, covered up, exfiltrated” perpetrators of sex crimes, “but believe us or not, we have never done that! “, argues Mr. Gruber.

In 1993, after 33 years in the field, Father Rivoire left the Far North for Lyon, officially to temporarily take care of his parents. He will never go back.

He joined the Notre-Dame-des-Lumières site (south-eastern France) from 1993 to 2015, and “does mainly gardening there”, according to Mr. Gruber. But this sanctuary must close and here it is transferred to Strasbourg (north-east) in 2015, in a “seniors’ house” managed by the OMI.

He is placed “under surveillance” when the Oblates learn that he is wanted: “he remains on our radar”, assures Mr. Gruber and a report is made to the Strasbourg prosecutor’s office.

The monk is returning to Lyon in 2021 for reasons of health and personal convenience.

“We cannot tie him up and put him on the plane! “says Mr. Gruber, assuring that he has been urged several times to “go and face justice in Canada”.

Father Rivoire “vigorously disputes the facts” and believes give back to anyone, ”according to his lawyer, Me Thierry Dumoulin. He refused to meet the Inuit delegation, including one of his presumed victims.

Father Gruber will receive the group on September 14: “we believe what the Inuit tell us” and “that’s what they’ll be told”.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Archdiocese ordered to halt payments to priests accused of child sex abuse

A U.S. bankruptcy judge rejected the Catholic church’s argument that it should be allowed to keep paying monthly stipends to staff accused of sexual abuse.

By David Hammer

A federal bankruptcy judge has ordered the Archdiocese of New Orleans to stop paying retirement benefits to five priests who have been accused of sexually abusing minors or vulnerable adults but are not included on a list of more than 70 clergy the local church considers “credibly accused.”

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill issued the order Aug. 31, rejecting the local Catholic church’s argument that it should be allowed to keep paying monthly stipends to priests, deacons and lay staff who face claims of sexual abuse in sealed documents that were turned over to the court by the Archdiocese earlier this year.

From the very beginning of its bankruptcy case in May 2020, the Archdiocese tried to argue that it needed protection from dozens of pending sexual abuse lawsuits, but it should be allowed to keep paying retirement benefits to all living clergy – including those on the “credibly accused list” released by Archbishop Gregory Aymond in November 2018 and updated with additional names over the years since.

Grabill quickly ruled in 2020 that living clergy on the Archdiocese’s official list should not continue to get stipends known as “maintenance” payments, although medical coverage could continue. But she has now taken what she called an “extraordinary” step to amend that ruling based on evidence provided by the Archdiocese this year.

In February 2022, Grabill ordered the church to produce additional internal records from the past 10 years, “including, but not limited to, personnel files, Archdiocesan Review Board … findings, and law enforcement referrals, maintained by any and all departments and offices within the Archdiocese — related to all Archdiocesan priests or lay persons serving in ministerial roles that have been accused of sexual abuse, whether placed by the Archbishop on the Credibly Accused List or not and whether named in a proof of claim filed in this case or not.”

Those records were filed with the court under seal. But when attorneys representing sexual abuse victims saw those records, they argued they “substantiate credible accusations of sexual abuse committed by five priests” who were never included by Aymond on the credibly accused list and, therefore, continued to receive full retirement benefits.

Grabill says those payments must now stop, essentially finding that those priests must wait in line for their claims to be paid just like the abuse victims and other church creditors.

“We continue to evaluate the court’s decision in this matter but currently have no other comment,” the Archdiocese said in a statement.

The five priests whose retirement stipends must end are not named. WWL-TV and The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate teamed up on investigations in 2020 and 2021 that exposed claims against living priests and clergy who were not on the credibly accused list. Aymond added a few names to that list, but others featured in the news reports were never added.

Those include Metairie deacon VM Wheeler, who was criminally charged in December with molesting an preteen boy in the early 2000s, and the Rev. Luis Fernandez, who is retired in South Florida and declined to answer WWL-TV’s questions about one of his former high school students accusing him of molesting him in the 1970s.

The church tried to argue that its responsibility to take care of retired priests and deacons is not governed by U.S. federal law but by the Catholic Church’s own laws, known as canon law. It argued that clergy would only lose their retirement benefits if they were laicized — or stripped of their ordination as priests or deacons. Aymond told WWL-TV that he could remove priests and deacons from ministry, but he couldn’t forcibly laicize those who don’t voluntarily agree to leave the priesthood or deaconate.  That could only be done by the Vatican.

Grabill rejected the Archdiocese’s argument that she was overstepping her authority.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!