Man claims he was abused by priest while the two were in same bed

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - 08:00 

Terri Saunders

News from across S, D and G - A former Lancaster man told the Cornwall Public Inquiry Monday he was once warned by a priest to stay away from Rev. Charles MacDonald.

The man, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, told police about the warning during a 1997 interview when officers were investigating sexual assault allegations against MacDonald.

"There was one time I was talking to another priest, his name's Father Gary Ostler," the man told police. "I forget how exactly the conversation went but he told me that I shouldn't be anywhere alone with . . . MacDonald."

The man said the conversation with Ostler took place about a year after he was allegedly sexually abused by MacDonald.

Ostler was later interviewed by police and told them he didn't recall that particular conversation with the man.

"It was a quick conversation," the man said Monday. "I have forgotten many of those kinds of conversations myself."

The man, who is now 44 years old, told the inquiry he was sexually assaulted by MacDonald while at a cottage in Eganville, a small community northwest of Ottawa, in the fall of 1980. The man would have been 17 years old at the time of the alleged assault.

The man said he and MacDonald prepared to go to bed following the drive to the cottage from Cornwall and the priest expressed dismay at the thought of making up two beds.

"(He) said he didn't want to be bothered making two beds," the man told police during the 1997 interview, "and asked if we could just share, share the bed."

"What was your feeling about that?" asked Det.-Const. Steve Seguin, one of several officers working at the time with the OPP's Project Truth investigative team.

"I had no reservation against it," said the man. "I (was) just planning on crashing, and sleeping, as soundly as I ever usually did."

The man said he was brought up in a devoutly Catholic home. He and his family attended church every Sunday and he eventually became an altar boy at St. Mary's Parish in Williamstown where MacDonald was serving as pastor.

The man said his faith in the church was unshakable until the incident at the cottage. He said he remembers falling asleep only to awake in the middle of the night when the priest sexually assaulted him.

"Did it ever cross your mind to stop (MacDonald) when he was doing this?" asked Seguin.

"I was in shock, dismay," the man said. "I really didn't know what was going on."

"Did you ever consent to what he did?" asked Seguin.

"Not verbally," said the man. "He never really asked if it was okay to do this. He just started and I didn't seem to have any power at that time to stop him."

The man said having been brought up in the church he was led to believe a man in MacDonald's position wasn't capable of doing anything wrong.

"I was . . . raised to be a good Catholic person; to believe in priests as being next to God," the man said. "He was just somebody you didn't question . . . he was supposed to be somebody who's up there on a pedestal, who could never do wrong."

The man told Seguin he realized in the years following the incident what happened was wrong.

"Anybody who does anything to anybody, whether he be the same age, younger, older, who has no consent over what's being done, it's just not right," the man said.

While testifying at the inquiry Monday, the man said the incident caused his faith to crumble.

"It destroyed my faith in the Catholic church," said the man, who is now married and has two sons. "I've not been able to bring my children up in the Catholic church either."

The man said he believes criminals "have no conscience," and therefore do not recognize any of the consequences of their actions. "As victims, we are forced to live with those consequences to the end of our days," the man said.

MacDonald was charged in 1996 with a number of sex-related offences involving a number of young men and boys. Those charges were stayed in 2002 when a judge determined it had taken too long to bring the matters to trial.

MacDonald has steadfastly maintained his innocence.

The inquiry continues today.