SQLFusion - Ex-bishop\'s letter pasted over in texts

Ex-bishop's letter pasted over in texts

Books altered to hide name of priest linked to child porn

The Windsor Star

20 March 2010

By Trevor Wilhelm

Windsor's Catholic school board has combed through textbooks for hundreds of elementary students and pasted over the writing of a former bishop now facing child porn charges.

School boards across Canada have also made the change after direction came down from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Ronald Fabbro of the London diocese also endorsed the initiative.

The writing was a letter of introduction in a series called We Are Strong Together for grades 7, 8 and 9. It was written by Raymond Lahey, who once helped broker a $15-million settlement for victims of priest sex abuse in Nova Scotia.

He's now charged with possessing and importing child pornography.

"As with everyone else, we were surprised and upset about the charges against Bishop Lahey," said London diocese spokesman Mark Adkinson.

"But we also realized that he did a lot of good work in terms of liturgy and teaching, and we didn't want the recent actions to overshadow that.

"We realized seeing Bishop Lahey's name at the introduction of a text book could be upsetting to people. We wanted to try to avoid that situation. Especially parents could be very sensitive to that right now."

Lahey, 69, has resigned from his post in Nova Scotia. In September, five days after a court approved the abuse settlement that Lahey helped achieve, he arrived in Ottawa on a flight from the United Kingdom. Border guards pulled him aside for secondary inspection. They allegedly found hundreds of files and dozens of videos on Lahey's laptop, many showing boys as young as eight engaged in sex acts.

"Nobody knows if he's guilty or not," said Christine Choury, communications director for the CCCB.

"But because these books were destined to children, that was the idea. It was done out of pastoral concern for the students and their families."

She said the new letter was written by members of the CCCB's English Sector Commission for Catechesis. Choury said she didn't know what message was relayed in either of the letters.

Joe Berthiaume, director of education for the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, said he didn't know how many books required alteration. But he said that students in grades 7, 8 and 9 used them across the board's catchment area.

He said the new letters came with a self-adhesive back that could be stuck on top of the original. Berthiaume said he hadn't seen either letter and couldn't comment on their content.

"But I can understand the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in making this decision, reflecting the concern of the parents, the families and the students involved," said Berthiaume. "This is throughout Canada that they wanted the change."

Adkinson said the Lahey case has also prompted the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops to consider penning such letters under a certain commission or the body as a whole, instead of assigning an individual's name to them.

"The issue came up as a result of Bishop Lahey's charges," said Adkinson.

"But they also thought it actually makes more sense in general just because a text book could be in circulation longer than a bishop is in a particular diocese or even living. "It gives a little more lasting quality to it as well. And a lot of the texts and instructions are the work of a committee anyway."

Writing by bishop facing child porn charges purged from Catholic textbooks

The Ottawa Citizen

Windsor Star 19 March 2010

By Trevor Wilhelm, The Windsor Star

Windsor’s Catholic school board has combed through textbooks for hundreds of elementary students and pasted over the writing of a former bishop now facing child porn charges.

“As with everyone else, we were surprised and upset about the charges against Bishop Lahey,” said London diocese spokesman Mark Adkinson. “But we also realized that he did a lot of good work in terms of liturgy and teaching, and we didn’t want the recent actions to overshadow that. We realized seeing Bishop Lahey’s name at the introduction of a text book could be upsetting to people. We wanted to try to avoid that situation. Especially parents could be very sensitive to that right now.”

Lahey, 69, has resigned from his post in Nova Scotia. In September, five days after a court approved the abuse settlement that Lahey helped achieve, he arrived in Ottawa on a flight from the United Kingdom. Border guards pulled him aside for secondary inspection. They allegedly found hundreds of files and dozens of videos on Lahey’s laptop, many showing boys as young as eight engaged in sex acts.

“Nobody knows if he’s guilty or not,” said Christine Choury, communications director for the CCCB. “But because these books were destined to children, that was the idea. It was done out of pastoral concern for the students and their families.”

Boards remove letter in textbooks by Bishop accused in child pornography case

Windsor Star

March 19, 2010

WINDSOR, Ont. — Windsor's Catholic school board has combed through textbooks for hundreds of elementary students and pasted over the writing of a former bishop now facing child pornography charges.

School boards across Canada have also made the change after direction came down from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Ronald Fabbro of the London Diocese also endorsed the initiative.

The writing was a letter of introduction in a series called We Are Strong Together for students in grades 7, 8 and 9.

It was written by Raymond Lahey, who once helped broker a $15-million settlement for victims of priest sex abuse in Nova Scotia. He's now charged with possessing and importing child pornography.

Lahey, 69, has resigned from his post in Nova Scotia.

In September, five days after a court approved the abuse settlement that Lahey helped achieve, he arrived in Ottawa on a flight from the United Kingdom. Border guards pulled him aside for secondary inspection. He was later charged.

"Nobody knows if he's guilty or not," said Christine Choury, communications director for the CCCB. "But because these books were destined to children, that was the idea. It was done out of pastoral concern for the students and their families."