Odds and ends

In case you missed the notice elsewhere, the verdict in the Father Stephen Amesse trial will be rendered on Tuesday afternoon:

Tuesday, 02 May  2017:   1 pm, VERDICT, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Ottawa courthouse (161 Elgin St.)

I don’t have the courtroom number.  You can check after you clear security.

Please keep the complainant and his family in your prayers.

*****

Father Robin Gwyn was sentenced to three years in jail:

26 April 2017:  Disgraced priest sentenced to three years in prison

Note that Father Gwyn’s name will be added to the Sex Information Registry for 20 years, and, according to Sue Yanagisawa of the Kingston Whig-Standard the judge has also imposed a 20 order forbidding from “attending public parks, swimming areas and other places where children are or could reasonably be expected to be present, including play grounds, school grounds and community centres” and from “volunteering in any capacity that places him in a position of trust or authority over anyone under 16″  and from ” having personal contact with children under 16 unless supervised by a responsible adult approved by the court.”

[The inclusion of the Sex Offender Registry is really of no merit to the public until after the fact.  The public can not access that data base.  The data base generally comes into play only after a sex crime has been committed somewhere in the area in which the registrant, in this case Father Robin Gwyn, is resident.]

A  thank you again to “Danny.” 

Please keep Danny and the other victim in your prayers.

*****

There was a sentencing hearing scheduled for Father Daniel Moreau on Wednesday past (26 April).  Can any of you fluently bilingual people find any media coverage?  I have hunted and hunted without success.  I will certainly check for a next court date on Monday, but, if there is any media coverage of the hearing out there  it would be nice to read what happened.

As for sentencing, if indeed the sentencing hearing transpired as scheduled it’s possible that another date has been set for the actual sentencing.  Some judges pronounce sentencing on the same day as the hearing, usually several hours after all witnesses, victim impact statements and other evidence has been heard,; others opt  prefer to set another date for sentencing.   I will check that out on Monday.

(Father Moreau entered a guilty plea in February 2017 to charges of possession and distribution of child porn.  According to media reports he had more than 3600 images, 500 videos and 200 texts in connection with child pornography)

*****

By way of interest, a  little piece of trivia…

A few days ago I posted the following short article  regarding the ordination of Father Robert MacKenzie

(Berwickshire News and General Advertiser Northumberland, England, Tuesday 17 July 1956)

Note the reference to “Dom Benedict Seed.”    That is one and the same Father Benedict Seed/Thomas Seed, the 82-year-old Benedictine priest referenced in the following articles:

14 January 2017:  “Trial date for former priest accused of brutal assaults against pupils at Highland school” & related article

As you see, Father Seed is facing at least eight charges of physical abuse charges and is finally headed to trial this 15 May in Inverness.

Seed , like MacKenzie, was once a student at Fort Augustus Abbey School and, also like MacKenzie, later became a Benedictine monk.

Father Seed spent time as variously as headmaster at the Abbey School.  He served at the school until it closed its doors in 1998.

And, three  pieces of information from Father Lorne Crozon, Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Regina regarding Father Mackenzie which I have been intend to pass along:

(1)  Father MacKenzie arrived in the Archdiocese of Regina in July 1988

(2) Father Lorne  Vicar General advised that to his knowledge Father MacKenzie has never been to Southdown

(3)  I had been told that Father Mackenzie has a sister living in Alberta. According to Father Cruzon she was not living in Cupar Saskatchewan when Father MacKenzie was assigned there.

*****

The information on an Ottawa priest is still coming.   Busy busy days….

Enough for now,

Sylvia