Father Jack McCann who works at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Ottawa’s east end was convicted of sexually abusing two young girls in B.C.
There’s shock among parishioners at a Catholic Church in Ottawa Thursday after learning an elderly priest has a prior conviction of sexually abusing young girls.
Father Jack McCann spent 10 months in jail for offences he committed in B.C. in the 1970s. He now lives in Ottawa where he’s presided over masses at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in the city’s east end.
The congregation loves him. But they weren’t aware of his past until just recently.
“Very, very surprised. You must have the wrong priest,” parishioner Darlene Rodda told CTV Ottawa.
Even the parish priest who works with McCann wasn’t aware of his past. He just learned about McCann’s conviction a few days ago after CTV started making phone calls.
“I was horrified to find out that I didn’t have any knowledge of that and was never told about his background at all,” said Father Stephen Liang.
McCann served as a priest in New Westminster, B.C. in the late 1970s. In 1992, he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two young girls — and was sentenced to 10 months in jail.
CTV Ottawa tried to speak to McCann, but he didn’t want to talk.
Although he’s served time for his crime, sexual abuse survivors say he should not be allowed to continue work with the Church.
“He should be defrocked. If he were in a daycare setting and was convicted of sexually abusing kids, no one would consider returning him to that daycare setting,” said Rob Talach, a lawyer for sexual abuse survivors.
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Ottawa told CTV that McCann is not in active ministry and cannot celebrate mass without the supervision of other priests or bishops. However, that’s exactly what he’s been doing.
“Yes, he was saying mass on his own,” Liang told CTV Ottawa.
The Archdiocese says it’s dealing with the issue and Liang has been told that McCann won’t be allowed to say any future masses.
The Church plans to hold a special prayer session on Saturday morning to tell parishioners that McCann has withdrawn from the parish for personal reasons.
With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Joanne Schnurr
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N. Robinson
It is a shame on the catholic church that this, or any other priest, who is guilty of sex crimes is allowed to remain a priest.
I am a catholic and I don’t think this should be tollerated.
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Scandalized in Ottawa
There is no excuse for this. Bishop Prendergast & Msgr Beech, you both know better than to allow a convicted child molester to return to active ministry, as is clearly the case here. Also inexcusable, is the fact that the pastor of Our Lady of Mt Carmel apparently was not informed of the situation.
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Christine Crawford
Thank God for journalists who keep the community informed about things of this nature! While the priest, in this case, has served his time and that is what is required by law, I believe it is the duty of the Arch-bishop of the city he chooses to live in to keep tight control on his activities! What is shocking will be the people who will defend the behaviour of the church. Is this a result of the shortage of men for the priesthood? As a victom of childhood sexual abuse – and a former RC I thank you for making this public knowledge and hopefully a wake up to the Arch-bishop and his staff to lead with great caution the people who continue to see this church as important to their spiritual wellbeing!
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Ian Ottawa
Lies of the Catholic Church. This is unacceptable and the Church must be seen for what it is, a safe haven for Homosexuals and Pedophiles. This is why they don’t want woman priests or married priests. It cuts down on their membership numbers. I converted to Catholicism and now I really have my doubts about the leaderships accountability for these atrocious acts of sexual deviances. The Church as it is must be revamped. I believe in God but I have my doubts about his Shepherds.
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Devon
What is this sickness that seems to run rampant in the Catholic church? This is why I stopped going to church a long time ago.
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jean-guy
Just why are we finding out of this now,this man should never had been aloud back in a church.Or any thing that gives him access to our young children.McCANN SHOULD BE RETURNED TO PRISON FOR BREACH OF PROBATION.Or failing to devulge his past.The Archdiocese on the other hand,should be flodged as well for not protecting the parishioners.
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Diane
Can’t you guys report on anything else for a change? I’m sure there must be some good news out there somewhere instead of always taking down the church . . .
Hallelujah! Another recyled priest caught and removed. Hallelujah!
Note “A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Ottawa told CTV that McCann is not in active ministry and cannot celebrate mass without the supervision of other priests or bishops.”
And note the pastor at Mount Carmel said: “Yes, he was saying mass on his own.”
Caught!
Caught aside, what nonsense is this?- another priest to supervise a convicted clerical molester saying Mass?
Really!!!! How pathetic. What a disgrace!!!
How many more are there? That’s the question. How many more known cxlerical molesters are currently serving an unwitting and trusting flock?
I’ve added a few comments posted on the CTV website in this article. My sotware is being finnicky again and will not allow me to post these ones so I will do it this way. Here are the rest:
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Gena
What worries me is that ths man is not only in the church but also has connection to 2 catholic elementary schools in our community…maybe someone should look in to this as well…why wasnt he registered as a sex offender?
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not surprised
This is why I will never have anything to do with the catholic church ever again.
The fact of the matter is the catholic church supports pedophiles and abuse of children. Its one thing to turn a blind eye but to actively support pedophiles is unaccepatable, putting it lightly. This story and other recent events (ie Lahey) only solidify my hatred of the church I once loved.
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DD
My mom is a social worker and we volunteered with teens who had been abused and it DUMBFOUNDED me how many of them were revictimized by their churches…and I’m not talking about just Catholic churches either. One girl was told by her minister she was not to go to the police – it would be dealt with internally. By that they meant her abuser lost his deacon privileges but she did have to sit with him every week until she learned forgiveness. Another church had a convicted pedophile working on the daycare…while there were kids in it. Yet another minister brought in one of his flock who was imprisoned for sexually assaulting his daughter for years after he got out of prison. Had him sleeping in the same house as his own daughters. His reason? God has forgiven him – so must we all. Never thought once to come to the victim’s home and offer her support though. The Catholic church is not the only institution that advocates child abuse. (Advocates is the appropriate word for people who don’t even attempt to PREVENT) Many churches of many denominations do it. I’m a devout Christian but I will never step foot in a church ever again because of the disgust I’ve felt being in them and knowing what they are a party to. They should all be ashamed of their behaviour and clean up their ministries.
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Katherine
There are no words to describe this. The RC church needs to look more closely into the background of their clergy and protect their parishioners. There should be a zero tolerance policy for this kind of behaviour. We put our trust in these people and when things like this happen it really shatters that trust. My heart goes out to the victims. How does one recover from something like this?
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Mark
Unfortunately such matters, priests still being in ministry after credible allegations and/or convictions is not all that uncommon. The Catholic church is not able to police itself in these matters and the fact they failed to even to the pastor or others around him proves this point, how can he be “supervised” if those around him are totally unaware.
When will the church stop putting our children at risk of predatory clergy? Unfortunately it does not appear that will happen anytime soon, regardless of what they tell the public.
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Dave
All the more proof that Priests should be able to be married. That is the normal in society. How can you “Go forth and multiply” if you are not married? The Catholic Church is in complete shambles. Look at what has happened in Ottawa this year – this story, Fr. Joe, Fr. Allen (my son’s religion teacher), Bishop Lahey, Fr. Crampton’s suicide and on and on. I rest my case.
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natalia
Unbelievalbe! The catholic church never ceases to amaze me! The archdiocese better act faster on this one!
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John
I do not understand why a rapist or a child molester only get a few months in jail. They always do it again.
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Steve from Ottawa
I woke up this morning to this news. Father McCann was highly respected at the now closed St. Brigid’s Church here in Ottawa. He raised everyone’s spirits with his very touching sermon’s, his great piano playing and singing old songs. We all loved (still love) him, though this is the final nail in the coffin for me as far as faith in the Roman Church and their priests is concerned.
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From Ottawa
EVERYONE should have a criminal record check done. The “cloth” does not mean you are “clean”.
I am totally disgusted with all of you who have replied to this rubish that know absolutely nothing about Fr. Jack. We as a family have known him for 45 years. What most of you do not know is that the original guilty plea came at the height of the witch hunt against priests in our country. He was assigned a female judge and was then told by his lawyer to plead quilty because she would convict him anyway on a not guilty plea and the scentence would be worse. He was not guilty to start with and that is most likely why he was allowed to continue his minestry. Fr. Jack led youth groups for many years and NEVER in any other city was there any allegations towards him. How do I know this? because I was one of the young females interviewed by RCMP at the time and was also told after the investigation that no where could they find any evidence against him. I also happen to know the misguided young person who brought the charges who in actual fact had been abused by her own father and used Fr. Jack as her personal punching bag. We begged him to let us testify for him, again because on the day the accused cited this occured our family was visiting him and he could not have been anywhere near this person! Fr. Jack refused, he said as a priest he could never divulge what he knew or name family names so he took the sentence and found something worth while still in his life as he ministered to the prisoners in jail. Shame on you all for believing everything the media likes to sensationalize and sick people like the owner of this site.
You seem to be saying there was one victim Sylvia. According to yesterday’s Ottawa Citizen, there were two.
You say that “on the day the accused cited this occured our family was visiting him and he could not have been anywhere near this person.” Do you perhaps mean to say “on the day the victim cited this occurred”? If that’s what you mean, then, according to the same article in the Citizen, one victim was abused almost daily from the time she was 13 until she was 20. There was not one day that the abuse occurred, there were a multitude of days.
Put aside what you have said in defense of Father McCann for s minute Sylvia. What do Ottawa parisoners know….
1- They have a convicted child molester serving masses
2- An Ottawa Archbishop gave a convicted child molester faculties in the diocese without informing the parishioners
So how now does what you say have any relevance to those two issues?
John Mac Donald
…Sylvia Joevenazzo…
I will not comment on Jack’s guilt or innocence because I don’t know him. I hope this can help to keep your ¨disgust¨and ¨shame¨ of the ¨sick people¨to a minimum.,
It is obvious you are also feeling the pain of what you perceive to be an attack on your beliefs and your faith in this person you have known ¨for 45 years¨. Although you also are looking for a ¨punching bag¨ to relieve the conflict possibly tearing you up inside, consider that you are not that far from everyone who are looking for some answers to their shattered faith in a person, a spiritual guide or in all too powerful ,”misguided” church.
You say a lot of things in your post which lead me to believe you were probably not a good target for a predator of the church. First of all, you are probably/obviously a person of strong character, strong enough to defend your “family friend” in this context. Then you have your strong family, probably very close, well-to-do, pillars of the community who provided you with an honest upbringing. To summarize, you were raised in a loving, caring and protected environment. Everyone could see that …
You would not have been a good target for the predators. You would have defended yourself and your family would have had the means to defend you!
On the other side consider the victims appear to have been from poor backgrounds, poor communities, blindly submitted to the church, with little or no means or mental strength to defend themselves. In your words “misguided” sometimes because of the circumstances of their lives…Maybe sometimes just a shy, withdrawn personality, an orphan at best… The predators always look for the weakest prey… or sometimes made mistakes and were moved, reassigned…
In the case I am more closely related to, I was told only yesterday that the priest, abuser, was considered a “miracle worker” by the father of one of the abused!…The first time he was reported to the church authorities he had attacked the son of “the” prominent family in the village!..If you need to be angry at someone or something, the leaders who have permitted this to continue and flourish should get your attention.
We all have the same questions, we all feel the same betrayal and pain. We don’t need to accuse, attack and turn on each other, even in verbal violence. The ship’s rudder is locked in a circle because the captain has jumped overboard!. I think the crew on this voyage is just trying to figure out how we get back on course…
Everyone is just trying to understand, as you are. We have all been “misguided” one way or another.
You probably have your own questions as well as your answers. That’s why I can take a look beyond YOUR pain and appreciate your contribution. Welcome aboard and
nice meeting you.
JG
Sylvia
I am so sorry for the lies that Jack McCann told you! I know what an important mentor he has been to you and your family. I will not try to dispell any other lies he told you, other than I know, and a check of court documents as well as reading the June 16, 1992 cover of The Royal City Record will reveal, that he was not assigned a female judge at sentencing as he told you. The judge at sentencing was Stuart Leggat. He plead guilty to avoid revealing the horrific facts of his crimes. Perhaps if you can face up to this one lie he told you, you will be able to begin your own journey toward
healing!
This is all a reminder that for every child sexually abused by a priest there is a veritable sea of ‘victims.’ I do not for a moment equate the damage done to the child victim to that done to others who suffer the ripple effects, but there is a reality that each clerical molester leaves in his wake a host of suffering souls who, though they may not have been sexually abused themselves, have been deeply and painfully impacted by the allegations.
Yes, as JG says, so many are struggling to understand. How to comprehend what seems to be incomprhensible?
How to spare those who are hurting more pain?
We are all learning together.
Proud survivor……..Well said, clear, concise and with no animosity. Bravo!!!
John Mac Donald
John, is there a way that evidence posted in the McCann case, or at least meant to be posted in that case, can be resurrected to show exactly what the charges were? One newspaper at the time referred to a Rapist Priest having been arrested in this case. That presumably is McCann. He had the one girl in sexual bondage for seven years, abusing her on a daily basis. Then by pleading out he had the evidence mad mute. But is was still evidence made available in a criminal action. Is it not held still as evidence in the case?
This was not a simple bit of diddling around by a pervert, it was systematic slavery, conning her in some way where she felt trapped or obliged to continue.
\10 months sentence! My God, people who steal from the poor box can get more than that if it was a second offence. And McCann had a second offence with the second girl. 6 charges were originally filed.
It can easily be presumed that this did not begin or end with these two young girls. The pattern usually has a longer life than that.
And jus an aside- have you aver seen better skaters than the OMI, and the Ottawa Archdiocese. They talk past one another, around in cirles and say nothing that is true. It would seem McCann dropped in out of the sky in Ottawa one day, said I am going to say Mass here, and he did and no one knew about it. I guess we were lucky Osama bin Laden did not do the same.
Since I was young I was told Priets were to speak the TRUTH which is and was Jesus Christ. That would seem to say that if they do not speak the truth they are not Priests. How can we fire them, or get them out of our Churches?
1 abandoned sheep
There is something about these posts on the CTV site which balk at being posted on the page with the news article. I have tried and tired in vain to post the following additonal comments. They are important, so I will once again post them here as comments:
d
This isn’t just a problem in the Catholic church. These people are child molesters who hide behind the church!
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Liv
The Catholic Church is the biggest hypocritical & reprehensible organization in the world!
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GS
Not surprised. Many things are hidden and kept hsu hush by the Catholic Church. Just another one.SOmetimes best not to know. In the cases of child abuse I think it’S terrible to send away a priest after a conviction and not say a word or pretend nothing ever happened. SHame on the Church….
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Emer
This is not acceptable, priest that committed any form of crimes should be not be allowed to get near any church, and if they really fear God or even believe in him they should know better to witdraw himself from the church, this really frighten me that I go to church and supposedly trust the priest that break the bread and share to everyone??? Have mercy on us all!!!
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mac
Good grief –
this is inexcusable on behalf of the Church –
he should be fired immediately and put on the offenders list to avoid anything like this happening in the future.. same with all the others –
once again the Church is covering up – Its time the Church stopped treating their priests – or anyone “wearing the cloth” as above the law… if anything they should be held to a higher and more restrictive standard -… all the way to the top !
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Ash A
@ Ian Ottawa > “Safe haven for homosexuals and pedophiles” Homosexuals are not criminals, don’t lump them in.
@ Diane > So you rather we stick our heads in the sand and only report good news? Catholic church has it’s child molestors and Islam has terrorism.
@ Dave > Married people molest kids too. Marriage has nothing to do with it. The church is an obvious safe-haven for these types of people, that’s why there is a higher concentration of them there.
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Steve in Ottawa
To Scandalized in Ottawa and others: My daughter is in one of the elementary schools “Father Jack” visits. Don’t be so shocked though that Msgr. Beach turned a blind eye to this. Anyone who knows anything about the Archdiocese in Ottawa should know that Beach couldn’t care less. But everyone is right that the Roman Church should do CRC’s on potential priests, but they think they’re beyond the law. They also buffer criminals. I’m not bitter, it’s just a fact. I am heartbroken though because I really did like Father Jack. Until today, I thought he was the only honest priest I ever met. Boy I guess I was wrong!
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Maggie
Think it is time our Arch Bishop starts taking some responsibility for his flock. I’m sure he knew Lahey was guilty but let him say Mass anyways. Also to not inform Fr. Liang about the problems pertaining to Fr. McCann is so wrong. He needs to be more supportive of the all the good Priests we have.They are trying to keep their head above water with all this scandal. Knowing from trying to get answers from him on other issues he just ignores letters & hides behind the cloth. It is very sad for our Church as it is definitely highlighted more than other religions with their problems also.It’s a sad day when so many overlook all the wonderful Priest’s we have and dwell on the bad only.
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Teresa
Father Stevens is a wonderful priest I feel for him for he wasnt made aware of Father Jack McCann pass .However saying this, the church otherwise is a wonderful place and Father Stevens is a wonderful priest my prayers goes out to him and his parishioners .
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Alan Gorman
It is very difficult not to be left with the distinction that this problem is systemically engrained into the church hierarchy. Despite the repetitive discovery and acknowledgement of abuses the catholic church continues to fail at addressing the problem. Defrocking a priest after the fact is obviously not the answer. This institution needs to be assessed substantial punitive damages in order to appreciate the significance of its failures. I would be very pleased if the whole institution, and other organized religions like it, were all defrocked in their entirety because their congregations awakened to the possibility that they are a farse, are corrupt, and have done incredibly more harm than good.
Note this sentence in the above comment by Steve in Ottawa:
“To Scandalized in Ottawa and others: My daughter is in one of the elementary schools “Father Jack” visits
Steve in Ottawa, are you reading this? If yes, will you please email me at cornwall@theinquiry.ca.
Or, if anyone knows who Steve in Ottawa is would you please contact me at the same email address?
Disgusted. So, everyone who writes on here – how would you feel if the worst possible choice or decision you made was held against you?
Hate only leads to more hate. You’ve all demonstrated that. Make a bad situation worse and contribute NOTHING to finding solutions here.
I’m not condoning this bad behaviour but all the ‘holier than thous’ pumping their chests out – you’re perfect, without stain? without sin?
Many people see their faith as incredibly important especially in such a desperately sad world. To crucify the actions of one priest or a few more is – simply nonsense. These men are not elevated to ‘sainthood’ status. Let’s be clear about this. Their mere humans living a human experience, and the Church is filled with man-made rhetoric and b.s. To start suggesting that peoples beliefs are not valued in this technology-disconnected-isolated-society is beyond stupid.
Fr. McCann, warts and all, is simply a man. Bad choices, has hopefully paid his debt to society, and should not be involved with the Church. Period. But that has little to do with questioning the value of the Catholic Faith and the many good works of the quiet majority.
Get over yourselves people!
Actually, DRB , you certainly do condone his bad behaviour. And you simply wish to beat up on those who do not.
A priest preying on a child is “a bad choice?” Are you serious DRB?
What was it Our Lord? it would be better that a millstone be hung around the neck of anyone who scandalizes a child and he be thrown into the sea?