David Sheriff-Scott will be presenting his aural arguments today, and apparently those will be buttressed in some fashion with an affidavit from Oblate priest and canon lawyer Father Frank (Francis) Morrissey.
Father Morrissey is the former dean of Canon Law at Ottawa’s St. Paul University (formerly seminary), a friend of Father Charles MacDonald from MacDonald’s seminary days, and along with Colin McKinnon and others was a founding member of Ottawa’s Thomas More Lawyer’s Guild. Morrissey enjoys world-wide repute as an expert in canon law and has provided canonical assistance to a number of dioceses rocked by sex abuse scandals.
Morrissey has also raised eyebrows with his beliefs that child molesters are not “moral degenerates,” that child molestation is akin to alcoholism which was once viewed as sinful and is now understood to be a disease, that sexual molestation isn’t grounds to defrock a priest, and that it is not “responsible stewardship” to throw away the $250,000 investment that goes into cost of ordaining a Catholic priest
If that’s not bad enough, in an Ottawa Sun article Morrissey actually seemed to defend paedophiles with the comment: “Who is totally pure? Who is not a sinner?” According to the article he also said that distinctions have to be made between events that happened 20 years ago and “something that’s happening now.”
Unbelievable? I think so. I think the victims and their families might think so too.
Before closing I must say that I’ve been wondering lately if Father Morrissey was instrumental in any way, shape or form in waiving the pre-requisites in Theology to allow Jacques Leduc to study canon law? It’s entirely possible isn’t it? Perhaps we’ll find out?
Enough for now.
Sylvia