Busy with family things this weekend, then finished taking the tree down and getting it out last evening. I hate to take it down, but a relief to have the job and clean up done.
I didn’t get the Father Walsh page updated, and, as I look through the new info I have I realize there are still things I would like to learn more about. I will try to get some phone calls in before next week. For now, I will pass on this info….
I have word that Walsh was recycled into the Halifax Diocese in 1997 and remained there until 2009. He lived at St. Mary’s Basilica for eight of those years, and at the rectory of St. Thomas Aquinas Canadian Martyrs for four. The rectory is adjacent to an elementary Catholic school.
Walsh said Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Canadian Martyrs on several occasions. It is reported that he heard confessions of children at least twice.
No one at St. Thomas Aquinas Canadian Martyrs knew or was told that Father Walsh was a convicted child molester.
Walsh said Mass at other parishes in the Halifax Diocese on an ad hoc basis. He primarily spent his time serving the sick and dying as a hospital chaplain.
Faber MacDonald was Bishop of Grand Falls when Walsh was convicted and also when Walsh was recycled to Halifax.
Austin E. Burke was Archbishop of Halifax when Walsh arrived in 1997.
Archbishop Terrence Prendergast was installed as Archbishop of Halifax in September 1998. That means Prendergast was archbishop for nine of the 12 years that Walsh was permitted to function as a priest in the Halifax diocese.
Archbishop Prendergast is part of the Apostolic Visitation team which is presumably helping the Church in Ireland sort out its problems of clerical sex abuse.
And, as is mentioned on the Walsh page, Martin Currie, the current Archbishop of Grand Falls and St. John’s Newfoundland, was Rector at St. Mary’s Basilica when Walsh arrived in Halifax and took up residence at the Basilica. Currie was also Chancellor and Vicar General of Halifax for the first three years of Walsh’ stay – he left after his installation as Bishop of Grand Falls, Newfoundland ( January 2001). It was Archbishop Currie who allowed Walsh to say Mass and hear confessions after his, Walsh’s, return to the Grand Falls Diocese.
******
Two court dates today (Monday 24 January 2010):
(1) Father Charles Pictot sex abuse trial
1:30 pm. Campbellton courthouse (157 Water St. [city centre] second floor)
Stay strong John Derek! Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
(2) Father Eric Dejaeger omi – bail hearing
1:30 pm, Iqaluit courthouse, Iqaluit, Nunavut
Enough for now
Sylvia