Sentencing hearing for Father Levi Noel tomorrow morning at the Tracadie-Sheila courthouse, Tracadie-Sheila, New Brunswick.
I don’t have the start time – it is probably 9:30 or 10 am. Noel is already serving 8 years for a prior conviction.
Please as always try to get there if you can. Keep the victims in you prayers. And, as always, please pass on any news with a comment or link to media coverage.
******
I added the Obituary for Monsignor James Conrad and updated the page with new dates and information.
Conrad, who was charged and convicted for stroking a man’s leg in a washroom, had his conviction overturned on appeal. It’s a case which has always puzzled me. At trial six police officers were in attendance in support of Conrad, A probation officer – a Catholic from Bracebridge- played a role in Conrad’s defence. The judge, Douglas Bice, questioned the presence of the six officers in the courtroom and suggested their very presence might be a form of intimidation.
Anyway, the case was appealed. Justice H.D.P. Logan ordered the conviction quashed.
I now realize that Conrad was a late vocation to the priesthood. Born in 1936 he was ordained in 1979. I wonder what he was doing before he decided to enter the priesthood?
I also see that despite having the conviction quashed Conrad did not return to parish ministry in the Peterborough Diocese. He did however , head down to Venice,Florida where he assisted at a parish. Why, I wonder, did he leave the country?
After his time in Venice Florida Conrad returned to the Peterborough Diocese, but not as a parish priest. Bishop Doyle appointed Conrad to serve as Financial Administrator of the Diocese.
Bishop Doyle sent Conrad in to presumably soothe the troubled masses at St. Mary’s in Grafton, this after a parish audit showed that their former priest, Father Mark Buckley, had been playing around with parish dollars.
Conrad did the job well. He flatly refused to discuss finances with disconcerted parishioners.
There’s something rumbling in the back of my mind about Conrad at a nursing home or some such thing. Can anyone help me on that? Was it a nursing home? Or senior citizens home?
As you know I have also recently been doing some research on convicted molesters from the Peterborough Diocese: Monsignor Martin Wain and the Russell brothers – Father William Russell and Frank Russell, a teacher.
Wain, ordained in 1981, plead guilty in 1990 to charges related to sex abuse of a young boy. The abuse began around 1984 and continued for several years.
I posted some information just days ago regarding the curious goings on with convicted molester Monsignor Martin Wain. He was simultaneously listed in American Church directories at a New Hampshire monastery and in Canadian directories in the Peterborough diocese. That aside Wain did spend time as a Chaplain at St. Peter’s High School in Peterborough. He also served at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Lakefield from 1985 until the time of his arrest. Some of the abuse transpired at the rectory in Lakefield.
Father William Russell, ordained in 1979, was convicted in 2002 for sexually abusing a boy between 1974 and 1976. Although Russell was not yet a priest, some of the abuse occurred at the Lakefield rectory where he later served as a priest after ordination.
In the Fall of 1982 he established “St. Peter’s Alumni and Friends” for St. Peter’s High School, Peterborough, Ontario
Russell left Peterborough for Toronto in the late 80s. In Toronto he apparently worked for the Roman Catholic School Board. It appears he also worked with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
I noticed today that this past Sunday he was on the list for prayers for the sick at St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Church in Peterborough.
Frank Russell is Father William Russell’s brother. Russell, who taught at St. Paul’s school in Lakefield, Ontario, was convicted around the mid 90’s for sex abuse a relative and four students at St. Paul’s school in Lakefield, Ontario between 1973 and 1981. Ontario Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) Union funds were used to send Frank Russell on a little trip before he was sentenced. Who pulled the strings for the finances is unknown.
My information on Frank Russell is very limited at this time. I am working at getting more. I have no idea where he is now.
There was also Father Patrick Herlihey, a teacher (1976) turned priest (1981), who was convicted in 2001. Herlihey, who spent time serving as Chaplain at Bowmanville High School, was convicted in 2001 for sexually abusing a boy between 1983 and 1985 ( while Herlihey served at St. Francis of Assisi in Newcastle. He was acquitted in 2002 on sex abuse charges which also related to his time at St. Francis of Assissi.
Herlihey surfaced at Immaculata High School in Ottawa in the mid 80’s.
Herlihey is now laicized. According to a blogger he is now working as a handyman in the Kawartha Lakes area.
And, there Father Douglas Stamp, a Redmptorist priest who served at St. Alphonsus Church in Peterborough from 1979-1983. Stamp was convicted in 1997 – for sexually abusing two boys at St. Aphonsus.
And, then here’s Father Mark Buckley. Ordained in 1988 Buckley personal bankruptcy in 1997. Frequented gay bars and clubs – well know in the gay and lesbian community in Peterborough area. Borrowed over $200,000 from a widow. The money was never repaid. The widow is now deceased. Charges laid in relation to funds missing from St. Mary’s Church in Grafton. After the furor over finances studied at OECTA to get teacher’s quals and then, despite a warrant out for his arrest, headed off to Calgary to teach in Catholic schools and serve in parishes as a priest. The charges were withdrawn s few years later when Bishop Doyle told authorities he had given Buckley permission to use parish funds. Buckley is currently principal at a public high school in Calgary, Alberta, His name is still listed in Catholic directories meaning he is still a priest.
Finally there is Father Czeslaw Szymanski, a Polish priest serving in the Boston Archdiocese who seemed to be in the process of relocating to the Peterborough Diocese when he was killed in a 1987 car accident. A lawsuit launched in 2010 by three men alleges child sex abuse by Szymanski at a parish inLowell,MA. Father Martin Wain, then Chancellor of the Peterborough Diocese, concelebrated at the funeral Mass.
Sorry, there’s one more.
Oblate priest and convicted molester Father Ed MacNeil OMI was convicted in 1996 for sexually abusing several boys in the late 60s. After charges were laid MacNeil was assigned to serve as Chaplain at the Sisters of Joseph Motherhouse in Peterborough. He has had faculties from the Peterborough Diocese for years. He was recently discovered ministering with the Kateri Native Ministry in Ottawa,Ontario.
Those are the ones which come to mind and which I can publicly identify to date.
Now I am really and truly wondering what the heck was going on in Peterborough? Any ideas?
Any information on any or all of the above would be greatly appreciated
Enough for now,
Sylvia
Please clarify something for me. In Canadian law one is considered innocent until proven guilty. That does not seem to be the overriding understanding of this website. If a Canadian citizen has a conviction overturned by a court of law, does that not mean any thing? Even when accusations are not proven, thrown out, over turned, the abiding tone is to cast doubt on the innocence of these people. Justice is not only the law of our country, but is a Christian virtue.
Where has doubt been cast on someone’s innocence Francis Xavier?
Justice is a “Christian” virtue while it remains a concept beyond the grasp for the rest of humanity! ?
“A person is innocent until proven guilty” is a requirement for potential jurors in order to ensure that the accused receives a “fair” trial .
I agree that not all those who are accused are guilty but just because prosecutors often fail to meet the standard for proof in no way means that the accused is in reality not guilty . In a case where a pedophile who is found by the court to be found ‘not guilty’ (never found innocent) while the victim knows the reality that the person he has accused is guilty , it simply means Mr. pedophile is free to go. It does not mean that the accuser is a liar.
There is no law which requires the victim or any other citizen to agree with any verdict by judge or jury.
There is one case in particular that I am familiar with which is in process (trial by judge) and I am convinced that he is guilty and if the judge’s verdict turns out to be ‘not guilty’ then I will not hesitate for one minute to express here or anywhere else my disagreement with such an “unjust verdict.”
Justice as it pertains to the laws of the land is not by necessity and always in agreement or the same as justice by“ virtue” which is an activity in accordance with the laws of nature ( more perfect) . These natural laws along wit the the capacity to live in accordance with them are inscribed in the heart of every human being and not only Christians .
Well said Larry.
I would add also that our “justice” system can ,and is, very fallible…A technicality, an error by the prosecutor can have a case thrown out in a blink… Simply the failure by the prosecutor to have an accused “positively identified” in court will result in a “not guilty” outcome…Furthermore, a justice system sympathetic to an accused can easily make a “mistake” in procedure…
Our Justice system in my opinion and experience is not so just!…Morality is not always the measure, right and wrong falls victim to honesty!
JG
Yes JG, but just for clarity sake ,I am not implying that our system of justice is not a good one, in fact I believe it is the best we can do. I am only trying to demostrate the fact that there is a difference between the thing called- “legal justice” based on “the written law” which is constructed by man and aimed at restoring an imbalance- and the thing called “justice” insofar as it IS. This second expression of the term is from where the idea and nature of ‘virtue’ springs , therefore, to use the word virtue in the same way in both propositions is an equivocation of terms and meant to decieve and mislead. Danger.
Larry,
Thank you for your comments. I do agree with your point that just because something is thrown out or dismissed that it does not necessarily mean that the person is innocent. My concern lies in that we must be ever careful to see to it that just because someone gets accused that we don’t automatically assume guilt. This seems to be an abiding trend – when someone is accused it becomes news; when someone is found to be innocent, or allegations are found to be false, the good character and reputation of the individual is damaged and ruined. Caution in our assumptions and judgements is all that I am calling for.
You might be correct with the assertion that there is an “abiding trend” to assume that the accused molester is guilty. However, the pendulum has a far way to go to restore justice for the victims who were and are assumed to be nothing more than liars.
It’s an illusion to think that you can have a realistic perspective from either side of the fence.
I meant to say from “both” sides of the fence instead of “either.”
*attendd st pauls 75-78, there is nothing inocent about the russell bros,, and all should know that there was a third perv brother, cant think of name now,, had no job,, just hang around,, room to room ,, never know wnat tnat was aabout.. mother a c teacher, she wont say shit,,, these folks all dirt to the core,, should be no such thing as catholic schools… did st petes too,, another bvunch af assholes. ruined more lives than worth.. always say gad damn now befor catholic..