This is part-one of blog catch up 🙂
The next court date for Deacon William Kokesch is
18 July 2013: 09:00 am, courtroom #406, “pro forma,” Montreal courthouse, Montreal, Quebec
(2) Father Gary Hoskins
Father Gary Hoskins is NOT an ex-priest. He has NOT been laicized. He is still a priest. This comes from the Diocese of Corner-Brook, Labrador so it is fact.
Father Hoskins would have been stripped of his priestly faculties, but, sad to say, he is still a priest.
More to come on Father Hoskins in the next few days.
(3) Father John E. Sullivan
And I now have news of yet another Sullivan victim – this one in the 50s in WaWa, Ontario. This means Father Sullivan was molesting from the time he was ordained.
I will, with the agreement of “Wife of a Sullivan victim,” be posting the following comment on the Father Sullivan page:
Father Sullivan was in Wawa in the fifties. I know this because I married a man who was abused by him. He stated it only happened once and he put it behind him. However, once after a few beers, he commented that he should have done more to prevent him from touching other boys . He said, “We would warn the new boys not to be caught alone with him.”
Thank you “Wife…” It is important to let people know that he was molesting from the time he was ordained. Also, as more victims speak up and/or come forward, we slowly start to understand that those who come forward to press charges are only a small small handful of the little boys on whom Father Sullivan got his dirty hands.
How many victims of Father Sullivan are out there?
I asked a long time ago if anyone has a picture of Father John E Sullivan. No luck. I will try again: Does anyone have a picture of Father Sullivan which I could post on the site? or perhaps does anyone have access to his picture in a diocesan publication or book – something which could be scanned and sent?
(4) If you’ve had opportunity you will have checked the following four new names added to Sylvia’s Site. I will draw them to attention with a quick comment on each:
(i) Father Luis Lima-Esteves
A priest with the Diocese of Hamilton, Ontario. Charged with fraud and assault. Acquitted at both trials. In both instances the sitting judge was left with “reasonable doubt.”
That was Fall 1990.
In 1991 Father Lima was killed while crossing a highway in Oakville, Ontario/
(ii) Father Robert Papi
A priest with the Diocese of Peterborough, Ontario Father Papi was convicted in 1991 for sexual interference involving two 13-year-old boys. His sentence? 12 month conditional.
For several years his address was c/o the diocese. In the ’96 Church Directory his address is 200 St. Luke`s Ave. in Peterborough. This facility is now a senior citizen’s home but I’m not certain that that’s what it was in the mid 90s. If it was, was Father Papi serving there as chaplain? If not, what was at that address?
No matter, it looks as though by at least 1999 the bishop (James Doyle) had decided Father Papi could be recycled back into a parish (Immaculate Conception), and by at least 2002 Bishop Doyle deemed this convicted predator was the kind of pastor the poor souls at Our Lady of Lourdes in Cardiff needed to lead them to their salvation.
There are any number of ‘sermons’ or teachings of Father Papi posted on the Peterborough Diocese website, – all since Papi was convicted.
Father Papi is now in Edmonton, Alberta. He would be around 68-years of age so he may have decided to retire? What took him to Edmonton I have no idea. Nor do I know if he assists at Masses in the archdiocese. I will try to get more info, meanwhile, anyone who has any more information please either post a comment or send me an email to this email address: cornwall@theinquiry.ca
(iii) Father Charles Emmanuel Tonna
I know very little about this Maltese priest. He may have arrived in Canada (Archdiocese of Toronto) not too terribly long before he was caught sexually abusing a 71-year-old comatose female patient at St. Joseph’s Health Centre on The Queensway (September 1996). I was unable to find his name in the index of any of the Canadian Catholic Church Directories throughout the 90s. That could be oversight. It does happen. Whatever the reason for the omission it leaves us without a date of ordination, and not the faintest idea when Father Tonna landed in the Archdiocese of Toronto.
Father Tonna was convicted. A ‘Tut Tut, bad boy’ conditional sentence . He was to return to his native Malta after completion of the conditional sentence. I imagine that’s where he is now.
Is Father Tonna back functioning as a priest in his native land? I tried doing a bit of a search to find out, but, Tonna is common name so I eventually gave up. If anyone with the time to do so can track him down in Malta please let me know.
(iv) Monsignor Fernand Boucher
I have already had a bit of a say on this fiasco. It looks as though big dollars were expended to keep this from going to trial, all on the basis that the Monsignor was presumably unfit to stand trial. The trouble is that it seems there were those who were not convinced that he was as unfit as he was said to be, so it wasn’t as cut and dried as it might seem. Here are two decisions from the National Review Board on the thorny matter:
13 October 1999: New Brunswick Review Board v. Boucher 1999 – ruling that Father Boucher could be compelled to attend hearings in order to make a decision if he is deemed fit to stand trial
19 March 1999: Boucher v. New Brunswick (Review Board) 1999 ruling that the Board does not have the power to compel Bouchard to testify
I am sure there are other documents out there recounting this protracted four or more year battle – at the end of the day it seems it was a win for Monsignor and his legal team in that the case never did proceed to trial.
If anyone can find any more about this in the French language newspapers of the day please pass it along.
In case you missed this little fact: in or around 1995, when charges were laid against the Monisgnor, he was replaced in the church in Saint Quentin by Rev. Almer Levasseur.
In 1998 Levasseur entered a GUILTY plea to possession of child pornography. And the sentencing for this despicable crime? A $1,000 fine plus banned from surfing the internet for three years!
More to come, but
Enough for now,
Sylvia