Thank you

Ex-priest and previously convicted molester Mr. Barry McGrory has been convicted of all counts of indecent assault on a male and  indecent assault.  McGrory appeared in court this morning with four supporters.  Neither of the two victims was in court to hear the verdict.

McGrory will next appear in court for sentencing on the 27th and 28th of August at 9 am.  The hearings each day will probably not last over an hour.  By way of explanation for this strange ‘date.’ the hearing had to be split between the courtroom time available over the two days to accommodate thejudge, Crown and defence availability.  There is about an hour available each morning from 9 am to 10 am.  Defence thinks it will take a bit longer than one hour, so…. two days with one hour each!

On those days defence will without doubt try to convince the court that, for the usual litany of reasons (i.e., frailty, poor health, suffered enough due to publicity defrocking, says he has overcome his sexual disorder through participation in a 12-step program) McGrory should not spend a single day behind bars.  Hopefully the Crown will argue that regardless of his age McGrory should serve time for his crimes. (I believe McGrory is 85 now?)

At some point there will also be opportunity for victims and/or family members  to read a victim impact statement into the record, or to have one read on his/herbehalf

Something came up which has me asking questions…

The abuse of both victims transpired between the late 1964 and 1971 when McGrory was serving as a priest at Richmond, Ontario.  According tot he judge, one victim went to the archdiocese to report the abuse .  What date this transpired is currently unknown, but what is known is that at that time there was a ‘pay-off’ of some sort and the victim was gagged.  At a later date (also at this time unknown) the victim became upset when he  realized he had been gagged and started contacting the archdiocese again.  I don;t know the outcome of that contact, but am wondering if in fact the gag was an illegal gag?  ie. was the victim prohibited from contacting law enforcement?   I don’t know, but, if yes,  that is illegal.

No matter, for now I am trying to sort out who at the archdiocese knew what and when.   I do know that McGrory disappeared very suddenly in or around 1986.  I remember  clearly being told, by a priest.   There was something strange about it, but at that time in my life I had not an inkling of what.   In later years I looked back on McGrory’s strange and sudden departure, and the manner in which I was told he was ‘gone,”  and wondered if he had in fact been reported, and if perhaps there was some sort of an agreement made with Church or other authorities to  get him out of the city immediately?  (I do know of cases where deals were made that no charges would be laid if the priest disappeared from the community.  )

So, back to the question:  at what date did the the victim referenced above contact the archdiocese to report his abuse at the hands of McGrory?

An interesting side bar to this is the fact that, according to a June 2016 article in the Ottawa Sun McGrory told Andrew Duffy that he, McGrory, had told then Ottawa Archbishop Joseph-Aurele Plourde of his, McGrory’s, predilection for adolescents.  There is no specific date, but it seems to relate to his years at Holy Cross.  Despite this knowledge Plourde allowed McGrory to move on to assume duties as assumed as head of Catholic Church Extension Society (head office in Toronto, Ontario) .  Two years later McGrory was sexually abusing the young native boy who later went to police .

What I am now wondering is if perchance McGrory’s ‘disclosure’ to the Archbishop actually came after a victim or a victim’s family members went pounding on the doors of the Archbishop? In other words, perhaps this ‘disclosure’ transpired after McGrory was reported?

Perhaps it happened more than once? Perhaps it was only in the mid 80s that a very tolerant Archbishop Plourde finally felt obliged to squire McGrory out of the archdiocese?

Yes, honestly, I am beginning to think that there may well have been a number of victims or their family members who reported McGrory.     Truth be told, I have a sense that there are a lot of McGrory victims out there who have yet to come forward.

Please keep the victims in your prayers.  And please pray for the repose of the soul of the unfortunate victim who died before the case went to trial.  I was thinking of him this morning.

Finally, I commend those who came forward.  Never forget all of you, it is only because of your courage in speaking out that we know what wolves in sheep’s clothing these molesters were and are.  And it is only through your courage that we know that a number of bishops and archbishops lied to victims, recycled molesters and in so doing willfully placed young children and adolescents at risk.  Thank you.   Thank you every one of you.

I will leave it at that for now.

A reminder that the next court dates for Mr. Barry McGrory are:

27, 28 August 2019:  09:00 am, sentencing, Ottawa courthouse (161 Elgin St.)

………………………

An excellent article by Andrew Duffy in today’s Ottawa Citizen:

24 June 2019:  Former Catholic priest Barry McGrory found guilty of historic sex assaults

Enough for now,

Sylvia