Miani: Titian (Father Titian Miani or Father James Miani)

Father Titian Miani

also known as Father James Miani

American.  Former Salesian priest.  Born around 1928.  Ordained 1955 as a priest for the with the order of the Salesians of St. John Bosco (sdb).  Left the Salesians in the 90s to become a diocesan priest,

Somewhere around 1948 0r mid 50s Titian Miani spent time at a Salesian boys home or orphanage in Edmonton Alberta.  It’s hard to sort out dates from the articles, but, if it was 1948 he would have been around 20-years-old at the time so must have been functioning as a brother with the Salesians.  If it was 1956 or so, he would have been ordained.

Miani molested a number of children at St. Mary’s.  He was molesting in Italy before being being shipped out to Alberta.   He was moved from St. Mary’s back to the States where he continued to molest.  It seems he has left a trail of destruction in his wake, both before and after his ordination to the priesthood.

 Further information in articles below and at: http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Miani_Titian_SDB.htm

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Miani, Titian: Archdiocese of Los Angeles disclosure files 2013

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Church shielded abusive priest: lawsuit

The Raw Story

30 June 2010

AFP

A lawsuit filed in California accused the Roman Catholic Church of enabling a priest to abuse a child at a high school in the 1960s.

The suit filed in California’s state court claims that the victim was abused repeatedly by the school’s dean of students, named as Father Titian Miani, who has already been previously accused of abuse.

The lawsuit accuses the Vatican , the Salesian Society — which ordained Miani — and the high school of fraud for negligently allowing Miani to work at the school despite being aware of his involvement in abuse in Italy and Canada.

At a press conference to announce the lawsuit, attorney Jeffrey Anderson said Miani had been allowed to “roam the landscape” of schools and parishes despite senior officials knowing of his crimes.

“The reason Miani has been allowed to remain as a priest and was moved from continent to continent, from country to country, and parish to parish is because the Vatican and the Vatican officials have chosen to protect him and their reputation,” Anderson said.

The plaintiff alleges the Salesians and the Vatican conspired to transfer Miani to six locations on three continents to cover up his abuse.

It alleges senior Catholic officials in the Vatican as well as the Salesian Society and its Californian provincial chapter were engaged in the cover-up.

The case is but one of numerous pedophilia scandals to rock the Roman Catholic Church over recent years in a number of countries including Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Germany and the United States.

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Salesians admit today Fr. Titian Miani DID molest plaintiffs, ending global cases in LA re pedophile priests from 2003 SOL window. More to come

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

By Kay Ebeling at City of Angels (CityofAngels4)

“The Salesians admit these plaintiffs have been abused by Father Miani.” Ray Boucher spoke to jurors this morning. The lead plaintiff attorney said settlement talks began during jury selection and the jurors’ presence, ready to hear the case after four days of voir dire, urged the settlement forward. Having the Salesians admit Father Miani raped these four persons as children and likely others “will have an impact on the plaintiffs’ lives forever,” Boucher said, thanking jurors as the 17 cases settled this morning for $19.4 million dollars.

Wayne Mason, who flies in from Texas to litigate for the Salesian Religious Order was tearful, saying, “the conduct of this particular priest was something awful the men of the Salesians Society were ashamed of.” He turned to the plaintiffs and said, “I’m sorry,” with sadness. Morse added there are so many men in the Salesians who are not like Miani.

The “mansion” in San Francisco, the Salesian Provincial House, will be sold to cover part of the cost of the settlement.

Lead plaintiff witness Lester Howse, came all the way from Winnipeg on the east coast of Canada to LA Superior Court this morning, determined to testify about his knowledge of Miani molesting a boy in 1957. What Lester Howse would have said on the stand, he said to my camera, and the video will be up at City of Angels Network as soon as it processes through YouTube, stay tuned.

The number of witnesses, the amount of evidence, plus the presence of a jury ready after four days of voir dire undoubtedly pressured the Salesians to settle these remaining cases. The same team of attorneys here to defend the Salesians in LA are still fighting plaintiffs in San Francisco, continuing to appeal and delay a settlement that was ordered by a jury to Joey Piscitelli in 2006.

What Ray Boucher was going to say in opening statements was “point out the 1948 letter from Italy” which would have been a key piece of evidence in the trial. The letter proves the Salesians Society knew of Miani’s proclivities before sending him to North America in the late 1940s.

The 1948 letter will be attached as evidence in the case files, which City of Angels will dive in and start perusing over the next weeks.

“The Salesians were aware of at least one molestation by Miani as far back as 1948,” Boucher said.

He had more witnesses ready to come down from Canada to testify about “Father Jim” at St. Mary’s School in Edmonton, the number of witnesses who would come depended on how long the trial went on, Boucher said after the hearing, implying the list of witnesses would have gone on and on.

“The Salesians are admitting they need to bring about change,” said Boucher.

This morning’s actions end the global settlement, the 500 plus cases that came about after a window of opportunity opened in 2003. For that one year the state suspended the statute of limitations on child sex crimes, and persons in the state of California who had been raped at any time as children could file civil lawsuits, no matter how far in the past the episodes took place.

The 17 cases that settled this morning are the last of the cases from Los Angeles that resulted from the 2003 window in the statute of limitations in California.

However, several lawyers from Kiesel Boucher Larson said there are more clients coming forward, more cases against the LA Archdiocese coming.

The state of Pennsylvania is currently hearing and considering the Child Victim Act, HB 1137, which will open a similar window for two years for persons raped as children, and permanently put the window for reporting abuse at the age of 50. We’ll be reporting more about HB 1137 in Pennsylvania shortly here at City of Angels.

I was saving that picture above of Leila Nourani for the trial. She was one of the defense attorneys who fascinated me, and I was so looking forward to drawing her and Helen and Cheryl, but I really don’t have the wardrobe to cover a jury trial. Also I have these two other jobs that pay the bills and they were going to have to go on the back burner.

Don’t worry. Now that the Salesians have settled I will be able to access all the documents, even the ones squirreled away by the “research attorney” during most of the pretrial months. All the documents from the Salesians cases will be there in the 6th and Commonwealth courthouse on the 14th floor under the care of Javier.

Will be document diving by next week about Miani and all the rest of them. For now have to go back to work on raw videos for America’s Greatest Dog, another brain challenging reality TV show in development here in East Hollywood. 

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Siblings File Abuse Lawsuit against Catholic Order

The Three Say They Were Repeatedly Molested during the 1960s by a Priest and That the Salesian Society Did Nothing about It

By John Spano
Los Angeles Times
January 24, 2008

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-priest24jan24,1,7487220.story?ctrack=2&cset=true

[See also the LA Times database entry on Miani.]

Three siblings who say they were molested as children by the same Los Angeles priest filed new allegations of abuse this week against a worldwide religious order, which is the only Roman Catholic organization involved in the 6-year-old clergy scandal that has yet to settle any civil claims.

The three allege the Salesian Society, with 16,000 priests, ignored clear signs that Father Titian Miani was a dangerous pedophile. Over the years, he was placed in a succession of church roles in different locations, including a boys orphanage in Canada and a boys school in Bellflower, where he preyed on more than a dozen children, according to the civil lawsuit.

The allegations, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, contend that the Salesian Society routinely transferred its accused members “often internationally” and placed loyalty to clergy “far above the duty to protect poor and vulnerable children.” The siblings alleged that Miani abused them repeatedly in the mid-1960s.

“We abhor any abuse, especially of the young, be it sexual or psychological, physical or emotional,” said Father John Itzaina, second in command of the Salesians on the West Coast. The Salesians do not defend Miani, Itzaina said, but “absolutely deny” the order had any notice that he posed a danger to youth.

Records in the case show that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles sent at least one letter to the Salesians alerting them to allegations that Miani had abused a child.

Miani was charged with molesting children in 2003, but a month later the U.S. Supreme Court ruled California’s attempt to criminally prosecute decades-old sexual abuse cases was unconstitutional. Although criminal charges were prohibited, a state law in 2002 gave alleged victims one year to make civil claims regarding older instances of abuse that would have been barred by statutes of limitation.

The Salesian order is the only Roman Catholic organization sued in civil court in California that has not yet settled claims based on that law.

The Salesians refused to join in a $660-million settlement between the Los Angeles Archdiocese and more than 500 plaintiffs who said they were abused.

The civil case involving Miani is scheduled for trial in March and represents the first time a jury will be asked to decide the church’s culpability. A judge recently ruled that there is evidence the Society acted with “malice and oppression” in failing to protect children, potentially opening the door for punitive damages.

Itzaina said a costly verdict against the religious order might bankrupt it. He said he “hopes and prays” a settlement can be reached before trial.

Miani’s personnel file, portions of which were disclosed in Superior Court, shows he was accused of assaulting a young boy on a church retreat in Italy in 1947. Miani was later transferred to a Salesian Society boys home in Edmonton, Canada, where at least three students alleged he was a sexual molester.

Miani was then transferred to two four-year stints at St. John Bosco High School near Bellflower, the second as vice principal. It was at the high school where he allegedly molested the three siblings — a boy and his sisters. Miani, now 80, last served as a parish priest near Stockton and has denied any wrongdoing in pretrial statements.

According to the lawsuit, Miani traded on his spiritual and educational authority to prey on the three children, whose father had died suddenly in 1965. Their mother, a seamstress and devout Catholic with four children, was forced to return to work and night school. She had a regular schedule and left her son, the oldest child, in charge of his three sisters in the evening.

Miani had approached the family after the father’s death, and the mother welcomed him as a strong male influence, she said in a deposition. The boy, then 15, befriended by the gregarious priest, was repeatedly sexually molested by him, both in Miani’s office at the Bellflower high school and on field trips to the San Bernardino Mountains, according to the victim’s deposition.

At the children’s family home in Norwalk, Miani familiarized himself with the mother’s schedule and began showing up on the nights when she was away at school or work, the suit alleges. The boy would hide as soon as Miani showed up to avoid further molestation, he testified under oath.

Left with the three girls, Miani would pick one, take her to a back room and molest her, two of the daughters have stated in depositions. One of the daughters is not part of the lawsuit, although lawyers contend she was also molested. The Times does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

One of the girls said she told her Los Angeles priest of the abuse when she was preparing for marriage 15 years ago.

“He told me I was old enough to know better,” she testified in a deposition last year. She then complained to the high school, but was told that Miani was dead, she said in a sworn statement.

“For 60 years they knew about this guy,” said Anthony M. De Marco, lawyer for the siblings who developed the case, “and they have not done one thing responsible about it.”

Contact: john.spano@latimes.com