Magnus J Fedy (Father Magnus Fedy CR)
priest with Resurrectionists Fathers (CR – also known as Congregation of the Resurrection). Ordained 26 June 1929. 2008 sued. Deceased. Described as long-time principal at Scollard Hall, North Bay, Ontario. Scollard Hall was initially an all boys Catholic secondary school; it is now a co-educational high school.
Click here for unconfirmed online source that Fedy was at some time convicted on charges of child sex abuse
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The following information is taken from Canadian Catholic Church Directories of the dates indicated (CCCD), Scholard Hall yearbooks (yearbook)
Click here for external link to picture of Father Fedy in Scollard Hall yearbook (scroll down)
1973-74: Scollard Hall, North Bay, Ontario (Father R. Cundari C.R., Sup ) Diocese of Sualt Ste Marie, Ontario (CCCD)
equipment manager for Scollard Hall football team in the 70s (Click here for external link)
1966-1967: Teaching Latin at Scollard Hall (yearbook) (Click here to access online Scollard Hall yearbooks here)
1959: Scollard Hall (CCCD)
1929: Ordained (CCCD)
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2008: Stories goes to grave: Plouffe; Bishop says full story of abuse allegations may never be known
17 February 2007: Bishop’s statement on sex abuse lawsuits
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Time for church to show moral leadership: plaintiff
The Sudbury Star
2008
By Carol Mulligan
A plaintiff in one of six new $4.5-million lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie is calling on the church to show leadership to ensure no other child suffers sexual abuse at the hands of clergy.
Sudbury businessman Thomas Miller, 59, was eight years old when he alleges he was sexually abused by Father Magnus J. Fedy at Scollard Hall, a then all-boy’s Catholic school in North Bay.
Miller is one of the plaintiffs in seven new lawsuits in total launched by Ledroit Beckett Litigation Lawyers against two Roman Catholic dioceses and one religious order for historic cases of child sexual abuse by clergy.
Miller and the other plaintiffs, including one woman, sat before reporters at a news conference Monday morning at the Radisson Hotel and spoke about the abuse they said they suffered decades ago.
Miller had to stop speaking and take a sip of water to compose himself as he was overcome with emotion when he said he believed “this sort of thing still exists today.”
He called on members of parishes in Sault Ste. Marie diocese to speak up and demand their church leaders stop “side-stepping” allegations of sexual misconduct by clergy.
“This shouldn’t happen to a child,” said Miller, his voice shaking.
Miller and several other plaintiffs would not allow photographs of them to be taken, but did display pictures of them at the ages at which they allege they were sexually abused.
Lawyer Robert Talach, of London, Ont.-based Ledroit Beckett, said the plaintiffs in the separate lawsuits did not know each other before, but, remarkably, were abused in similar ways, sometimes by the same priests.
The lawsuits are against the Roman Catholic dioceses of Sault Ste. Marie and London, and the religious order, the Congregation of the Resurrection in Ontario. That order had several priests at Scollard Hall at one time.
Six priests are named in the lawsuits, five of whom are dead. The only living priest, Father Gerald Roy, has already been convicted of sexually abusing four altar boys in the 1980s and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal penitentiary.
He lives near Warren and is no longer serving a diocese, although he is still considered a Roman Catholic priest.
Several of the plaintiffs spoke at the news conference of how they came from devout Roman Catholic families and how their faith has been shaken – or destroyed – by the abuse they allege they suffered. Talach said the loss of their faith in the Roman Catholic faith was “devastating” for most of the plaintiffs.
“Where there was once colour, there is now darkness,” he told an audience of reporters and friends and family members of plaintiffs at the news conference.
Plaintiff Anita Contant, 60, the only woman among them, said she questions herself daily as a mother and a sister, and suffers from poor self-esteem that has affected her family.
“It’s difficult to keep this a secret.”
Talach said priests tended to prey on young, smart, devout children. “The most concerning part is, what did the powers that be know at the time? And what did they do?” he asked.
Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe, the spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, was a young priest when most of the alleged sexual abuse occurred.
Plouffe said Monday the church has to be “more transparent and up front” in dealing with such charges.
“I’m sure it’s the way to go,” said Plouffe.
Four similar civil suits, all for $4.5 million, have been filed by Ledroit Beckett against the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie for plaintiffs alleging similar abuse. They are in various points of discovery in the legal process.
Plouffe said the church is embarrassed by the lawsuits, but added he is sure that is nothing compared to the hurt the plaintiffs and their families are experiencing.
“People in the pews are hurting” from the lawsuits, said Plouffe, and they have hurt the morale of the entire church.
“At least they (the new claims of sexual abuse) are not recent,” said Plouffe.
Plouffe said he did not know that a news conference was being held Monday to announce the lawsuits, although Talach rejects that claim. He said the diocese and Plouffe were contacted about the event and invited to attend.
Plouffe said there is a protocol in the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie relating to claims of sexual abuse by clergy. It has been revised recently. The policy is not posted on the diocese’s website, as it is in many others throughout the province.
Plouffe also said his diocese offers counselling, without prejudice, to people who allege they were sexually abused by priests, provided those people ask for it.
The Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie also has a committee to look into complaints of sexual misconduct by clergy. It serves as an advisory board to him to suggest how sex abuse claims should be dealt with.
Miller said at the news conference that those committees should have sexual abuse victims among their membership.
Plouffe said the final decision for how such claims are dealt with is his to make.
Plouffe said he doesn’t think people necessarily understand the legal process and what follows after someone is served with a civil lawsuit.
“The process is clearly defined” as to what you can and cannot do, said Plouffe.
When three plaintiffs came forward with similar claims almost a year ago, Plouffe wrote a letter to be read in all parishes in his diocese. He said he didn’t issue a missive this time because there wasn’t much more to say.
At the time, Plouffe said he was “deeply saddened” by news of the lawsuits.
“These situations do not leave me indifferent. They are most sensitive and painful for all involved and have an impact on the whole diocese. We will do what is necessary and within our power to see that light be shed on these allegations.”
Plouffe said Gerald Roy, who has been convicted of sexual offences against boys and served federal time, has never been reappointed to another parish.
Nor has Father Thomas O’Dell who was convicted years ago and served time for the sexual abuse of a man who became known as John Doe in a multi-million lawsuit against Sault Ste. Marie diocese.
Doe won a settlement of $1.4 million in that case. He said afterward that what he wanted was an apology from Plouffe for the abuse inflicted on him by O’Dell.
Plouffe said Monday in an interview at diocesan headquarters that he has never apologized to Doe because O’Dell denies doing some of the acts for which he was convicted.
Plouffe said, ideally, both the priests who have been accused and their accusers could be present in the same room to discuss the allegations and to reach a point of “reconciliation.”
Article ID# 878274
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Ending the silence; Plaintiffs detail years of abuse by priests (comment on this story)
Sudbury Star
2008
By Carol Mulligan
At 65, Greg O’Connor has accomplished a great deal in his lifetime. He earned a degree in biology. He graduated at the top of his class in the former Cambrian School of Nursing. He serves as deputy-mayor of Mattawa in the Township of Calvin.
But O’Connor lowered his head Monday and wept as he recounted the impact the sexual abuse he said he suffered more than 50 years ago by a Roman Catholic priest in North Bay has had on his life.
O’Connor is one of six plaintiffs represented by Ledroit Beckett Litigation Lawyers of London, Ont., who are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie for $4.5-million each for sexual misconduct they claim to have suffered as children by priests employed by the diocese.
A seventh plaintiff is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of London for the same amount for abuse he claims he suffered by one of its former priests in Tecumseh.
Some of the plaintiffs are also suing the religious order of the Congregation of the Resurrection, whose priests taught at Scollard Hall in North Bay, where plaintiffs allege some of the abuse was committed.
Lawyer Robert Talach of Ledroit Beckett is representing the seven plaintiffs as well as four others, who earlier filed $4.5-million lawsuits against the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie. Those lawsuits are in the discovery process.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
O’Connor and five other plaintiffs attended a news conference Monday at the Radisson Hotel.
Several family members and friends of the plaintiffs sat in the audience. Some cried as they watched their loved ones address reporters.
The plaintiffs all sat at a table at the front of the Notre Dame Room at the hotel, behind photographs of themselves at the age they were when they said they were abused by their priests.
O’Connor said he was an altar boy as a child, went to church twice on Saturday and three times on Sunday, and “the priest was next to God” in his staunch Roman Catholic family.
He attended a Catholic elementary school and loved it, but when he went to high school, he said his teacher-priest, Father Magnus J. Fedy, took advantage of some of his friends as well.
“I came to hate the priest, I came to hate my religion,” said O’Connor, whose first marriage ended badly. His ex-wife and four children from that union do not speak with him today, he said.
O’Connor was joined at the table by three men from Sudbury who allege they were abused by priests as children.
Sudbury businessman Thomas Miller, 59, lived as a boy in North Bay near Scollard Hall.
Although Miller didn’t attend the school, he played on the school grounds and was provided with access to the school gym, the showers and roof by Father Victor Killoran.
Miller alleges he suffered fondling, masturbation, oral sex and anal penetration by the priest for four years, from the time Miller was eight.
Killoran pleaded guilty and was convicted in 1990 in of sexual abuse against a boy and girl in Kitchener-Waterloo.
Two Sudbury men, Raymond Carriere and R.D. Sabourin, were 14 and 15 respectively when they said they were sexually abused by Father Rene Hebert on camping trips.
Their families reported the abuse to church officials at the time, and Carriere said a meeting was held 35 years ago with then Bishop Alexander Carter at Christ the King Church about the charges.
Carriere, 50, said the boys and their parents were led to believe police would be in attendance at the meeting, but they weren’t.
“From that meeting, we waited,” he said, but the diocese never acted on their complaints.
Carriere’s mother attended Monday’s news conference and said she asked a bishop in another community what the families should do.
Carriere and his mother both said she was told to “go to church and pray and try to forget this.”
Sabourin said when they were told police would be at the meeting, “we felt something would happen.
“There was a lot of support for Hebert at the time, but we were not taken care of at all,” he said.
Hebert died Dec. 30 and a memorial mass was said in his honour Saturday at St. Jean de Brebeuf Church. There was a full house at the service and more than a dozen priests participated in his memorial mass.
Anita Contant, 60, of North Bay is another of the plaintiffs. She alleges she was befriended by both Fedy and Killoran, and they abused her for three years from the time she was eight.
Contant says she was subjected to fondling, oral sex and digital penetration.
Wayne Thibert, 51, lives in Crystal Falls near Field, but lived in Tecumseh near Windsor in the early 1970s when he says he was abused by Father Lawrence Paquette.
His family moved north eventually, and Paquette visited him “and was able to commit his final acts of abuse upon Wayne,” said Talach.
One plaintiff, Kevin Bishop, did not attend the news conference because he lives a long distance away.
He alleges he was sent to Vita Way Farm in Powassan, south of North Bay, in 1986. There, he says he was sexually “brutalized” by Father John Fisher at the farm Fisher founded as a rehabilitation centre for troubled youth.
Fisher would later win the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship, but was charged in 1989 with sex offences.
A man who wishes to be identified as J.G., now 40, alleges that Father Gerald Roy was his parish priest and school chaplain in Field when he engaged in a two-year period of fondling and mutual masturbation with him.
Roy was sentenced in 2001 to 2 1/2 years in a federal penitentiary for sexual assaults against four altar boys beginning in the early 1980s.
Article ID# 878278
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Ending the silence; Plaintiffs detail years of abuse by priests
The Sudbury Star http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=878278
2008
By Carol Mulligan
At 65, Greg O’Connor has accomplished a great deal in his lifetime. He earned a degree in biology. He graduated at the top of his class in the former Cambrian School of Nursing. He serves as deputy-mayor of Mattawa in the Township of Calvin.
But O’Connor lowered his head Monday and wept as he recounted the impact the sexual abuse he said he suffered more than 50 years ago by a Roman Catholic priest in North Bay has had on his life.
O’Connor is one of six plaintiffs represented by Ledroit Beckett Litigation Lawyers of London, Ont., who are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie for $4.5-million each for sexual misconduct they claim to have suffered as children by priests employed by the diocese.
A seventh plaintiff is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of London for the same amount for abuse he claims he suffered by one of its former priests in Tecumseh.
Some of the plaintiffs are also suing the religious order of the Congregation of the Resurrection, whose priests taught at Scollard Hall in North Bay, where plaintiffs allege some of the abuse was committed.
Lawyer Robert Talach of Ledroit Beckett is representing the seven plaintiffs as well as four others, who earlier filed $4.5-million lawsuits against the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie. Those lawsuits are in the discovery process.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
O’Connor and five other plaintiffs attended a news conference Monday at the Radisson Hotel.
Several family members and friends of the plaintiffs sat in the audience. Some cried as they watched their loved ones address reporters.
The plaintiffs all sat at a table at the front of the Notre Dame Room at the hotel, behind photographs of themselves at the age they were when they said they were abused by their priests.
O’Connor said he was an altar boy as a child, went to church twice on Saturday and three times on Sunday, and “the priest was next to God” in his staunch Roman Catholic family.
He attended a Catholic elementary school and loved it, but when he went to high school, he said his teacher-priest, Father Magnus J. Fedy, took advantage of some of his friends as well.
“I came to hate the priest, I came to hate my religion,” said O’Connor, whose first marriage ended badly. His ex-wife and four children from that union do not speak with him today, he said.
O’Connor was joined at the table by three men from Sudbury who allege they were abused by priests as children.
Sudbury businessman Thomas Miller, 59, lived as a boy in North Bay near Scollard Hall.
Although Miller didn’t attend the school, he played on the school grounds and was provided with access to the school gym, the showers and roof by Father Victor Killoran.
Miller alleges he suffered fondling, masturbation, oral sex and anal penetration by the priest for four years, from the time Miller was eight.
Killoran pleaded guilty and was convicted in 1990 in of sexual abuse against a boy and girl in Kitchener-Waterloo.
Two Sudbury men, Raymond Carriere and R.D. Sabourin, were 14 and 15 respectively when they said they were sexually abused by Father Rene Hebert on camping trips.
Their families reported the abuse to church officials at the time, and Carriere said a meeting was held 35 years ago with then Bishop Alexander Carter at Christ the King Church about the charges.
Carriere, 50, said the boys and their parents were led to believe police would be in attendance at the meeting, but they weren’t.
“From that meeting, we waited,” he said, but the diocese never acted on their complaints.
Carriere’s mother attended Monday’s news conference and said she asked a bishop in another community what the families should do.
Carriere and his mother both said she was told to “go to church and pray and try to forget this.”
Sabourin said when they were told police would be at the meeting, “we felt something would happen.
“There was a lot of support for Hebert at the time, but we were not taken care of at all,” he said.
Hebert died Dec. 30 and a memorial mass was said in his honour Saturday at St. Jean de Brebeuf Church. There was a full house at the service and more than a dozen priests participated in his memorial mass.
Anita Contant, 60, of North Bay is another of the plaintiffs. She alleges she was befriended by both Fedy and Killoran, and they abused her for three years from the time she was eight.
Contant says she was subjected to fondling, oral sex and digital penetration.
Wayne Thibert, 51, lives in Crystal Falls near Field, but lived in Tecumseh near Windsor in the early 1970s when he says he was abused by Father Lawrence Paquette.
His family moved north eventually, and Paquette visited him “and was able to commit his final acts of abuse upon Wayne,” said Talach.
One plaintiff, Kevin Bishop, did not attend the news conference because he lives a long distance away.
He alleges he was sent to Vita Way Farm in Powassan, south of North Bay, in 1986. There, he says he was sexually “brutalized” by Father John Fisher at the farm Fisher founded as a rehabilitation centre for troubled youth.
Fisher would later win the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship, but was charged in 1989 with sex offences.
A man who wishes to be identified as J.G., now 40, alleges that Father Gerald Roy was his parish priest and school chaplain in Field when he engaged in a two-year period of fondling and mutual masturbation with him.
Roy was sentenced in 2001 to 2 1/2 years in a federal penitentiary for sexual assaults against four altar boys beginning in the early 1980s.
Article ID# 878278
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Alleged victims accuse priests of sexual abuse
NorthernLife.ca
Jan 29, 2008
BY LAUREL MYERS
Father Rene Hebert was a priest at L’Annonciation parish in Sudbury and enjoyed working with the youth, so much so that he took the boys on camping trips. But these trips weren’t about singing around the campfire and honing the boys’ outdoors skills. Hebert fed the boys alcohol and took advantage of their innocence.
R. D. Sabourin was a victim of the priest’s deviance. Fifteen at the time of the sexual abuse, Sabourin walked roughly a dozen miles out of the bush one night to get away from a man he trusted, to inform his parents.
A meeting was held with the Bishop, assurances were given and prayers were encouraged, but nothing ended up happening to Father Hebert.
“My parents were told to go to church, pray, and forget it ever happened,” Sabourin said, his eyes brimming with tears as he recounted the incident.
Now, 36 years later, after struggling to move forward while putting his past behind him, Sabourin is married with three children of his own. It’s his children who have brought the abuse victim to speak out about his abuse.
“I’m worried about my children,” he said. “I want to make sure our children, my nieces and nephews, are safe.”
Sabourin was one of seven people gathered at a press conference Monday at the Radisson Hotel in Sudbury to announce seven civil lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, the Roman Catholic Diocese of London and the Congregation of the Resurrection in Ontario. The lawsuits named six priests – Hebert, Magnus J. Fedy, Victor Killoran, Gerald Roy, Lawrence Paquette and John Fisher – on allegations of sexual misconduct. Roy is the only priest still alive.
Half of the men have been criminally charged or convicted in the past, according to Thomas Talach, litigation lawyer from the Ledroit Beckett law firm in London, Ont.
“We are here today to expose the crimes of… six priests…who have violated the very essence of what they represented,” Talach said in his opening statement. “It is their own victims who, following decades of struggling with the impact of that evil, have found the strength to come here today to set the record straight.”
Talach said the reasons for the press conference were to empower the victims, to reach out to other victims, and to create positive change for the future.
The lawyer explained why the allegations had just been brought to light, so long after the incidents took place.
“Many times the victim, taught from an early age that a priest and the church can do no wrong, blames themselves for the abuse. They cannot tell their parents for they feel it is more likely the charming and loved priest will be believed over a child. If believed… the news of abuse… can shake and even shatter an entire family’s religious faith… which leads a victim to vow they will take their secret to the grave. It takes decades for that secret to finally surface.”
The claim for each case is approximately $4.5 million. However, Talach said that is not reflective of what the individual will receive. “No amount of money can compensate someone for the loss of their innocence, their youth and their religious belief,” the lawyer said.
Though the accused priests were all Roman Catholic, Talach said it should not be mistaken as an attack on the religion.
“In these cases, we’ve had brave and honourable priests come forward to assist,” he said. “But we want this diocese (the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie) to deal with it. It is not acceptable to transfer the priest, it is not acceptable to bury their pasts and it is not acceptable to leave them in the field.”
Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe, a bishop for 21 years at of the Diocese, admitted the allegations caused him a great deal of concern.
“I want people to trust their priests,” he said. “These are things (I’d) rather not have to deal with, however, they’re there and (I) have to look at it very carefully, especially with the priests being dead, (I) have to make sure all light is shed on this so (I’m) able to assess it.”
The Bishop said once more information is available about the claims, the Diocese will be able to chart the proper course of action.
To avoid further situations like this from happening, the Bishop explained the Diocese has invested a great deal into training and sabbaticals for their priests.
“Sabbaticals allow the priests to grow as humans and to become better integrated pastors. We’ve had workshops to help them understand… the proper professional behaviours and also the limitations in carrying out their ministry.”
As for Sabourin, the events of his childhood have continued to shape his adult life. Though he admitted he doesn’t often attend church anymore, he still has his faith in God.
He raised his three children as Catholic and though they all have their first communion, none have confirmation.
“My children were raised Catholic to a time one of them was told he had to do community service at his church for his confirmation and that was it, I stopped it there,” he said.
When the abuse took place, Sabourin faced an added hurdle to overcome – his father was related to Father Hebert.
“I was more embarrassed to tell my parents,” he said. “I told my dad a long time ago something happened but I told my dad what really happened (about) two weeks ago.”
There were more priests at Scollard Hall abusing kids than those cited in these articles.
I was sexually abused by Father Peter Fehrenbach when I was a border and alter boy at Scollard Hall. His abuse consisted of forcing me to give him back massages and included sexual touching (he would call Brother Phil who would wake me up from my bunk and told to report to Fr. Pete in his private room)
Brother Phil was a sadistic animal that now in retrospect, seemed to get sexual gratification for beating borders with a long strap while forced to expose bare bottom and hands on his bed while he broadcast your screams to the entire dorm.
Welts from the whippings would bleed for two or three days after the beatings.
Father Fehy also attempted to sexually touch me on three occasions, but I managed to get away each time.
I blocked it all out. I left the Church forever and have a deep anger and resentment towards all organized religions.
The Boys Of St Vincent film shocked me into remembering – but I did not report it. I am not sure why. It is still too upsetting to talk about.
Both priests are now deceased.
If any of the Catholic teachings are true, I hope they are paying an eternal price of damnation for what they did – not just to me, but to countless other young people.
Let us fervently hope that this Pope is serious about rooting out this cancerous sickness in the Catholic Church. (These charges were never proven in court – but I don’t care if I get sued – It is true and I had to finally say something to someone)
Thank you Bob. The only way we find out about priests who are accused is when victims find the courage to speak out.
I too hope and pray that this Pope will take steps to required to root out the predators in the priesthood. It’s long long overdue.
Stay strong. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
I am now 75 years of age. In 1957 I was a rape victim of “Father Killoran” at Scollard Hall. I have gone through my life with the fantasy of killing a Catholic priest. This would never happen of course and no one is in danger.
This “congregation” of priests. Up and left North Bay and moved to a high school in the U.S. It is a certainty that they molest children to this day.
I posted here a couple of years ago. Seven years of psychotherapy showed me that I had OCD. At my first session with the psychiatrist, he said, “I don’t know why you are not dead or in prison.” ( His name is Dr. Kata and he is recognized worldwide as an authority on OCD.) Somehow my amazing wife and our children have stuck by me.
I recall at my son’s wedding, I was asked to explain what I thought love was about.
My message was simple. Love is when you have hit bottom and someone reaches down to lift you up. I wish I could cause some damage to the Catholic Church that I define as the largest Organization of Pedophiles in the world. I still fantasize about killing a priest just to get even. Pope Francis my ass. He leads the organization and he knows what’s going on. I would like to hear from anyone who wishes to get even with the Catholic Church. Surely we could organize a campaign. I was at Scollard in the same class as Greg O’Connor. He slept in a bed very close to mine in the dormitory.