On Aug. 7, 2009, Raymond Lahey, bishop of the Diocese of Antigonish,
concluded an historic settlement with victims of sexual abuse.
It was
hailed as a model of how the Roman Catholic Church should deal with all
those betrayed by its priests; the victims’ Halifax lawyer, John
McKiggan, called the deal “extraordinary and unprecedented,” not just
for Canada but for the worldwide Church.
“It was the first time I know of that a bishop of that authority had
apologized and had acknowledged the responsibility of the institutional
church to survivors,” said Mr. McKiggan.
“So that was a tremendously
different approach than what had typically been seen in the past.”
Then, seemingly out of the blue, on
Sept. 26, Lahey resigned without explanation. What he did not reveal was
that 11 days before, was found with child pornography on his laptop
while going through Ottawa’s main airport. He was charged on Sept. 25
with possession and importation of child pornography.
On Thursday, in an Ottawa courtroom, the 69-year-old Lahey is to
appear at the first day of a two-day sentencing hearing.
The second date
will not be till later in the fall. Lahey was caught with the graphic
material on his laptop after returning on a flight from the United
States.
A forensic audit found close to 600 images and 60 videos of boys
as young as eight to 10 years old having sex with each other and with
adults.
As reported the Canadian Catholic News, an Ottawa police
detective described other material found on Lahey’s computer:
“pornographic stories on the bishop’s hard drives — one running to 300
pages in length — that he categorized under five themes: mastery and
slavery involving adults and young boys; humiliation of young boys;
torture of young boys; sex acts between young boys; and degradation of
young boys or forcing sex acts on them.”
In May he pleaded guilty and asked to be jailed immediately. The Crown withdrew a more
serious charge of importation.
“People are remarkably complex. So you can have a bishop who is
compassionate to victims of clergy abuse and somehow in his own little
world engage in child porn use,” said Thomas Plante, a professor of
psychology at Santa Clara University in California, who also screens
potential clergy members and works with troubled priests, many of whom
are addicted to pornography.
“It seems so contradictory but we see it all the time, especially in
people who are always under scrutiny. Narcissism comes along with high
positions,” he added. “These cases are a reminder that bishops are not
immune from sin and brokenness.”
Prof. Plante noted all people, not just clergy, have a remarkable
ability to compartmentalize the dark part of their lives. But priests
and bishops carry an extra burden that makes their personal feelings all
the more severe.
“Their standards for behaviour, and even for thought, are much, much
higher and so when they fall they really fall big,” he said.
He said when priests turn up at his office they feel humiliated,
embarrassed and even suicidal. But some, he said, have so lost their
moral compass that they come in “kicking and screaming” even after they
are found out and have no choice but to find help.
“No one wakes up one morning and says, ‘I think I’ll start looking at
child porn.’ It’s a gradual slide and with these guys they simply
forget how to ask for help.”
Lahey’s settlement with the abuse victims in his diocese had been
considered particularly compassionate.
It allowed for victims to receive
restitution without the second indignity of a public trial.
It meant
those who were abused would not have to be subjected to humiliating
cross-examinations by defence lawyers.
The bishop acknowledged the $15-million settlement would be crushing
for a relatively poor diocese like Antigonish and it would take years
for the member parishes to pay off the bill.
“I think parishioners would want us to do the right thing,” he told the Cape Breton Post.
“I think that’s the overriding consideration.”
Even after Lahey’s precipitous fall, Mr. McKiggan, the Halifax
lawyer, said it does not diminish what he did for victims of clergy
abuse.
“I don’t need to reconcile the two things,” he said.
“We don’t if the
same result would have been achieved if Lahey was not on the other side
of the negotiating table. We’ll never know. Except it was the right
thing to do and it was very unusual.
“But cases like his just go to show you can never know what’s really going on with someone.”