November 06, 2005

Priest asked to pay child support

CANADA
Toronto Star

ROBERT CRIBB
STAFF REPORTER

In a rare court action, an Ontario woman has filed a child and spousal and child support claim against a Catholic priest claiming he had a sexual relationship with her, proposed marriage and fathered her child before leaving her a single mother with no income.

In an application filed in court in London, Ont., Sandra Ring of Ingersoll, Ont., claims she and Father Jason Robert Martin began a romantic relationship in 2003 in which he assumed a parental role with her 6-year-old boy, insisted she stop using birth control pills then abandoned her with an unborn child last year to continue his career as a priest.

"(Ring) and the children ... have been harmed," the court application says. "(Ring) had depended on (Martin) and the Church for financial and emotional support throughout the relationship. She and her children have now been left with no financial resources ... "

The allegations have not been proven in court.

The 31-year-old Ring is now living in her parents' home where she is raising her two boys.

Posted by kshaw at November 6, 2005 07:28 PM