Moral Duty to Inform Authorities over Priest Allegations: Advocate, CBC News [Canada], March 26, 2007

Moral Duty to Inform Authorities over Priest Allegations: Advocate

CBC News [Canada]
March 26, 2007

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2007/03/26/church-advocate.html

Officials with the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland and Labrador should have contacted authorities in 2001, when it heard allegations that one of its priests had had sex with a minor, says the former chair of child protection at Memorial University.

Kathleen Kufeldt does not agree with the church's decision not to inform authorities about a young woman who said she had had sex with Rev. Wayne Dohey when she was a teenager.

Dohey, 44, was charged earlier this month of sexual assault and sexual exploitation. He has been suspended from duties as priest in Placentia.

Advocate Kathleen Kufeldt says church officials should have contacted authorities in 2001, when a complainant first stepped forward. Advocate Kathleen Kufeldt says church officials should have contacted authorities in 2001, when a complainant first stepped forward.
Photo by The CBC

The complainant said she was 14 when she first had sexual intercourse with Dohey — an encounter she described as an assault.

The complainant approached church officials in 2001, but at the time did not want to go to the police. The RCMP said the alleged incidents that led to the charges occurred between 1996 and 2000.

Archbishop Brendan O'Brien has said the church did not have a legal obligation to report to authorities in 2001, because the complainant was an adult when she spoke with them.

Wayne Dohey, shown in a 1997 image, will appear in court in Grand Bank in May. Wayne Dohey, shown in a 1997 image, will appear in court in Grand Bank in May.
Photo by The CBC

Kufeldt told CBC News she feels the church had a moral obligation to report the incidents, particularly because a priest was involved.

"Any person that has been found to have preyed on a young person sexually should be made known to the appropriate authorities," said Kufeldt, who has retired and now lives in Calgary.

"Even more so … anybody in a professional position or a position of trust should be known to the police and the child welfare authorities. The church above all should be aware of its moral duty," said Kufeldt.

The church offered counselling to both Dohey and the complainant.

Dohey had been working on the Burin Peninsula at the time of the alleged incidents.

After Dohey finished counselling, he was assigned to work as a parish priest on Bell Island and then in Placentia.

The complainant said the sexual relationship with Dohey continued until two years ago.

Dohey is scheduled to appear in court in Grand Bank on May 2.