By Kilian Melloy
EDGE Boston
October 1, 2009
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=97095
A Nova Scotia Roman Catholic bishop who brokered a deal in which the church settled with claimants in the pedophile priest scandal has fled after being caught with suspicious images on his laptop.
A Sept. 30 CBC News article reported that former Bishop Raymond Lahey had abruptly resigned on Sept. 26, sending church members an email that cited "personal renewal" as Lahey's reason for leaving his post as Bishop of Ottawa's Antigonish Diocese.
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Wrote Lahey to parishoners, "While I will no longer be with you on this journey, I am confident that your faith and compassion will continue to sustain you as they have always done," the article reported.
The day before, Lahey had been charged with possession of child pornography.
The article said that the charges stemmed from a Sept. 15 search as Lahey was entering the country at Ottawa International Airport. The search was conducted by the Canada Border Services Agency, which confiscated the Bishop's laptop computer due to having found pictures "that were of concern."
It was later determined that the laptop contained child pornography.
The article said that Ottawa authorities had been in contact with the missing suspect, but that they remained in the dark as to his location.
The article noted that Lahey had helped put together a $15 million deal to compensate claimants who alleged that they had suffered abuse at the hands of Antigonish diocese priests.
The deal was finalized on Sept. 10. The lead plaintiff, Ronald Martin, reportedly responded "with shock" at the news, but did not offer public comment to the media.
Martin's brother had killed himself after allegedly being abused by a priest. The brother left a suicide note explaining what had happened.
Martin, who claims also to have suffered sexual abuse from a priest, was quoted in an Sept. 21 EDGE article as saying, "At this time I hadn't known about his abuse, and he hadn't known about mine.
"But here I was as a victim saying, 'I would do this for you, David, and for many others.' "
A priest named Hugh Vincent MacDonald was named in the suicide note as the abuser of Martin's brother.
The EDGE article said that MacDonald had been charged in 2003 with a number of sex offenses, but died before he was sentenced for the crimes.
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