By Gary Dimmock
The Ottawa Citizen
October 6, 2009
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Vatican+arranged+hideout+plans+bishop+facing+child+porn+charges/2069360/story.html
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| Raymond Lahey, 69, who stepped down abruptly as the bishop of Antigonish in Nova Scotia, at the Ottawa Police station Photo by Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen |
OTTAWA — The Vatican’s diplomatic office in Rockcliffe Park arranged plans for disgraced Bishop Raymond Lahey, 69, to “get away” to a remote monastery in rural New Brunswick on the eve of his abrupt resignation from his diocese and child pornography charges by the Ottawa police, the Citizen has learned.
The bishop’s stay at the monastery, part of his strict bail conditions, would have been welcome but the chief priest at the abbey tells the Citizen that Lahey called him last week and said that he wanted to stay in Ottawa and “square it with his lawyers.”
The abbot says that’s presumably why he hasn’t heard from prosecutors or the defence lawyer, or Lahey himself about the change from the original, court-recorded plan.
“Keeping him here as long as it was not publicly known would have been feasible, and I think I was open enough to it in my own mind, but then he phoned to say he wanted to stay where he was — in Ottawa,” said Father Bede Stockhill, 67, in a text message he sent from his aol.com account from the historic monastery yesterday.
On arrangements made by the Vatican’s office in Ottawa, Lahey first arrived in New Brunswick on Sept. 25. According to Stockhill, the bishop said he needed to get away.
Lahey stayed at the guest house, where the suggested donation is $40 dollars a night, and guests are served and cooked for by privately-hired chefs.
The next day, the head priest at the 100-year-old monastery learned that his latest guest had resigned abruptly from his Nova Scotia diocese.
Stockhill didn’t pry.
Then, last Wednesday night around supper time, the abbot said the ex-bishop stopped him in a hallway at the monastery, saying he had to leave and fly to Ottawa because he had been charged with possession of child pornography.
The abbot says he barely had a reaction to the horrible news.
“I take things as they come,” Stockhill said.
Lahey, wanted on a countrywide arrest warrant, surrendered to detectives at Ottawa police headquarters last Thursday.
According to Lahey’s bail conditions, the ex-bishop doesn’t have to report RCMP detachment in Rogersville, N.B., until Wednesday between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Atlantic time.
According to the New Brunswick RCMP, who received a copy of conditions — which forbid him from using the Internet or attending any public parks, libraries or places where children frequent — their monitoring schedule for Lahey has yet to be revised.
It is not yet clear if Lahey’s criminal lawyer, Michael Edelson, has legally applied to change the conditions for his client, is was released on $9,000 in bail.
The Cistercian-Trappist monastery has not yet heard from Ottawa police or prosecutors about any court-ordered plan for the former bishop to reside at the lakeside Monastery of Our Lady of Calvary.
While the head priest of the monastery says Lahey’s return wouldn’t be wise, some vocal residents of normally sleepy Rogersville, N.B., — including the mayor — say the child porn suspect is not welcome.
Rogersville is named after a late Roman Catholic bishop.
Lahey was returning to Canada on a flight from Britain when he was questioned by customs agents at Ottawa airport on Sept. 15.
He was not targeted, but rather flagged as suspicious.
A week later, the Ottawa police executed a search warrant at the Customs office, seizing the bishop’s laptop, which was confiscated earlier by border agents.
The Ottawa police allege that the bishop’s laptop contained sexual images of children.
Lahey was praised this summer for his “courage” after he helped broker a $15-million compensation package for sexual abuse victims in Nova Scotia.
Lahey also testified at a legal hearing into the notorious sex abuse scandal at Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland.
The disgraced bishop was not implicated in any of the sex scandals that rocked the Roman Catholic Church in Atlantic Canada.
The ex-bishop does not have a criminal record and is expected in Ottawa court in early November to face importation and possession of child porn charges.
It is not yet known who is footing his high-priced legal fees in this criminal case.
According the CBC News, the archbishop of Halifax says the diocese of Antigonish will not pay Lahey’s legal bills.
In a statement released Monday, Halifax Archbishop Anthony Mancini said Lahey has not asked for any financial help.
“If that request were made, it would be declined by the diocese,” he said.
Marilyn Sweet, a spokeswoman for the Halifax diocese, told CBC News that the decision was made Monday after church officials met with diocese lawyers.
Lahey, a Newfoundland-born former bishop has studied in Rome and Ottawa, and, according to the monastery abbot is believed to be living in Ottawa.
Catholic priest Kevin Molloy says he was shocked to hear that retired bishop Raymond Lahey has been charged in a child pornography case, despite cautioning him about the consequences of having pornography more than 20 years ago. “I figure if I gave him a warning over 20 years ago, how come he did nothing about it? I’m just appalled at the whole thing,” Molloy said in a telephone interview from Florida where he is now a priest.
With files from Canwest News Service
Gary Dimmock can be reached at: gdimmock@thecitizen.canwest.com
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