N.s. Bishop Says Church, Victims Must Seek Healing, CTV, May 5, 2011

N.s. Bishop Says Church, Victims Must Seek Healing

CTV
May 5, 2011

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110505/antigonish-bishop-healing-110505/

[with video]

Bishop Brian Dunn speaks to the media in Antigonish, N.S

Bishop Raymond Lahey arrives at the Ottawa courthouse on Elgin Street, Wednesday, May 4, 2011. Lahey is on trial for possession of child pornography.

The top Catholic official in a Nova Scotia diocese rocked by child pornography charges said Thursday that in spite of the wounds of the past, there must eventually come a time for healing and reconciliation.

Father Raymond Lahey, the 70-year-old former bishop of the Catholic diocese in Antigonish, N.S. pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a packed Ottawa courtroom to importing child pornography.

The charges came after he was caught with hundreds of child porn images and videos on his laptop computer.

On Thursday the Most Rev. Brian Dunn, current bishop of Antigonish, said the church is working hard to restore trust but there is a long road ahead.

"Let me assure you that this diocese has over the past year continued to seek our shared goal of reconciliation and we will do everything within our power to continue along this path," he told a news conference.

"As we receive the decision of the court this is a time for reflection and prayer and as we move forward we do so with a commitment to action so that we may be a church rooted in the gospel."

In return for Lahey's guilty plea on Wednesday, prosecutors withdrew a charge of distribution. Sentencing has not yet been handed down, but Lahey asked to be incarcerated immediately.

The judge in the case will now view the images and videos in private before deciding on sentencing.

Lahey could be sentenced to as long as a decade in prison. He could also be stripped of his affiliation with the Catholic Church.

Dunn said the Catholic Church in Antigonish has been working over the past year with victims of sexual abuse to try and achieve healing and reconciliation and to allow the church to become "an instrument of healing."

He said there's value in moving beyond the wounds of the past.

"We have to allow the hurt to move on, we can't remain hurt for the rest of our lives and so I believe it's a part of our response as people of faith to move through the hurt, as difficult as it is."

Lahey was charged in September 2009 with possessing and importing child pornography after being arrested by border agents who searched his laptop at the Ottawa airport. Lahey had just stepped off a plane from Britain.

Police say they found hundreds of files, dozens of videos, many of them showing young males engaged in sex acts, and written stories containing explicit sexual images of boys.

Just one month before he was arrested, Lahey had brokered a $15 million lawsuit for victims sexually abused by priests of the diocese of Antigonish.