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	Abuse in 1950s Subject of New Suit By Randy Boswell Montreal Gazette June 25, 2011 http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Abuse+1950s+subject+suit/5005124/story.html After decades of quiet suffering and bottled rage, a Montreal man is leading a group of 22 former residents of Catholic boarding schools in Britain and Tanzania - including four fellow Canadians from Quebec, B.C. and Alberta - in a multimilliondollar lawsuit against Rosminian Order priests alleged to have physically, sexually and emotionally abused children in their charge during the 1950s. Francis Lionnet, a 63-year-old communications consultant, is spearheading a compensation bid that has already prompted a BBC documentary on the case and led this week to a formal apology from Britain's top Rosminian official. Another ex-pupil involved in the case is Bill Tierney, a Gazette West Island edition columnist and former mayor of Ste. Anne de Bellevue. "I apologize without reservation on behalf of the Rosminian brethren in the U.K. to all those who have suffered," Father David Myers said in a statement released Wednesday, the day after BBC's airing of the film Abused: Breaking the Silence. "Such abuse was a grievous breach of trust to them and to their families. We are appalled by what was done to them," Myers added. "I and all my brethren are deeply shocked at what has happened and acknowledge our inadequate response." Lionnet was an 8-yearold boy in 1956 when he arrived at the Grace Dieu school in Leicestershire, England. He claims to have been beaten and abused during his time there and to have witnessed the abuse of several other pupils at the school, housed in a sprawling manor in the countryside. Lionnet immigrated to Canada in 1996 and later worked as a senior communications officer at NSERC, the federal science and engineering research fund. He told Postmedia News on Thursday that, like other former pupils at the school, he thought often about his experiences at Grace Dieu, but only began organizing the legal fight in 2009 after a discussion with a fellow graduate about their memories of a particular priest's violent actions. Tierney, 65, said Friday from his cottage in Nova Scotia that he attended Grace Dieu in 1957-58 and recalls "frightening" sounds coming from "Room X" - the place next to his own sleeping quarters where boys were beaten by an "odious priest." Tierney, who settled in Montreal in the early 1970s, said he believes the Catholic order must confront the "hypocrisy" of their priests' actions. "I just think that the Rosminians have to go through this revelation and have to stop covering up and saying everything's fine," Tierney said, describing himself as a "witness to abuse" rather than a victim of direct physical harm.
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