Group Wants Ri Religious Order Investigated for Sex Abuse

By Katie Davis
Turn to 10
September 17, 2012

http://www2.turnto10.com/news/2012/sep/17/group-wants-ri-religious-order-investigated-sex-ab-ar-1174483/

[with video]


A Rhode Island man said Monday he was abused decades ago at a boarding school operated by a religious order based in Burrillville.

The Brothers of the Sacred Heart has faced similar allegations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Holding photos of child sex abuse victims from across the country, a small group from BishopAccountability.org gathered outside the office of Rhode Island's attorney general, demanding an investigation.

"If this attorney general can't take action, then I believe children of Rhode Island will continue to be at risk by this order," said Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org.

The sex abuse survivors group said the small religious order has been hit by at least 10 sex abuse lawsuits in recent years.

The Brothers of the Sacred Heart, New England Province is headquartered in Pascoag.

"It's hard for me to speak about it. It's just not right," said James Meunier.

Meunier, a retired Central Falls police officer who lives in Pawtucket, filed a lawsuit against several members of the religious order last year.

Meunier said he was molested by a brother who has since died while he was a student at one of the order's boarding schools in Massachusetts in the 1950s.

"It bothers me more now everyday because I realize what happened to me, which was hidden all those years," Meunier said.

The order used to run several Catholic schools in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. It continues to operate Mount St. Charles Academy in Woonsocket.

"For a small order that still runs a thriving junior-senior high school right here in this state. To have on its roster to have employed 15 accused child molesters is quite alarming," Doyle said.

NBC 10 contacted the Brothers of the Sacred Heart on Monday. A representative said the order's leader is in Rome and unavailable to comment on the allegations.

The group signed and hand-delivered a letter asking Attorney General Peter Kilmartin to open a grand jury investigation into the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.

"Take a look at it and forward it to the appropriate authorities," Kilmartin's spokeswoman, Amy Kempe, said.

Meunier is the first alleged victim to come forward in Rhode Island, but he said he believes there are others in the state.

The Brothers of the Sacred Heart are not operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence. The diocese said it is a separate, self-governing group.