Sex abuse allegations kept under wraps at Catholic board

By Roger Belgrave
Mississauga News
April 15, 2015

http://www.mississauga.com/news-story/5558621-sex-abuse-allegations-kept-under-wraps-at-catholic-board/

Father James Roth

PEEL – Peel’s Catholic school board said it is normal practice to keep parents and the community in the dark when a staff member is accused of criminal wrongdoing, such as the sexual assault of a minor.

“What we do is go on our practice and our practice has been not to communicate on allegations or charges against individual staff members,” said Bruce Campbell, chief spokesperson for the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.

The explanation comes after allegations of sexual abuse by a priest working for the board surfaced in January, but were only recently brought to light by the board.

Father James Roth reportedly committed suicide in February after confessing to sexually assaulting a young boy 14 years ago.

Roth was working as a priest-in-residence with the board until the latter part of January, when he was removed from ministry after the allegations were reported to police. He had been with the school board since 2008.

Roth was a member of the Oblates of St. Francis De Sales order based in Ohio, but on assignment with the Archdiocese of Toronto and working at the Dufferin-Peel board.

A complainant contacted police in the United States to report Roth sexually assaulted him in Michigan when he was about nine years old. When informed by police of the allegation, the order recalled Roth from his position at the school board and he returned to the United States for an investigation launched by the church.

He died Feb. 11 at an Ohio hospice. The cause of death was an insulin overdose.

The coroner has yet to rule on the death, but the Oblates believe it was a suicide. According to reports, police found a note in which he confessed to the damning accusation.

The school board made no public mention of the allegations until posting a statement on its website April 10, a day after a similar message was released by the Archdiocese of Toronto. Roth also worked in parishes in the Mississauga community, Campbell said.

“We would not normally communicate to our staff or to our community when an individual or a staff member is charged (or under investigation),” said Campbell, who added that under those circumstances the employee is removed from duty pending the investigation’s outcome.

He noted Roth primarily worked with staff in administrative offices, helping provide weekly masses, develop religious curriculum and conduct liturgies.

He occasionally went into elementary and secondary schools to help deliver liturgies, according to Campbell, adding he was always accompanied by a staff member in what were large group settings.

“Some people are anxious that he might have been involved in one-on-one situations with students. That wasn’t the case,” he said.

Because Roth had limited interaction with students and the allegations against him reportedly occurred in a non-school setting, in another country, and the priest had no history of wrongdoing with the Dufferin-Peel board or criminal record, Campbell said the board didn’t feel it was necessary to broadcast the allegations.

If the employee worked in a classroom setting, parents of students in that particular class might get “a limited advisement” about such allegations, Campbell said. Depending on the situation, police might direct the school board to make parents aware of the situation, he added.

The board is comfortable students were safe during the priest’s roughly six-year tenure.

“We’re satisfied that the communication that we took is sufficient and there’s nothing to indicate that Father Roth was a threat to students during his time here,” Campbell insisted.