Group Searching for Victims of Ex-norfolk-based Friar

By Bill Bartel
Virginian-Pilot
April 20, 2015

http://hamptonroads.com/2015/04/group-searching-victims-exnorfolkbased-friar

A victims advocacy group said last week it will again request that Roman Catholic leaders in southeast Virginia ask parishioners whether they were molested by a friar, once based in Norfolk, who had been linked to dozens of child assaults in other states.

The new request is triggered by media reports last week that three more victims of Brother Stephen Baker reached financial settlements with church-related groups. The three said Baker abused them in the 1990s while they were teenagers at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, Pa.

Baker, who committed suicide in 2013, was on the faculty of a now-closed Norfolk parochial school in the 1970s. His death sparked the advocacy group's initial request for assistance by the Richmond diocese, which includes Hampton Roads.

Becky Ianni, the Virginia director for the national organization SNAP, Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests, said she hopes that enough time has passed that anyone who might have been victimized by Baker will seek counseling.

"It can take years and years for victims to come forward," Ianni said. "Victims suffer in silence."

Anne Edwards, special assistant to Bishop Francis DiLorenzo, leader of the Richmond diocese, said they have not heard about SNAP's request but are willing to assist.

"We would be happy to talk with them," Edwards said.

Early in his career, Baker, a Franciscan friar, Third Order Regular, was on the faculty of James Barry Robinson High School, a Norfolk Catholic boarding school. The facility, which closed as a school in 1977, operated under contract by the Franciscan order and was not a diocesan school.

Boston-based attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented two victims in the recent settlements, called Baker a "serial pedophile." Garabedian has represented more than 80 others in Pennsylvania who settled legal claims with the church after being molested by Baker while they were students.

Bill Bartel, 757-446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com