Pa. Priest Exploited Teen's Confession of "Sin" to Groom Her for Sexual Abuse
By Brandie Kessler
Mary McHale was in her senior year of high school at Reading Central Catholic when the rumors started to spread. The priest she told, Father James Gaffney, would eventually be named among more than 300 predator priests, accused of sexually abusing children in a historic grand jury report in Pennsylvania. The damage he would have on McHale's life, and the lives of other victims, would last decades.
'I felt comforted' Diana Vojtasek's life was upended when her parents divorced. She moved back to Reading with her mother and sister, and enrolled at Reading Central Catholic because her mother was concerned about safety in the Reading public schools. Vojtasek didn't have any friends and the divorce was "traumatic," she recalled. On her first day at Reading Catholic, before the first bell rang, she was comforted by a friendly face: Father Gaffney "put his arm around me and said, 'Don't we make a cute couple,'" she said. Yes, it was awkward since she had never met him, and he was a priest. But having his attention when she felt so alone was welcome. It was the same way McHale felt when Gaffney showed her interest and attention. After McHale shared her secret with Gaffney, he began being more and more friendly with her. She would "feel his eyes" on her, she said. Vojtasek said the same thing, that she could feel him looking at her during school functions. Both girls got a weird feeling from that interaction with their priest, but they didn't imagine what was in store for them. "I didn't think anything of it then," McHale said, pointing out that priests were a step away from God, and everyone wanted the priest's attention in school. "I felt comforted by it." The women now know Gaffney was grooming them. 'I just stuffed' it all down McHale can still hear Gaffney in her mind, his response to her confession that she was gay. "He said, 'We need to work on this together, we need to work on this outside of here,'" McHale said. Just like he did with Vojtasek, Gaffney met McHale and "counseled" her. Gaffney was one of McHale's teachers, so she saw him at school and she would visit him at his home parish, St. Catherine's outside of school. During their meetings, McHale sometimes said things that didn't seem right. "He always told me that when he took his collar off, he could do whatever he wanted," McHale said. Again, she felt uncomfortable, but he was a priest. He was a representative of God. She wasn't going to question him.
He kept telling McHale that after she graduated, he had a program he wanted to try with her. It was a "special program he wanted to work on with me, but we couldn't be teacher/student," she said. When she finally went to see Gaffney after she graduated, he led her to his room at the church, closed the door behind them and locked it. McHale's eyes widened as she remembered the sinking feeling that washed over her as she watched him lock the door. He pulled out a large envelope and explained it contained instructions for the program. First, they each had to talk about their past sexual experiences. Next, they had to point to each other's body parts, naming each by its proper name and its slang names. Finally, Gaffney read the instructions for the third step. They each needed to strip and critique each other's body. Gaffney started to undress. McHale said she insisted he not remove his underwear. She did the same, uncomfortable but unsure what else she could do to get away from his locked room. He tried to push her further, but she refused to remove her bra and underwear, she said. McHale said Gaffney touched her legs and remarked about how muscular she was. As soon as they were done discussing their bodies, McHale dressed and left, heading straight to a friend who lived nearby. The friend was the girl she was having a secret relationship with, whose mother was supportive of their sexual orientation. McHale begged them not to tell anyone about what happened with Gaffney, fearful her secret would be found out. That could have been the end of it, but Gaffney wouldn't leave McHale alone. She believes he planned to meet with her again and again if she would have allowed it, likely pushing her to do more with him. But she was planning to go away to college, and she just wanted to forget what happened and move on. "I just stuffed a lot of things," McHale said about how she chose to try to ignore what happened. But Gaffney wouldn't let go. He called her home over and over and got the number for her job and called her there too. McHale was forced to tell her parents what happened when they got suspicious about Gaffney calling her so much. Her parents didn't have as harsh a reaction to her sexual orientation as she expected they would, but they also didn't tell anyone about Gaffney. McHale asked them not to. "I went off to college and I was just going to stuff it," McHale said. But she couldn't escape what had happened to her and she was struggling with accepting herself. She turned to alcohol, and was on that road until she got herself into recovery in 2004. That's when she discovered she wasn't the only one Gaffney had preyed on. 'These predators have to be stopped' McHale was able to get away from Gaffney and he never touched her again. Through her recovery she was able to learn to accept herself. But when she learned there was another girl whom Gaffney abused, she was overwhelmed with guilt. "I felt like if I had done something, maybe she wouldn't have had to go through it," McHale said. Gaffney, who could not be reached for comment on this article, testified twice before the grand jury. According to the grand jury report, Gaffney said no member of law enforcement had ever contacted him regarding his conduct until he got the subpoena to appear before the grand jury.
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