CANADA
National Post
[with video]
Joseph Brean | December 5, 2014
Cornwall, Ontario — It is raining outside under heavy grey skies as a dozen elderly francophone Catholics gather for mass at dawn in the little parish of Ste.-Thérèse-de-Lisieux.
They pray aloud together as they wait for Father Claude Thibault, who lives in an adjoining house partly built by his late father, to put on his vestments.
Fr. Thibault, a genial and chatty man with a sly sense of humour, has attended this church all his life. He was baptized here. As a child, his family took up an entire pew. As a teenager, he read scripture. In July, he became its priest.
Part of his manipulation was protecting himself, by not only working at appealing to us, but also pushing others away, creating mistrust of others, sometimes in very subtle ways
Given what he has endured, though, it is a wonder he is here at all.
This was once the stalking grounds of a sexual predator, a priest at the right hand of the local bishop who abused the youth of this parish and the local high school, and kept them silent through what a judge described as the “spiritual manipulation of consciences.”
Fr. Thibault, now 54, was one of the victims. He was repeatedly molested by this priest, who was a false friend and mentor who encouraged his vocation to the priesthood, even formally vouched for his worthiness at his ordination as deacon, a ceremony spoiled by suppressed rage. When he tried to speak up, the cloistered Catholic hierarchy leapt to denial, and shuffled the abuser to other parishes, where the abuse complaints continued.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.