CANADA
The Telegram
Barb Sweet
Published on March 24, 2016
Abuse claims scheduled for month-long trial
Roughly seven decades ago, the Roman Catholic archbishop patted the heads of some boys as he passed them in the hallway. Among them was a St. John’s man who is set to stand up in court in less than two weeks in a case about whether the church had a role in operating the infamous Mount Cashel orphanage.
The Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s, no longer represented by its longtime local lawyer, is scheduled to head to court April 4 to fight four test cases — representing about 60 claimants of physical and sexual abuse by some members of the Roman Catholic lay order, the Christian Brothers, dating back to the late 1940s, ’50s and mid-1960s.
The second defendant previously named was the New York-based Christian Brothers Institute Inc., but because the organization declared bankruptcy in 2011, that action was discontinued.
The Roman Catholic Church contends it was not involved in the operation of the orphanage.
The St. John’s man’s childhood memory of the archbishop visiting is of that one occasion. But to him, one of the four people testifying about their own alleged abuse at the hands of the Brothers, the role of the archdiocese was clear in the orphanage’s operation. He recalls there was a Roman Catholic parish priest in residence on the property and he held mass every morning and night.
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