本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Ontario man sues Catholic Church, alleging abuse
Priest accused of years of abuse
Latest in flurry of recent lawsuits
ROB CRIBB
STAFF REPORTER
As a teen, Robert Berube would visit his village church each week to collect 50 cents in wages for serving as an altar boy — visits he now says caused a lifetime of anguish.
"When you went there, you got sexually abused," he recalls. "You could count on it."
Berube says that abuse came from Rev. Jean-Claude Etienne, a now deceased priest stationed in the northern Ontario village of Warren — between Sudbury and North Bay — in the late 1960s and early '70s.
Berube is suing the Catholic diocese of Sault Ste. Marie and Etienne's estate for $3.1 million for what he alleges was a three-and-a-half-year period of sexual abuse as a teen that left him in "physical, emotional and mental pain," according to a statement of claim filed in court last week.
Berube, 50, claims in the statement he suffered repeated sexual abuse and molestation as a young teen ranging from sexual touching to masturbation to oral sex and sodomy.
The former school principal has been on long-term disability for the past three years after "crashing" into depression.
"I want to heal," he said in an interview last week. "And to heal, the wrong has to be repaired."
The allegations have not been proven in court.
Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe of the Sault Ste. Marie diocese could not be reached for comment. Etienne, who was ordained to the priesthood in 1961, died in 1997 at age 66.
Berube's allegations are the latest in a recent flurry of sexual abuse lawsuits filed in Ontario against the Catholic church and individual priests.
The London, Ont., law firm representing Berube — Ledroit Beckett — has taken on more than 65 clients in the past five years alleging sexual abuse against the church and its priests.
Paul Ledroit, a senior partner in the firm, says he continues to be "shocked" by the devastation left by sexual abuse and the church's lack of care for victims.
"When someone sues a priest, the church, with all its resources, comes to the aid of the priest. I've never seen them come to the aid of the victim," he says. "Many Catholics, and I am one, believe leadership of the church is controlled by people who don't seem to share Christian values to the same extent as we're taught."
John Swales has emerged as a key figure in the growing legal battle with the church in Ontario.
Swales, a former altar boy from London, Ont., and his two brothers were awarded $1.3 million in damages by a London court last year for abuse they suffered as young boys at the hands of now retired priest Rev. Barry Glendinning.
Swales is now on staff at Ledroit Beckett helping other victims get their grievances heard in court. He says he's working as a liaison with about 100 clients and potential clients with claims of sexual abuse against priests.
"My thing is to put the shame of sexual abuse where it rightfully belongs. It belongs with the institutions that committed these crimes and concealed these crimes," he says.
Earlier this month, a Cornwall man filed a suit against the Vatican, the College of Cardinals, a retired bishop and a deceased priest alleging sexual abuse.
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`When someone sues a priest, the church, with all its resources, comes to the aid of the priest'
Paul Ledroit, lawyer
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For Berube, suing the church came only after a lifetime of silence about what he says happened to him in his childhood church on camping trips and almost anytime he was in the presence of Etienne.
He never uttered a word to his devoutly Catholic parents.
"I was afraid and very much ashamed to tell them," he says. "Because of the abuse, I was not a perfect child any more. In my head, I'd become damaged goods. My mother would have been spiritually and emotionally destroyed."
Even as an adult, he says he's held the secret, summoning the courage to tell his wife and two daughters only in the past year.
"It was my thing," he says. "You try and forget about it. You know being abused, people won't understand it."
His first recollections of that abuse date back to 1969 when he was a 13-year-old altar boy under Etienne's tutelage. He recalls waking up on the floor of a back room in the church with his pants at his ankles. "I'm French Catholic. It was northern Ontario. The priest was very important in the community. My first concern was whether anyone saw what had happened."
While Berube says he gradually tried to resist the abuse, Etienne overpowered him physically.
"If you said `no,' he'd push you against the wall. One time he threw me down the stairs. You knew you'd always lose. He was so much bigger than me."
Eventually, Berube says he realized his only escape was to detach himself from what was happening.
"The only way I could survive was to stare at something (as the abuse was happening) because I couldn't get away. I remember I would fix on a tree or anything and just stare at it until it was over."
Etienne was also a leader of a church youth group known as the "Pioneers," according to the statement of claim.
Berube says that in his role as a youth leader, Etienne took boys in the village on camping trips where he sexually abused them.
"He told us to jump in the lake. He took his bathing suit off and put his penis in my face," Berube says. "When I ran, he grabbed me in the bush, beat me up pretty bad, held me down and performed oral sex and sodomized me."
The statement of claim asserts that the diocese was "negligent and failed in their duty" to Berube.
"They failed to protect (Berube) from Etienne when they knew or ought to have known he was vulnerable to the attentions and influence of Etienne," it says. "If the defendant Diocese did not know of (Etienne's) behaviour, it was because of the existence of its own rules, principles and ideologies which allowed the defendant Etienne to conceal his activities and cover up his deviant behaviour."
Berube stopped attending church as a teen. And he's never returned.
Today, he says that while he still believes in a spiritual power, it bears no resemblance to the Catholic teachings he's abandoned.
His biggest regret now is that Etienne is no longer alive to answer his allegations.
"When I became ready psychologically to address him, I found out he was dead. It was a shock. I felt I had the courage now to ask him why he did that to me. Why hurt children? But I couldn't do that."更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Priest accused of years of abuse
Latest in flurry of recent lawsuits
ROB CRIBB
STAFF REPORTER
As a teen, Robert Berube would visit his village church each week to collect 50 cents in wages for serving as an altar boy — visits he now says caused a lifetime of anguish.
"When you went there, you got sexually abused," he recalls. "You could count on it."
Berube says that abuse came from Rev. Jean-Claude Etienne, a now deceased priest stationed in the northern Ontario village of Warren — between Sudbury and North Bay — in the late 1960s and early '70s.
Berube is suing the Catholic diocese of Sault Ste. Marie and Etienne's estate for $3.1 million for what he alleges was a three-and-a-half-year period of sexual abuse as a teen that left him in "physical, emotional and mental pain," according to a statement of claim filed in court last week.
Berube, 50, claims in the statement he suffered repeated sexual abuse and molestation as a young teen ranging from sexual touching to masturbation to oral sex and sodomy.
The former school principal has been on long-term disability for the past three years after "crashing" into depression.
"I want to heal," he said in an interview last week. "And to heal, the wrong has to be repaired."
The allegations have not been proven in court.
Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe of the Sault Ste. Marie diocese could not be reached for comment. Etienne, who was ordained to the priesthood in 1961, died in 1997 at age 66.
Berube's allegations are the latest in a recent flurry of sexual abuse lawsuits filed in Ontario against the Catholic church and individual priests.
The London, Ont., law firm representing Berube — Ledroit Beckett — has taken on more than 65 clients in the past five years alleging sexual abuse against the church and its priests.
Paul Ledroit, a senior partner in the firm, says he continues to be "shocked" by the devastation left by sexual abuse and the church's lack of care for victims.
"When someone sues a priest, the church, with all its resources, comes to the aid of the priest. I've never seen them come to the aid of the victim," he says. "Many Catholics, and I am one, believe leadership of the church is controlled by people who don't seem to share Christian values to the same extent as we're taught."
John Swales has emerged as a key figure in the growing legal battle with the church in Ontario.
Swales, a former altar boy from London, Ont., and his two brothers were awarded $1.3 million in damages by a London court last year for abuse they suffered as young boys at the hands of now retired priest Rev. Barry Glendinning.
Swales is now on staff at Ledroit Beckett helping other victims get their grievances heard in court. He says he's working as a liaison with about 100 clients and potential clients with claims of sexual abuse against priests.
"My thing is to put the shame of sexual abuse where it rightfully belongs. It belongs with the institutions that committed these crimes and concealed these crimes," he says.
Earlier this month, a Cornwall man filed a suit against the Vatican, the College of Cardinals, a retired bishop and a deceased priest alleging sexual abuse.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
`When someone sues a priest, the church, with all its resources, comes to the aid of the priest'
Paul Ledroit, lawyer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Berube, suing the church came only after a lifetime of silence about what he says happened to him in his childhood church on camping trips and almost anytime he was in the presence of Etienne.
He never uttered a word to his devoutly Catholic parents.
"I was afraid and very much ashamed to tell them," he says. "Because of the abuse, I was not a perfect child any more. In my head, I'd become damaged goods. My mother would have been spiritually and emotionally destroyed."
Even as an adult, he says he's held the secret, summoning the courage to tell his wife and two daughters only in the past year.
"It was my thing," he says. "You try and forget about it. You know being abused, people won't understand it."
His first recollections of that abuse date back to 1969 when he was a 13-year-old altar boy under Etienne's tutelage. He recalls waking up on the floor of a back room in the church with his pants at his ankles. "I'm French Catholic. It was northern Ontario. The priest was very important in the community. My first concern was whether anyone saw what had happened."
While Berube says he gradually tried to resist the abuse, Etienne overpowered him physically.
"If you said `no,' he'd push you against the wall. One time he threw me down the stairs. You knew you'd always lose. He was so much bigger than me."
Eventually, Berube says he realized his only escape was to detach himself from what was happening.
"The only way I could survive was to stare at something (as the abuse was happening) because I couldn't get away. I remember I would fix on a tree or anything and just stare at it until it was over."
Etienne was also a leader of a church youth group known as the "Pioneers," according to the statement of claim.
Berube says that in his role as a youth leader, Etienne took boys in the village on camping trips where he sexually abused them.
"He told us to jump in the lake. He took his bathing suit off and put his penis in my face," Berube says. "When I ran, he grabbed me in the bush, beat me up pretty bad, held me down and performed oral sex and sodomized me."
The statement of claim asserts that the diocese was "negligent and failed in their duty" to Berube.
"They failed to protect (Berube) from Etienne when they knew or ought to have known he was vulnerable to the attentions and influence of Etienne," it says. "If the defendant Diocese did not know of (Etienne's) behaviour, it was because of the existence of its own rules, principles and ideologies which allowed the defendant Etienne to conceal his activities and cover up his deviant behaviour."
Berube stopped attending church as a teen. And he's never returned.
Today, he says that while he still believes in a spiritual power, it bears no resemblance to the Catholic teachings he's abandoned.
His biggest regret now is that Etienne is no longer alive to answer his allegations.
"When I became ready psychologically to address him, I found out he was dead. It was a shock. I felt I had the courage now to ask him why he did that to me. Why hurt children? But I couldn't do that."更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net