The Minor Seminary: without transparency, speculation exists

Bernadette Howell, Spiritual Health Practitioner - January 28, 2025


Breaking silence. Confronting clergy abuse.


The Minor Seminary Transparency Initiative 


Dear Readers, 


I really thought that I’d be moving on this week, putting aside what I find, quite frankly, to be a very toxic story of sexual-abuse and cover-up at Westminster Abbey and Christ the King Seminary. I had wanted to move on and share other news, but alas, there is one more story coming from the Abbey that has surfaced and which I believe needs to be shared. 


It follows on the heel of two different blog readers comments to me this past week.


The first blog reader asked, in connection to the ‘Set Apart’ video, shared in last weeks blog, “What do you think is the purpose of the video?” 

Good question. I’m not entirely sure but it would appear to have perhaps been made for PR and marketing purposes and to invite interest in vocations to the Benedictine order and to monastery living here in Mission, B.C.? 


Then a second blog reader commented, “Did you know it was Br. Bruneau’s dad who was out hiking with Fr. Damasus in 1978 when he fell to his death?”

No. I did not know this. 


My thanks to this second blog reader who then forwarded on the relevant Vancouver Sun article that spoke to this event. 


There are no links to such early newspaper articles, but anyone wishing to get a copy, feel free to email me and I can forward them to you separately: BernadetteHowell@shaw.ca


For those not familiar, Fr. Damasus, one of the monks at Westminster Abbey and Christ the King Seminary, tragically fell to his death at Edge Peak in October 1978. He had been hiking with two young seminarians that weekend. 


Fr. Damasus originally came from Mount Angel in Oregan and finished his training at Christ the King Seminary in Mission, B.C. where he was a seminarian at the same time as Placidus Sander, George Gordon and Dunstan Massey before any of these four men were ordained priests. 


You may recognize Placidus and George Gordon as being criminally charged predator priests and Dunstan Massey as being named in a currently pending lawsuit. As one blog reader shared who was at the seminary when Placidus was there, “Damasus, as I remember him, was well liked by the boys there. Not dodgy or scary like some of the other monks.”


A Vancouver Sun article dated March 4, 2000, and written by Michael McCullough speaks of the tragic event that took place twenty-two years earlier in 1978. 


McCullough notes the stunning location of Westminster Abbey, surrounded by glorious mountain ranges and peaks, and describing the monastery as being a property that takes in “what has to be the finest view property in the Fraser Valley.” 


This property, as I reported in my blog of June 11, 2024 (Seminaries, Societies and Scandal) was once owned by a Japanese immigrant by the name of Tashiro Hashizume who came and settled in Canada. By honest means, he purchased this land where he established himself and his family, running a strawberry farm for well over three decades. 


In 1942 however, his livelihood and his home were confiscated. He and thousands of others were sent off to internment camps. His home and his land were then sold by the government to the Swiss-Benedictine order in 1948 when the monks were looking to buy cheap land. It was a purchase that sadly illustrated the extent to which respect for the property of Japanese Canadians was disregarded by both the government and the Christian religious order of the Benedictines. 


But back to the Vancouver Sun’s March 4, 2000, article… 


It notes that Fr. Damasus was “proficient at technical climbing” and, in his own words following a trip to Mount Callaghan near Whistler, and in an account that was subsequently broadcast on CBC Radio, Fr. Damasus shared that being alone on the mountains was “a religious experience like no other”. 

It seems that this monk had a deep love of nature, out in that place where he found the Holy and the Divine existed the most. This I can most certainly identify with.


A free spirit, Fr. Damasus apparently loved hiking and exploring the mountains that were right on his doorstep and mused in his letters that he “might have done a lot more if he’d joined the B.C. Mountaineering Club or the Alpine Club of Canada.” 


Fr. Damasus “recorded several first ascents of named peaks including Mount St. Benedict near Mission, Mount Duke near Pemberton (after the Vancouver’s Catholic archbishop of the 1930’s and 40’s) and the nearby Mount Rohr (after the first Catholic missionary in Lillooet).” 


I additionally learned from his obituary that Fr. Damasus also tried to name a peak after Pope John XXIII by naming it “Mount Roncalli”, that particular Pope’s surname, but “the B.C. Surveys and Mapping Branch did not accept the suggestion, preferring names more directly associated with Canada and British Columbia.” 


To the backdrop of these glorious mountains, the March 2000 article then goes on to note that:


“It was there that 16-year-old Denis Bruneau and Séan (Shawn) Rohrbach, 18, sat on the summit of Edge Peak one fateful day in October of 1978, waiting for their trip leader and mountaineering mentor. Father Damasus Payne, 57, had been slower that usual, having just paddled the length of Alouette Lake and bushwacked to the treeline on another peak a week earlier. When he didn’t show up after 20 minutes or so, Rohrbach rappelled down the final pitch to see what was keeping him. A few minutes later Bruneau joined him. They found the priest’s glasses and watch and then realized he had fallen.”

The Bruneau ‘father and son’ connection caught me off guard as I read this Vancouver Sun article for the first time last week. 


That Br. Bruneau, who features in the video “Set Apart” sharing his 24-year-old views of channeling sexuality into a more ‘fruitful’ spiritual realm, is the son of ex-seminarian Denis Bruneau, caused me to pause, consider and wonder. Not just that this father and son are so closely connected to the seminary, but what must that day on the mountain have been like? 


Incidentally, there are three Bruneau brothers up at the Abbey. Br. Joseph is the eldest of the three, now 36 years of age and the youngest is 25 years of age.


As well as the March 2000 article, the Vancouver Sun and the Province newspapers both additionally had reported directly in 1978 following this tragic incident back, and I will refer to both these articles further below.


But the thing that caused me deepest concern and sent shivers down my spine upon reading this story for the first time is that Br. Bruneau’s father Denis, then a 16-year-old young boy and minor seminarian, was on the mountainside that fateful day with another seminarian by the name of Shawn Rohrbach.


Shawn Rohrbach is a name we have heard of several times, cited and in the public domain for his predatory nature and alleged sexual abuses of younger seminarians. Feel free to refer to the list of known predators from Christ the King Seminary in my blog of March 5, 2024. (From Major Seminary to Minor Cautionary).


Yet another case was filed as recently as May 2022 against the Seminary of Christ the King, Westminster Abbey, The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver, Placidus Sander, and, which also includes a claim that alleges Shawn Rohrbach sexually abused younger seminarians. 


By the way, May 2022, when this claim was filed, coincidentally or not, is also the month Abbott John Braganza suddenly resigned and then disappeared from public view. 


The following statement speaks for itself:


“Rohrbach was a predator skilled at grooming, preying upon and exploiting underage boys to submit to sexual activity after plying them with alcohol,” said the claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court. 


https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/bc-news/third-man-files-sexual-abuse-case-against-mission-roman-catholic-organizations-5410663

The first thing that arouses suspicion and speculation is that Shawn Rohrbach is reported in the media at the time of Fr. Damasus’s death as being 18 years of age and thus only two years older than young Denis Bruneau. 


But here’s the thing. Shawn Rohrbach was not 18 years of age.


Shawn Rohrbach, on the day of the accident, was in fact a twenty-two year old seminarian and thus six years older than the young sixteen year old Denis Bruneau.


That’s quite an age discrepancy and error to make. 


Was the reporter inaccurate? Or did Shawn Rohrbach perhaps lie about his age? 


Or, was Shawn Rohrbach perhaps encouraged by someone at the Abbey and when media wanted to meet the boys, to lie about his age? And to say that he was younger? 


Maybe the boys never spoke directly to the media and perhaps only Fr. Augustine spoke to them?


After all, what was a 22-year-old seminarian doing overnight with a minor who was 6 years his junior? The two seminarians had been camping overnight together.


We read that Rohrbach was, as the legal claim reports, “a predator skilled at grooming, preying upon and exploiting underage boys to submit to sexual activity”. 


In line with the blog reader pointing out the connection between Br. Joseph Bruneau’s dad and the story of Fr. Damasus death, I was reminded of a different blog reader who had reached out to me in mid-December, just a few weeks ago, and the day before I was due to head off for a three-week Christmas vacation. 


The ‘December blog reader’, as I will refer to him going forward, had himself been a victim-survivor of Placidus and had sent me some emails which I promised to address in January when back from my travels. His own legal suit had reached a settlement in September 2022, meaning that alas, there are no public records available for us to explore. But his case was one that most certainly had inspired D.H. to go the route D.H. did, determined to make his own documents public under The Minor Seminary Transparency Initiative . 


https://www.burnabynow.com/highlights/man-alleging-sexual-abuse-at-bc-seminary-wants-former-employee-to-appear-for-discovery-5187387


The ‘December blog reader’ emailed me sharing, “The biggest problem for me has always been the death of Fr. Damasus by Shawn Rohrbach and the monks never dealing with this.”


He went on to share that allegedly, Fr. Damasus, as Shawn’s confessor, was aware “that Shawn was touching little kids” and, on a couple of occasions, had apparently attempted to prevent him, determined to physically catch him in the act of doing so. 


If I am to understand correctly, this victim-survivor believes that Fr. Damasus’s death was not entirely accidental, and that Shawn Rohrbach was somehow involved in foul play. 


As you can appreciate, such serious claims and allegations are cause for concern.


He additionally noted that at some later date, Shawn Rohrbach was then “sent back to Bellingham by the monks”. 


I am unsure of what was in Bellingham. Perhaps Shawn Rohrbach’s home? 


My understanding is that Shawn Rohrbach came from somewhere just south of the border in Washington State. Records, to include his own Facebook page, state that he did indeed leave Christ the King Seminary in 1979.


Shawn Rohrbach it seems, and with various claims surfacing, was thankfully, not suitable to be accepted for ordination as a monk or priest. 


As for the police investigation into Fr. Damasus’ death, certainly statements would have been taken. The police concluded it was ‘accidental death’. 

So, here’s the thing. 


I was not able to find much on the internet or coming from the Abbey that speaks to this tragic event. The only reference on the Westminster Abbey / Christ the King Seminary website that I could find relating to Fr. Damasus Payne’s was his name, listed on their Alumni Necrology page. This simply notes the details of his birth, ordination and death along with sixty other deceased priests. 


Neither can I find any statements from his fellow monks in the media about this very difficult and harrowing event. Or, for that matter, any quotes in the media from either seminarian. This struck me as particularly odd because two other teenagers involved that day who aided in going for help (as you will read further below) were quoted quite extensively in the newspapers for the part they played. But nothing from Christ the King Seminary or the two seminarians who could have provided further information.


So what facts were ever shared publicly and directly by the monks? 


The notion of saying little, and that “less is more for now” as Fr. Gary Franken, now bishop, wrote in the released documents when speaking about Placidus’s death, seems standard procedure across the board for Church leaders but sadly, backfires. 


For this reason and as it pertains to this emerging story there is a large part of me that says, without transparency, speculation exists. How can it not?


Given the history at the Abbey of continued cover-up and denial with respect to Placidus and his predatory ways as well as other abuses going on, how can one ever be sure that other things were not also kept quiet, pushed to the side, buried under some carpet or other? Or perhaps stowed in some secret archive?


Quite honestly, I cannot say one way or another what to believe. But years of trusting Church leaders in the past has taught me where not to place my trust any more.


I read information that I find in the public domain and where facts are established, I usually believe what I read. 


But when we read things such as Fr. Augustine Kalberer, for example, who reports in the released documents in The Minor Seminary Transparency Initiative, that he has “never known him (Placidus) to tell the slightest lie” when in fact Placidus’s whole life was one huge big lie, sexually abusing and raping kids while daily celebrating eucharist as a ‘holy monk’, what is one to believe?


And so, what really happened that weekend in October 1978 I cannot say. 


Allow me however, to share further details about that fateful day back in 1978.


The original Vancouver Sun article, produced within 24 hours of the tragic event reports:


“The body of Father Damasus was recovered Sunday morning at the 1,700-metre level of Edge Peak in Golden Ears Park near where he had fallen while on an overnight hike with two seminary students. Students Shawn Rohrbach, 18, and Dennis Bruneau,16, had spent Friday night on the mountain and were planning to ascend the West Peak and return home Saturday.” 


While it was an “overnight hike” and camping trip, it does not actually say that Fr. Damasus also spent the Friday night on the mountain, just that "the two students" had spent Friday night on the mountain. I have been informed that Fr. Damasus was sometimes known to hike later in the day, or even in the very late hours of night to catch up with the boys already on the mountains overnight camping. Perhaps this was one such occasion and he joined them early on Saturday morning? Who can be sure?


A Maple Ridge search-master by the name of Larry Walmsley is then reported as saying that “Father Damasus was walking behind the two students and probably stopped to take a photograph at the edge of a cliff at about 1:15pm”. 


Walmsley goes on to say, "We can only assume that he slipped on a boot-sized patch of black ice and fell”


The article goes on to say that upon “realizing that Father Damasus had vanished and had probably fallen off the cliff, the students asked two young teenagers, Ron and Carla to go for help while they tried to find him. They were unsuccessful in their search.”


The newspaper article reports that Ron and Carla Zwaal, a brother and sister, aged 16 and 14 respectively, were sent by the seminarians to go for help while the two seminarians continued their own search for Fr. Damasus. 


This brother and sister, Ron and Carla, apparently ran down the rugged mountain for well over an hour, passing by several groups of hikers who ignored their pleas for help until eventually they came across a park official who then contacted a Search and Rescue Team. 


As it got dark, a helicopter aided in the Search and Rescue by dropping flares to help the ground team. Fr. Damasus body was located in the early hours of Sunday morning when the search resumed. The body was then retrieved and brought out by the Search and Rescue ground team, somewhere between the hours of 8am to 9am, Sunday 22 October. 


It is unclear to me as to who the two young teenagers were that the seminarians sent off to find help. 


The Province newspaper picks up the same story on Monday 23 October 1978, and it notes that the teenager brother and sister were from Maple Ridge, and “were hiking on a trial in Golden Ears Provincial Park Saturday when two climbers told them there had been an accident on Edge Mountain and asked them to raise the alarm.”


Where they a part of a larger overnight camping and hiking group? 


Who were they that they were without a parent or adult so high up on that isolated mountainside when sent to look urgently for help?


Additionally, I am appalled that several groups of adult hikers ignored the young teenagers who were so anxiously and desperately seeking help. I cannot imagine what that must have felt like. 


Westminster Abbey spokesman, a monk by the name of Father John Chrysostom Brost is reported as saying on Sunday 22 October 1978 that:


"Nobody knows exactly what happened, but Father Damasus was a keen photographer and may well have fallen over the edge of the cliff as he was trying to take photographs.” 


No reference in the media was made to finding his camera. I did however subsequently note in Fr. Damasus’s obituary in the ‘Pax Regis’ a few months later, that Fr. Boniface wrote, “His broken camera revealed three black and white prints of the very spot on which he was to fall to his death”. 


Aside from this reference, the only two other mentions of that day in his obituary simply say that Fr. Damasus “fell to his death while climbing Edge Peak” and that, “he would not miss Mass except on that final day when he was planning to celebrate it with his two companions on top of Edge Peak.”

Denis Bruneau is referred to by Fr. Boniface as one of his “two companions”. 


He was a minor at the time—a minor seminarian. 


I am then left to wonder how Shawn Rohrbach and young Denis Bruneau were subsequently supported and taken care of in the days and weeks following? 


Such a shocking and tragic event is something that likely will always remain as a day one can never forget. 


The community of monks must also have been utterly devastated and left grieving and mourning this terrible event that involved not just a monk, but a minor in their care.


I can’t but help wonder how this tragic news was then shared with all the other young boys and seminarians and how they were supported and helped to grieve this sudden loss? The newspaper reported that Fr. Damasus taught Social Studies. 


As to my ‘December blog reader’ who still is disturbed by the events of that weekend and his concerns over foul play, over four and a half decades later, my heart goes out to him also. 


After he shared what he did with me this past December, I could not help but then go back on the released documents published in December. 

Fr. Augustine Kalberer had typed up some notes in 1995 (Page 19, Volume 7, Criminal Proceedings). I did not quite make the connection, but upon re-reading these documents again the other day, I now understand a bit more clearly what Fr. Augustine Kalberer was referring to. 


Fr. Augustine Kalberer uses the heading ‘Wild Allegations’ under which he notes that Constable Clary of the RCMP brought forward the charges of sexual assault to him on behalf of a victim-survivor. This police officer then also mentions two other claims and charges that this victim-survivor was bringing forward, namely that of foul play by (name redacted but with initials S.R.) in the death of Fr. Damasus and, that Brother Emeric had broken this victim-survivor’s arm in a fight in the scullery. 


Sexual assault by Placidus, foul play in a monk’s death, and a broken arm resulting from a physical struggle with a monk....were they really all such "wild allegations"? 


With respect to the claim of foul play, Fr. Augustine dismissal of this and how he goes out of his way to highlight the mental health and actions of this victim-survivor bringing these claims forward may have persuaded the police that such a claim did not need to be pursued.


Fr. Augustine Kalberer then records under the heading ‘Paranoid Action’ that this victim-survivor, “apparently has Father Placidus and the Seminary as a constant preoccupation.”


Well, small wonder! 


This victim-survivor suffered sexual, physical, emotional and spiritual trauma as a minor seminarian at Christ the King Seminary and by Placidus Sander. 

How would he not be preoccupied? 


This victim-survivor was being forced (along with two others) to go through a stressful legal process so as to bring their abuses to light. 


Two of the three plaintiffs in the Placidus's criminal trial had to go through the entire legal process yet again, twenty-five and twenty seven years later in 2022 and 2024 respectively, so as to finally obtain respect and justice for themselves. Tragically, the third plaintiff died sometime after the trial and is no longer alive.


https://www.nsnews.com/highlights/bc-man-reaches-settlement-over-priest-sex-abuse-allegations-5856317 and https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/bc-sexual-abuse-victim-makes-history-with-church-promise-to-publish-all-details-of-civil-case


Any person forced in such appalling ways to deal with sexual and spiritual trauma that they had endured as a young child and a minor would, almost certainly, find themselves “preoccupied” and likely also, at some point in time, struggle with compromised mental health in later life till such time as the truth is finally in the open. 


To have your disclosures referred to as “wild allegations” and “paranoid actions” I personally find to be incredibly belittling and humiliating. 


To then suggest that this victim-survivor’s statements “seem to be the statements of someone whose imagination is out of control” is to be dismissive of an abused and traumatized ex-seminarian so haunted in his later years that he is still wanting to ensure the truth comes to light. 


Instead, as I pointed out in documents shared in last week’s blog, Fr. Augustine had complete belief and faith in his fellow brother priest, Placidus, of whom he writes “I have never known him to tell the slightest lie”. He additionally was fully prepared to accept and believe that Placidus’s reported one incident of “genital homosexual contact” with a young seminarian was the “only genital homosexual contact he had”. 


And so, readers, I simply share the facts with you today as I have received them: from information made available to me through the media, through the released documents on the The Minor Seminary Transparency Initiative website and as shared by the ‘December blog reader’, a victim-survivor of both Placidus and other abuses at Christ the King Seminary. 


I additionally understand that on that October weekend in 1978, two concerned seminarians returned to the site of Fr. Damasus's fall in the early hours of the Sunday morning. There, apparently, “they talked to the RCMP on site who expressed that something wasn’t right with the scenario.” 


I have not yet been able to clarify what was meant by this, but perhaps only Denis Bruneau and Shawn Rohrbach can be deemed to be reliable sources of what happened on that fateful day?


But to this end, allow me to share one last piece of information that was shared with me in December. Namely, that Shawn Rohrbach apparently "confessed while camping shortly after Damasus’s death.” 


This ‘confession’, whatever was shared, was not however shared directly by Shawn Rohrbach with my ‘December blog reader’ but to someone else.

Shawn Rohrbach allegedly shared some concerning and potentially incriminating words with a different ex-minor seminarian. If subsequently not shared with the police nor verified by them, then we will never know what really happened that day.


As I say, I do find the stories of sexual-abuse and cover-up at Westminster Abbey and Christ the King Seminary to be very toxic and nothing would surprise me anymore.


Before I sign off, I share one more story. Bear with me on this. You may enjoy this one! 


This is a story of fiction, written and published by an American author of four fiction and non-fiction books by the name of Brian Payton. 

It is called “Hail Mary Corner” (Dundurn Press, Oct. 16, 2001) and it was Brian Payton’s debut novel, coincidentally published just three years after the conclusion of Placidus’s criminal trial. 


Described as a book focusing on two young minor seminarians, it is a story that takes place “inside the walls of their Benedictine seminary (where) they inhabit a medieval world steeped in ritual and discipline— a place where black-robed monks move like shadows between doubt and faith.” 


Elsewhere, we read that the main character “discovers two secrets that trigger an event that may haunt him for the rest of his life.”


Here’s an interesting fact: 


Brian Payton was a minor seminarian who attended Christ the King Seminary in Mission B.C. 


Born in 1966, I am guessing he may have attended Christ the King Minor Seminary in and around the late 1970’s to early 1980’s.


This ex-seminarian then produces a tale about the life as a young minor seminarian in a ‘fictional’ Benedictine seminary, set in a ‘fictional’ location on Vancouver Island where Payton now lives. 


I was told by one blog reader who alerted me to this book that the author allegedly “combines Fr. Placidus and Fr. Augustine” into one of his main monk characters!


Not wishing to give away too many spoiler-alerts, Brian Payton’s fictional story includes mention of a seminarian who took his own life and also incorporates the rage of a monk, apparently suffering from depression and on medications who, when driving his van one dark night, runs a seminarian off the road, ultimately leading to the death of the young boy. 


Dear readers, I couldn’t help but then notice one online reviewer in Goodreads who wrote: 


“Love how Brian fictionalized a true story here.”


True story, fact or fiction? 


Who can know which parts are real and which parts are creative license?


There is so much that lies in that unknown realm where fact and fiction are intertwined.


Readers, I’ve already run out of space in this week’s blog. But, allow me to share that I've just been contacted by yet another ex-seminarian wishing to share his recollections of that fateful weekend and related events, both prior and after. I anticipate that next week’s blog will most certainly continue on with this story. Perhaps think of it as Part 2.


Till next week,


Bernadette 

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By Outrage Canada • April 2, 2025
CBC Lite - April 1, 2025 St. John's, NL - A Newfoundland court has increased the total liability of the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s to $121 million after a successful appeal by 59 victims of sexual abuse. These victims, previously excluded from compensation, were awarded $15.3 million in addition to the $104-million settlement approved in 2024 for nearly 300 victims. The case involves abuse by the Christian Brothers at Mount Cashel orphanage and other Catholic institutions in Newfoundland and British Columbia. Despite selling over 100 properties, the corporation has only raised $40 million—far short of the required funds. A previous $22 million was distributed to victims, but insurance coverage was denied. The provincial government may also face legal pressure to contribute to compensation. Justice Garrett Handrigan ruled that the corporation remains liable, reversing decisions that denied compensation to some victims. This includes 12 claimants in British Columbia, where church officials knowingly transferred abusive clergy from Newfoundland. However, past settlements will be deducted from new awards. The court will finalize this latest settlement after May 1.

The month of March has come and gone...

By Outrage Canada • April 2, 2025
Bernadette Howell, Spiritual Health Practitioner - April 2, 2025 Breaking the silence. Confronting clergy abuse. The month of March has come and gone, with its mix of sun, wind, rain, and clocks that needed changing! Some of us may have been surprised waking up this morning to realize that it is already April. How fast time flies when you’re having fun…or perhaps, are exceedingly busy! For my part, I’ve been exceedingly busy, but here I am once more, with yet another blog. It is one I will attempt to keep short but know, dear readers, that this week’s blog is one I would prefer not to be writing at all. Why? Because the end of March was the promised date for the wildly late, overly long-awaited Vancouver Archdiocese Clergy Abuse Update Report. But, as you have guessed, it's not coming. We're not getting anything! It's been nearly three full years of absolute silence. No communications or updates of any kind, despite the Archbishop's commitment to publish a Clergy Abuse Update Report every six months. I quote first from Archbishop Miller’s speech at the Vancouver Archdiocese Annual Dinner on 30 October 2018: “This evening, I would like to begin my conversation with you by calling attention to the grave situation of clerical sexual abuse and cover-up by bishops, which has recently come to light. My first responsibility is toward the victims of these horrific crimes, those who have been so severely harmed by members of the clergy. It has been an extraordinarily trying time for victims and their families, who have been forced yet again to revisit the injustices they have suffered.” As reported by the B.C. Catholic, Archbishop Miller then went on to say: “We must find more effective ways to support and care for victims of abuse, to protect everyone from it ever happening again, and to bring justice and closure to historical cases of abuse.” Then from his Pastoral Letter, four months later on 19 February 2019: “The Archdiocese is committed to supporting victims of clergy sexual abuse meaningfully through the provision of counselling and effective advocacy support as they journey on the path to healing. Too often in the past, victims have been allowed to fade away from our Church family without receiving the justice and support that they deserve... It is imperative to find ways to reach out to victims and their families with our most sincere apologies and an invitation to receive whatever comfort and healing we can facilitate”. He goes on to say: “We will also be taking bold steps to ensure that abusive clergy members are held accountable for the terrible crimes they have committed. Greater transparency will invite more input for change and will foster greater trust in the faithful members of our clergy and religious communities.” And then there is Archbishop Miller’s Pastoral Letter from 25 November 2019, his letter which accompanied the Vancouver Archdiocese Clergy Abuse Report and its thirty-one recommendations: “Now is the time for us to address more fully what we, as the local Church, can do to respond better to the needs of victims of abuse, as well as improve our policies and procedures that have been in place for many years. All these efforts going forward entail a profound and continuous conversion of our hearts. Such a conversion must be accompanied by a firm commitment to take concrete and effective action marked by greater transparency and accountability in all that we do.” I can quote so much more, but I’ll stop right here. “All these efforts going forward entail a profound and continuous conversion of our hearts. Such a conversion must be accompanied by a firm commitment to take concrete and effective action marked by greater transparency and accountability in all that we do.” It gives me no joy to say that: I have seen no such “conversion of heart”. Not in all the years I have tried hard to help the Archdiocese of Vancouver address this topic and care for its victims. I have seen no “firm commitments” honoured nor have I witnessed or experienced “concrete and effective action”. And I have seen no “transparency” or “accountability” take place. Have you? Please do let me know so that I might share it with others. So allow me instead to share what we do get in place of concrete action, conversion of heart and firm commitments… We, as in myself and a couple of others (who were also members of the Clergy Abuse Review Committee) get an email from the Archbishop’s Delegate for Operations, James Borkowski, telling us that: “After receiving feedback from insurers and other stakeholders, the new website is being paused.” As an invested stakeholder myself, along with many other Catholics and non-Catholics alike, whether victim-survivors or not, what can one possibly say to this? There is quite simply no suitable or adequate response to be made! Here's a thing. None of us is looking for a fancy website! We never asked for a website. Just a report - twice a year. We just want to be updated on the progress of all the recommendations and the commitments made by the Archbishop and the Vancouver Archdiocese. We just want to be updated with news of other predator priests still not named but known to the Archdiocese. We want to hear and know that the plight of victims matters. And that when names are released of predator priests known to the Archdiocese but kept hidden till now, many victims who have suffered alone will know they are not alone. We don't want lofty language and empty promises on fancy new websites, all of which amount to nothing when action does not follow. And as for silence? Perhaps no one at the Vancouver Archdiocese has yet realized the impact that silence has on victim-survivors? Silence was, and still is, the very weapon which predator priests use over their victims. Thus, silence today, from leaders who should know better, is incredibly harmful and damaging. Another recipient of that email from last week, notifying us that the Catholic Church’s insurance companies and “other stakeholders” are not happy with the website wrote: “We are not the only people who are concerned about this matter. The community at large needs to be informed as to what will and will not happen, and why.” They then added, “the Archdiocese should publish a statement about what it does intend to do, and how it expects to move forward on commitments made,” suggesting that this should be done "as soon as possible". Yet another wrote, “I am losing hope that anything will change in this diocese” adding that whatever improvements and undertakings have taken place, leave one with the feeling that these are just “temporary band aids to create an illusion to convince the public that things will change.” Needless to say, since receiving the email, and all recipients responding, there has only been more silence. No further communication. No reaction. No offer to publish a statement about what the Archdiocese intends to do. Whatever happened to Archbishop Miller’s and the Vancouver Archdiocese’s first responsibility being “toward the victims of these horrific crimes, those who have been so severely harmed by members of the clergy” and “respond(ing) better to the needs of victims of abuse”? Has nobody in the Vancouver Archdiocese, leaders or administration, made the connection yet that the victims “so severely harmed” are the very ones waiting and wondering why there are no updates being shared, whether about predator priests, cases in progress, or class action suits underway? And what about Archbishop Miller’s imperative “to find ways to reach out to victims and their families” and the “invitation to receive whatever comfort and healing” the Archdiocese can facilitate? Allow me to bring this blog to a close by sharing words received from a blog reader this past week. They wrote: “Your blog is unprecedented in scope, detail and history, and stands alone as a reference work”. Albeit this is weighty stuff for me to hear, I am glad that my truth-telling stands alone as a reference work, for too much is hidden by Catholic Church leadership and kept in the dark. Too much that is still covered-up. I find myself carrying a torch that I would rather not carry... Whoever the original quote may be attributed to, I echo their words that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.” I, for one, cannot stand by. Please do not become one of the many who do nothing, but join me instead, in speaking out and speaking the truth... Until the next time, Bernadette
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