Bishop facing child porn charges gets bail

[一心无住]

CBC News - Nova Scotia - Bishop facing child porn charges gets bail

Bishop facing child porn charges gets bail

Bishop Raymond Lahey was released on $9,000 bail after turning himself in to Ottawa police on Thursday afternoon to face charges of possessing and importing child pornography.

The Roman Catholic cleric, who resigned his post in Nova Scotia on the weekend before news of the charges broke, has been ordered to stay away from parks and from children. He is not allowed to use the internet, and while he is free he is to stay in Rogersville, N.B. The town is the site of a Trappist monastery.

His next court date is Nov. 4 in Ottawa.

A Canada-wide arrest warrant had been issued for Lahey, 69, who brokered a $15-million settlement for victims of sexual abuse by priests of the diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia.

Lahey was returning to Canada on Sept. 15 when he was detained at Ottawa International Airport. Canada Border Services agents checked his laptop and found images "of concern," Ottawa police said in a release.

Lahey was allowed to leave, but his computer and other media devices were seized. Police alleged a forensic examination ultimately found child pornography.

On Friday, Ottawa police charged Lahey with possession of child pornography and importation of child pornography.

The next day, he resigned as bishop of the diocese of Antigonish, citing the need for "personal renewal."

'Ultimate revictimization'

Anthony Mancini, the archbishop of Halifax who is overseeing the Antigonish diocese, went to Sydney on Thursday to speak with Lahey's former parishioners and hold a news conference.

"I am well aware that everyone is in shock," said Mancini.

"I am concerned with all who are trying to find any meaning in this devastation. I do not have the solution to this problem or the capacity to take away the pain or the means to erase this tragedy."

Mancini has said he wasn't aware of the charges against Lahey until Wednesday.

In a letter to parishioners in Newfoundland — Lahey's native province, where he was also a bishop — Mancini wrote that child pornography is equivalent to child abuse and exploitation.

"These latest allegations are another setback for the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland and Labrador, a church in which we have been trying to restore people's faith after years of scandal," he wrote.

Ronald Martin said his faith was shattered when he learned of the allegations.

Martin launched a class-action lawsuit on behalf of himself and others who were sexually abused by priests in the Roman Catholic diocese of Antigonish. He met with Lahey, then bishop of the diocese, many times over the years to reach a deal.

"The one thing I said to the bishop from the very beginning was that I do not want the survivors revictimized, and I think yesterday was the ultimate revictimization for every single one of us," Martin told CBC News Thursday.

In St. Peter's, Cape Breton, many parishioners were shocked to hear about the charges against Lahey. Some are already upset that they have to help pay for the $15-million settlement, one woman told CBC News.

John McKiggan, the lawyer behind the class-action suit, fears the allegations against Lahey may reflect poorly on the settlement.

"These unfortunate charges have now raised questions about a process to do right, and that's unfortunate," he said Thursday.

Legal obligations

The settlement, approved by a Nova Scotia court on Sept. 10, has been described as the first time the Roman Catholic Church has apologized and set up a compensation package for complainants without fighting the charges in court.

Rev. Paul Abbass, spokesman for the diocese of Antigonish, said Wednesday the charges would not affect the legal obligations of the diocese to the settlement.

Lahey was appointed bishop of the Antigonish diocese in 2003 by Pope John Paul II. The Vatican accepted his resignation.

Before that, Lahey served as bishop for the diocese of St. George's in Corner Brook, Nfld. He was also a priest and pastor in the archdiocese of St. John's and a professor of theology at Memorial University in St. John's.

Lahey is a graduate of the Saint Paul University seminary in Ottawa, the Gregorian University in Rome and Cambridge University in England.

 

[ManCreatedGod]

这是对人类有影响的著名的耶教徒

 

[focus on today]

我不相信他是 因爲 學了聖經才這樣的。

我相信他知道 他的做法是違背聖經的。

 

[markfer]

我不相信他是 因爲 學了聖經才這樣的。
我相信他知道 他的做法是違背聖經的。

呵呵，你不相信和你相信的东西多了，但那是你的，代表不了人家主教！

这些藏污纳垢的很集中的地方，实在是太恶心人了。

 

[茶马古道]

我不相信他是 因爲 學了聖經才這樣的。

我相信他知道 他的做法是違背聖經的。

看来你的查经作业做的不到家。

 

[markfer]

呵呵，神经教徒不都喜欢这样自以为是，唯有他的理解是正宗，他的教派是真理在握的吗？否则，如果都让着点儿，哪里会有过去两千年里，神经教派之间为了谁是正宗嫡传而杀的血流成河呀！

看来你的查经作业做的不到家。

引用:
作者: focus on today
我不相信他是 因爲 學了聖經才這樣的。 我相信他知道 他的做法是違背聖經的。

 

[markfer]

但愿这次能好点儿，别过不多久又让大家"吃惊"。

Church awaiting 'resurrection' after bishop's disgrace - The Globe and Mail

The Canadian Press

With shock at allegations against Rev. Lahey turning to anger, parishioners aim appeals for reform at highest levels of Catholic church


Oliver Moore and Stephanie Porter
Antigonish, N.S. and St. John's — From Monday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Monday, Oct. 05, 2009 09:28AM EDT

In the soaring cathedral where Raymond Lahey was consecrated Bishop of Antigonish, with paintings of the stations of the cross lining the walls, parishioners sat silently as the fallout from the Catholic church's latest sex scandal was compared to the crucifixion.
In a letter read Sunday at all of Nova Scotia's Catholic parishes, that church's top clergyman in the province offered an impassioned and at times anguished response to allegations that Rev. Lahey was caught with child pornography.

“Enough is enough. How much more can all of us take?” pleaded Archbishop Anthony Mancini, who took over as administrator of the diocese after Father Lahey resigned his bishopric.

“We are personally going through the passion and the death which Christ experienced, but we have not yet gone beyond death to the resurrection. It is as if we are presently sealed up in a dark tomb waiting for the power of the Spirit of God to overtake us and raise us up to a new day and a new future.”

But whether the faithful are willing to move to that new future remains an open question, with shock at Father Lahey's arrest giving way to anger. A number of parishioners at St. Ninian's Cathedral in Antigonish called Sunday for reforms going as high as the Vatican.
“I can't believe that a person that would go that far in the church could be so wrong,” Teresa MacCormac said after one of the morning masses at the 143-year-old stone church.

“It's an institutional issue, these top men, they get their direction from Rome,” she added. “The answers should have come from Rome. And it's hard for the local priests, it must be really hard on them.”
Others parishioners were more blunt.

“Until the church modernizes and women are given a bit more of their place in the church and we get rid of the men's club, I think we're in trouble,” said Hugh Webb.

Ironically, some of those who knew Father Lahey in his home province of Newfoundland said that he had been progressive in his own approach toward women in the church.

He spent nearly two decades on the west coast of Newfoundland, as bishop of the diocese of St. George's, before going to Antigonish in 2003.

One woman who worked in the Roman Catholic Church during that period – who agreed to speak to The Globe and Mail on condition of anonymity – has vivid and positive memories of him. She described a great lover of classical music who had a passion for gardening and could name “every plant and shrub in the province.”

The woman gave Father Lahey high marks for trying to move the diocese toward inclusiveness.

“He did have Sisters working in many of the parishes up and down the coast,” she said. “That certainly wasn't the norm at the time.”
Father Lahey also appeared forward-looking in his eager adoption of the coming Internet age. In the early 1990s, he was known to spend hours working on his computer. Because his modem operated through his telephone line, it was almost impossible to call him.
“I was always told, if I wanted to talk to Bishop Lahey after work, I had to go knock on his door,” the Newfoundland woman said. “It was the only way to reach him. There were people who would even call him ‘Computer Chip' as a joke.”

Given that it was his computer that would eventually lead to his arrest, she acknowledged it all “looks much different in hindsight.”
In Mount Pearl, a town near St. John's, Rev. Joseph Barton began Sunday morning's service at St. Peter's parish church with the admission that “it has been a challenging and busy week.”

Father Lahey's recent arrest has taken aback many Newfoundlanders and at St. Peter's, it hits particularly close to home. Father Lahey was appointed the first parish priest here, when the church opened its doors in 1982.

Father Barton began Sunday's mass the same way every mass in the province was to begin: with the reading of a letter from Martin Currie, the Archbishop of St. John's.

The letter spoke of the “shock, sadness and anger” he experienced upon hearing of Father Lahey's arrest. “We've been trying to restore people's faith after years of scandal. … If you can't trust the chief shepherd, then who can you trust?”

Speaking after the service, Father Barton said Father Lahey had been highly respected in the parish as a community leader and a great speaker. “He worked with a lot of the people here on fundraising and starting this church,” he said.

“It's been hard on everyone here. It's easy at times like this for people to lash out and use it as the reason to leave the church. I try to be here to answer questions, to encourage everyone to remember that we are all the church, and there is much to still have faith in.”
As the reverberations continued to rattle across the region, the long-term effect of the scandal on the faithful of St. Ninian's in Antigonish remains to be seen.

There had been rumoured plans of a boycott of the collection plate but it was not immediately known if the total was in line with the roughly $8,100 raised last weekend. There were conflicting opinions on whether attendance was down Sunday at the cathedral, with some worried the congregation might dwindle permanently.

But others said that their faith would not be tested by the alleged misdeeds of one man.

“The church is more than a bishop,” Aloysius Balawyder said. “It's not the bishop that's the head of my faith. It's Christ, I adore Christ and I believe in him.”

Stephanie Porter is a freelance writer for The Globe and Mail

 

[markfer]

下班回家时听新闻，警察对逮捕这个变态的神经教主教给了更多的说明：

1. 之所以怀疑他，是由于他经常自己去泰国、马来西亚、德国等等恋童癖比较严重的地方。以前加拿大已经出现过去那里嫖男童的罪犯。
2. 警察要查他的微机和UBS盘时，他神色紧张。
3. 警察发现他微机上有恶心人的照片。他却说他只喜欢20岁21岁男人，可那些一丝不挂的照片里的受虐男孩看上去是pre-teen，应该都在18岁以下，甚至可能只有8岁。

真是一个人面兽心的禽兽。

CBC News - Nova Scotia - Graphic content found in Lahey's laptop

Last Updated: Thursday, October 8, 2009 | 5:53 PM AT

CBC News

Bishop Raymond Lahey was charged with possessing and importing child pornography on Sept. 25. He turned himself in to Ottawa police on Oct. 1 and was released on $9,000 bail that day. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Canadian border officials found sexually explicit images on Bishop Raymond Lahey's computer the day he was detained at Ottawa's airport and 10 days before he was charged with possessing child pornography, according to a search warrant document filed at the Ottawa courthouse.


The seven-page sworn statement, obtained by CBC News, describes why Lahey was pulled aside for a secondary examination as he re-entered Canada on Sept. 15, and contains detailed descriptions of images the officers allege they found on Lahey's laptop during the initial inspection.


Officers with Ottawa police and Canada Border Services Agency allege the images included graphic photographs of males, who police believe are under age 18 and who they suspect could be as young as eight. The information was later used to obtain a search warrant for Lahey's laptop, as well as four memory sticks, three memory cards, two cellphones and a portable hand-held device.


Lahey, who was named bishop of Antigonish in 2003, was charged with possessing and importing child pornography on Sept. 25. He announced his retirement the next day, saying he was stepping down "for personal renewal."


He turned himself in to Ottawa police on Oct. 1 and was released on $9,000 bail the same day. His next court appearance is Nov. 4.
Passport inspected

The document says border services agent Venessa Fairey inspected Lahey's passport at her counter at Ottawa International Airport after his arrival on a flight from London, England. She noted he had made several trips to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Spain and Germany since 2005.


Fairey reportedly asked Lahey if he had a laptop computer, and Lahey hesitated before replying, "Yes."


The document says Fairey then flagged him for a secondary inspection for these reasons:

• He was a male travelling alone.
• He had travelled extensively to source countries for child pornography.
• He had evasive responses to questions pertaining to his possession of electronic media.
• There were changes in vocal tone during specific questions.
• He avoided eye contact during specific questions.

A second border services agent viewed three images on Lahey's laptop and arrested him for smuggling prohibited material into the country. During a subsequent interview with an Ottawa police officer, Lahey said he was attracted to males aged 20 to 21, the document says.


At the time, officers concluded they could not determine the ages of the males in the images and Lahey was released unconditionally, though his electronic devices were seized.


Another search revealed five more sexually explicit images, which featured males who, police said, appeared to be eight to 10 years old.
The document says investigators then stopped their inspection of the laptop and filed a warrant to conduct a thorough search.