In seeking to atone for the lengthy history of sexual misdeeds by clergy, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington released a report Thursday morning that details the names and biographies of 39 priests since 1950 who have been credibly accused of abusing children in Vermont.
“These sins of the past continue to haunt us,” Bishop Christopher Coyne told reporters during a press conference at the diocese headquarters on Joy Drive in South Burlington. “These shameful, sinful and criminal acts have been our family secret for generations.”
Last November, a committee of seven men and women began reviewing thousands of documents related to 52 clergy members who’d served in Vermont since 1950 and who had been accused of abuse.
The committee considered three criteria to determine whether a priest was credibly accused: whether the allegation was “natural, plausible and probable”; corroborated by other evidence; or admitted to by the accused.
“If you had one of those three, we defined that as a credible allegation,” said Mark Redmond, the executive director of Spectrum Youth & Family Services and a member of the committee. “That was the first task: What does it mean to be credibly accused? And that’s what we came up with.”
Of the 52 accused, the committee named 39 whom its members determined had been credibly accused in Vermont. (A 40th priest, Mark L. Quillen, had been accused of sex abuse in Iowa in 1977, but the committee learned of no accusation against Quillen during his four years in Vermont in the early 1990s.)
Thirteen of the clergy named in the report are still alive. The bishop said he’d contacted eight of them, including several who still reside in Vermont, to let them know their names were on the list. None admitted to the abuse, according to Coyne, and some adamantly denied the accusations.
“Some were very short — ‘OK, thank you, Bishop’ — and hung up,” Coyne said of the phone conversations. “And others were, ‘This is a travesty of justice, I’ve never gotten my day in court. Why are you doing this now? I’m 80 years old; this happened 40 years ago.’ Others said, ‘OK, Bishop, I appreciate that you gave me a call.’ It ran the gamut of all different kinds of emotions.”
Coyne noted that there’d been only one substantiated abuse claim against a Diocese of Burlington priest since 2002, when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops implemented more stringent child protection rules. It involved Stephen J. Nichols, a Lyndonville priest who was sentenced to 30 days in jail for inappropriately touching a teen in 2005.
“We communicated yesterday, and he didn’t have much good to say to me,” Coyne said. “I was a classmate of his at Saint John’s Seminary in Brighton [Mass.], class of 1986.”
All of the names and files have been turned over to the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. The office is involved in a separate law enforcement task force that formed after BuzzFeed published a story in August 2018 about abuse allegations at the former St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage on North Avenue in Burlington. That criminal investigation is ongoing, Attorney General T.J. Donovan said in a statement Thursday.
“We reviewed the lay committee’s report, and are aware of all the names listed,” he wrote. “I appreciate the lay committee’s work and diligence on this matter.”
Among those on the committee was 65-year-old John Mahoney, a retired schoolteacher who says he was sexually abused as a child by a priest named Edward C. Foster, who died in 2000. Mahoney publicly detailed his accusations for the first time this week, recounting how Foster molested him several times during the 1960s, beginning when Mahoney was in middle school.
Mahoney eventually told a “trusted adult” about what had happened when he was in high school and brought his allegations to the diocese in the 1990s; he received a monetary settlement in the early 2000s.
Mahoney, who paused for long periods and appeared emotional as he spoke at Thursday’s press conference, said he received an email Wednesday night from someone he’d grown up with that simply read, “Thank you, John.”
“That was important for me to get that affirmation that what we’re doing here is important for a number of people,” Mahoney said. “It has been stressful, but for me, today, I feel an awful lot of support from close family and friends and certainly from the bishop as well.”
Coyne said there are currently six people suing the diocese and, with the release of the list, he expects more survivors to come forward. Since 2002, the diocese has paid more than $31 million in settlements.
“If someone was abused, I want to give them the justice they’re due, and I’ve tried to do that since I’ve gotten here,” said Coyne, who noted the church has settled with every survivor who has come forward.
But, Coyne said, a Vermont law enacted in May that eliminates the statute of limitations for child sex abuse lawsuits “blows my mind” and “is taking away our rights to a just defense.” He said the diocese could challenge the law, known as Act 37, in court. The church “has no money” and no insurance to cover future claims, according to Coyne.
“If I settle 10, nine cases and I’m out of money, and somebody else comes forward — what do you do?” he said. “You just say, ‘I don’t have any money, I can’t do anything for you.’ And so we’re constantly behind the eight ball. I don’t want to go to litigation, but I think we’re getting to the point that we’re gonna have to.”
Read the full report, which includes information about the accused priests, below:
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The list please.
Of these 40 accused priests, 27 are dead. One was born in 1876 and died in 1955. He wasn’t accused until 1996 — 41 years after his death, with the accusation itself being 23 years ago. Another priest wasn’t accused until 30 years after his death and another one 21 years after. They obviously cannot challenge the accusations against them. The 13 living are mostly elderly, some extremely so. One of the living accused priests is 92. Another is 91. One living priest is on this list of “accuseds” even though the committee found no evidence that he abused anyone while he served in Vermont. Basically, few of these accuseds are in a position to challenge the accusations against them.
Hi @Walter Moses, The full list is in the report at the bottom of the story. It begins on page 4.
The only name I recognized was Leo Courcy. He was a priest at St. Anthony’s when I lived in the South End. They also ran the catholic school so I wouldn’t doubt if the nun’s from there were in on the abuse too! I went to that school for a year and they were total bitches!! I’m glad they got rid of the witches!! May they all rot in hell!!!!
“Basically, few of these accuseds are in a position to challenge the accusations against them.”
Are you seriously suggesting this get swept under the rug? Wow.
Life is not a Law & Order episode where everything is neatly wrapped up in an hour, counsel. Many sexual abuse victims sit on their secrets for years before revealing them for a variety of legitimate reasons. The involved work from this group of active community members deserves more respect.
There is NO reason to believe the catholic church’s ecumenical aiding and abetting child molestation, rape, and worse mysteriously began in the mid-1900s and magically ended around 2000. This organization is a criminal sexual predator and needs to be treated as such.
Imagine, if you will, this story had been about Planned Parenthood.
It boggles my mind that people still give money to the Catholic Church, a cesspool of depravity. It has been a den of greed and criminal activity since the beginning. It’s good to see countries like Ireland repudiate these lecherous and hypocritical money-hungry men.
I hope one day the US will also repudiate Catholicism and any other religions that espouse or excuse misogyny, bigotry, and child rape.
To paraphrase the bishop, “Since so many priests and other clergymen molested so many people, and we let them do it, we’re out of money! Guess we’ll have to take the victims to court!”
PENELOPE, That is one thing I forgot to mention. The priests always say in church they always need money. They always use the money for new cars and most of them are drunks so I Imagine they use it to buy alcohol and whatever else they want.The catholic church is nothing but a scam! The Protestant church doesn’t always beg for money and they are a much better religion.
“They always use the money for new cars” Always? Interesting! I didn’t know that!
“And most of them are drunks.” Really? Didn’t know that, either! Thanks for the info!
“The Protestant church doesn’t always beg for money and they are a much better religion.” Really? Guess I was all wrong about the Protestants Jim and Tammy Faye and the Plunder The Lambs Club! And Pat Robertson! And The 700 Club! And Jimmy Swaggart! And Jerry Falwell! I thought they all begged for money and promised to heal people! https://www.bing.com/search?q=televangelis… And those Protestant guys from the Westboro Baptist Church who protest at funerals sure seem nice! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Bap…
I find some of the general statements interesting. After reading this list I knew 4 of the priests listed while I was growing up. I never heard of the molestation but knew them through either some school functions or from different town events. I do not condone that.
As for the comments about having lots of new cars and being drunks, I think these are blanket stereotypical comments.
The 4 in the list that I knew and another Catholic Priest who taught me how to play tennis all drove second hand cars, not new ones. I also worked in the kitchen at a place they used to meet at every other month and 2 did not drink any alcohol, 2 would have a beer, and the other 1 I do not remember. But I do remember they did not drink very much at all. There were other patrons that would drink their paycheck every Friday night.