Parallels to the Church’s handling of accusations of sexual abuse cases too close for comfort

February 23, 2009 (Catholic Education, Catholic Schools)

What is it about institutions which feel compelled to reject and ostracize those who have the courage to speak to the truth of what is happening in their midst?

For anyone who has read Jason Berry and Gerald Renner’s Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II (Free Press, New York, 2004), and followed David Clohessy and his work at The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP, the case of James Arthur Black has a very disturbing ring to it.

The recent revelation that Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder and head of the Legionaires of Christ, had indeed fathered a child out of wedlock is vindication of the investigative reporting of Jason Berry, Renner and others. What sticks in one’s mind from Vows of Silence is the story of the rising priest of influence who as part of the team who vetted the appointment of new bishops, as Berry reveals, was at great personal cost in the cover-up of sexual abuse by Marcail Marciel and others.

John Paul II just wouldn’t believe it was possible. Today the Church in the United States has reached settlements reported to be in the 400 million to one billion range.

One of the reasons the College of Teachers was established is because the government of Ontario wanted to get out of the role of monitoring and revoking directly the certificates of teachers. This, more than any other reason, was why the College was created.

Until the claims by James Black, it had been my impression that the Ontario College of Teachers had done an excellent job of just that task. Its transparency versus the formerly very secret proceedings of the Government was a milestone in the disciplinary process of teachers in Ontario. In fact, I have argued with American Catholics that priests should have a similar institution to regulate themselves and to manage and discipline their own members rather than the all too secretive and centralized process now in place, one not unlike the Government of Ontario relinquished just a few short years ago.

To be forthright, James Black was a teacher with the Dryden Board of Education while I was its director of education. At no time was Black’s integrity and professionalism ever under question. Black was the kind of teacher who went beyond the 9-4 call of duty, providing for students extra-curricular pursuits of an academic nature, particularly those in the area of politics.

Jim, as he was more commonly known, did not hesitate to express his opinion and was well known for his activism within the teaching profession.  It was likely one of the reasons why his fellow Northern Ontario teachers elected him to sit on the OCT Council of Governors in 2002.

Like Allan Cutler at Canadians for Accountability, I would support a review by the incoming Registrar Michael Salvatori of the James Arthur Black case. I would however, go one step further. I would call upon Don Cattani, the Council chair, to institute a review of the case.

Like Black, Don Cattani too is a Northerner.  His career, however, has been with The Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board and its predecessor the Lakehead District Roman Catholic Separate School Board. Like Black, Cattani has not hesitated to speak out among his fellow teachers and it too is one of the reasons why he likely found himself elected to the Council.

I am sure Cattani is aware of and knows the case of James Black well, perhaps even very well.

Obviously, he has let the case against Black proceed. I would ask him, however, to recall an event back about 1983, when in an assembly of all of the teachers of the Thunder Bay Catholic Board, he forcefully argued for a course of action not being advocated by those leaders of OECTA who sat on the stage before us. When, eventually, additional information was revealed, Cattani was the only person who had the courage to rise and speak a second time among the many who had supported his position (and there were many), and say before the entire assembly that he had been wrong.

If it is not too late, it is that kind of courage that I would call upon Cattani to muster in this case and support a non-partisan review of the James Black case by Salvatori. With the example of his Church’s mishandling of too many cases involving pedophilia, it is an example he would not want to bring upon the College whose Board he now chairs.

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