Sins of 1960s paedophile priest return to haunt Catholic Church

A Roman Catholic priest sexually molested 50 Kenyan boys in Nairobi, according to a new damning audit report released this week by the church’s child protection watchdog.

The report by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church also indicts church leadership for lack of “appropriate and robust response” to complaints of molestation filed against priests.

The audit established that one of its priests sexually abused the 50 Goan boys in the mid-to-late 1960s. However, when concerns were raised about the priest’s behaviour, the information was never communicated to the central leadership until specific questions were posed decades later — in 1997. Still, the response by the Catholic Church was wanting.

“This man was finally stepped aside in 1986, and he remained a member of the Society until 2002,” the report says. “He was dismissed from the clerical state at his own request, which was the only way in which this could happen while the Society was under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.”

The findings, which were released on Tuesday, are based on an audit of the conduct of Kiltegan Fathers (St Patrick’s Missionary Society) who are spread across Africa, South America and the Caribbean. 

The society says on its website that its basic task is to “reveal Jesus Christ and his gospel to those who do not know Him, throughout the world”.

“Our concern is for everyone, but especially for those whose lives are emptied by poverty, disease, famine or displacement,” it adds.

The report does not name the offending priest, but several victims have pointed accusing fingers at the late Fr Patrick Hannan.

He was an Irish priest who served as the headmaster of St Teresa’s Boys’ seconday school in Nairobi from 1950 to 1960 and as pastor of the Eastleigh parish from 1956 to 1969.

One of the victims, Mr Alex de Figueiredo, now a retired teacher, came out last year and narrated to Heraldo e-paper his ordeal in the hands of the priest as an 11-year-old boy in Kenya back in 1956.

He said he was first abused by Fr Hannan at St Teresa’s, adding that he knows several other victims who wish to remain anonymous.

Indeed, the audit report says the society has made contact with 34 of the Kenyan victims to date.

It points to logistical difficulty in identifying and tracing adults who might have been abused in childhood in locations where there are rudimentary communications technologies and where there may not be cultural acceptance and support for coming forward as a victim of clerical sexual abuse.

DECIDED TO SPEAK

Mr Figueiredo says he quit the church and tries to stay as far away from priests, adding that he decided to speak so that other victims can know that they too can find relief.

“I believe the story has to be told. I saw the hypocrisy in the church and I also saw how many especially Goans, adore their priests,” Mr Figueiredo told the paper.

“I felt that this had to be brought out in the open and not swept under the rug. It’s not uncommon for rape victims to feel that people will be pointing fingers at them. In some countries the victims are looked at as being the culprits.”

When he went for confession to Fr Hannan, the priest refused to listen to him telling him “we would have to stop what we do, and I cannot do that”.

When Mr Figueiredo sought help from another priest, Fr Cremmins, it was a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire as the priest gave him a severe penance and made life miserable for him.
The priest would always direct hard questions at Mr Figueiredo during Latin lessons and force him to stand throughout if he made a mistake.

This is not the first time Catholic priests in Kenya have been accused of abusing boys. Former MP Martin Shikuku’s son is suing the Catholic Church claiming that he was sexually abused by Mill Hill priests. 

Mr Emmanuel Shikuku, 45, has reportedly filed a case in the UK against six missionaries whom he says abused him between 1978 and 1994.

In 2011, renowned Catholic priest Renato Kizito recorded a statement with the police following allegations publicised by the media that he had molested boys in his care.

And in what shows the casualness at how the authorities deal with such complaints, the report published a letter where a leader of the St Patrick’s Missionary Society expressed regret to a priest at the fact that he had decided to leave and seek laicisation, despite the fact that the priest was a self-confessed abuser of boys while serving on the missions.

It warns: “The number of convictions by the courts, compared to the numbers accused of child abuse, is significantly small.”

The auditors want the church to ensure appropriate punishments are meted out on offending priests.