Raymond John Lahey (born 29 May 1940) is a Canadian former priest and bishop of the Catholic Church. He was Bishop of the Diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, from 2003 to 2009. Lahey was charged in 2009 with the importation of child adult movieography. He was suspended from the exercise of his priestly and sacramental functions, resigned as bishop in 2009, and was laicized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.

Contents

• 1 Education
• 2 Career
  • 2.1 Bishop
• 3 Academic contributions
• 4 Abuse scandal
• 5 Criminal charges and laicization
• 6 Notes
• 7 References
• 8 External links

Education

Lahey was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, on 29 May 1940. He attended St. Paul University at the University of Ottawa, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Theology in 1961, a Licentiate in Theology (L.Th.) in 1963 and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) (magna * laude) in 1966.

He was ordained on 13 June 1963.

Career

Lahey served in both clerical and academic positions first in Newfoundland and Labrador, and later in Nova Scotia. Evidence later emerged that the principal offender, Bishop Lahey may have *umed the role of a fixer during the 1989 sexual abuse scandal in St. John's archdiocese in Newfoundland, when he served under then-archbishop Alphonsus Liguori Penney.

• Administrator of Holy Cross Parish, Diocese of Grand Falls, Holyrood
• Pastor of St. Peter's Parish, Archdiocese of St. John's, Mount Pearl
• Vicar General of the Archdiocese of St. John's, St. John's
• *istant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's
• Proctor of St. John's College, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's
• *ociate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's
• Department Head, Department of Religious Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's
• Member of the Senate of Memorial University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's
• Member of the Provincial Religious Education Committee, Newfoundland and Labrador
• Served on two Roman Catholic school boards, Newfoundland and Labrador
• Served on the Belvedere Orphanage Trust, Newfoundland and Labrador
• Vice-Chairman of the Roman Catholic 200th Anniversary Committee, Newfoundland and Labrador (included preparations for the 1984 Papal Visit by Pope John Paul II to the province)

Bishop

• Named Bishop of the Diocese of St. George's on 8 July 1986 by Pope John Paul II. Consecrated on 3 August 1986 in Corner Brook.
• Named Bishop of Antigonish by John Paul on 5 April 2003. Installed there on 12 June 2003.
• Pope Benedict XVI accepted his resignation on 26 September 2009, after child adult movieography was discovered on his laptop.

Academic contributions

• author of studies and articles on theology and church history
• contributor to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography
• member of several scholarly boards, including the American Academy of Religion

Abuse scandal

Main article: Sexual abuse scandal in Antigonish diocese

In 1989, Fr. Kevin Molloy went to former St. John's archbishop Alphonsus Liguori Penney to report that a child had seen adult movieography at the home of Lahey. These allegations were recounted in 2009 when Bishop Lahey was subsequently arrested for separate allegations involving illicit adult movieography.

On 7 August 2009, Lahey announced that the Diocese of Antigonish had reached a $15 million settlement in a cl* action lawsuit filed by victims of sexual abuse by diocese priests dating to 1950. The settlement was approved by the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia on 10 September 2009. In 2012 the diocese satisfied its legal obligations to pay out $15 million to the victims of sexual abuse, after selling a large number of its properties, liquidating the bank accounts of many of its churches, and borrowing $6.5 million from private lenders.

Criminal charges and laicization

On 15 September 2009, Lahey returned to Canada from London with a p*port bearing visas from Thailand and other Asian countries.). At Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport, Canada Border Services Agency officers performed a random search of Lahey's laptop computer and allegedly uncovered "images . . . that were of concern." Lahey was allowed to continue his journey home to Nova Scotia, but the computer was seized. The Ottawa Police Service alleged that a later forensic examination revealed child adult movieography.

Lahey pleaded guilty to a charge of "possession of child adult movieography for the purpose of importation" on 4 May 2011. He requested imprisonment, surrendering his right to bail. That same day, the Holy See acknowledged the plea and announced that it would continue its own process "which will result in the imposition of the appropriate disciplinary or penal measures". On 4 January 2012, he was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment and 24 months of probation. Under Canadian law, time spent in pre-trial detention was credited at a two-to-one rate against a criminal sentence. Lahey’s eight months in pre-trial detention counted as 16 months against his 15-month sentence, and he was discharged on the same day.

On 16 May 2012, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops announced that Lahey had been laicized.

Notes

References

External links

• Notice of cl* action lawsuit settlement - September 10, 2009
• Letter from Archbishop Anthony Mancini to Diocese of Antigonish - September 26, 2009
• Letter from Bishop Raymond Lahey to Diocese of Antigonish - September 26, 2009
• Press release by Archbishop Anthony Mancini - September 30, 2009
• Press release by Archbishop Anthony Mancini - October 1, 2009

ResponsesGovernments

• Hughes Inquiry
• Ferns Report
• Ryan Commission
• McCoy Report
• McCullough Report
• Murphy Report
• Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report
• Royal Commission into Ins*utional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Activists

• Duplessis Orphans
• Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)
• Voice of the Faithful
• Barbara Blaine
• David Clohessy
• Richard Sipe
• Phil Saviano

Pre-modern

• Gregorian Reform
• Liber Gomorrhi*
• Katharina von Zimmern

Popular
culture

• Judgment (1990 film)
• The Boys of St. Vincent (1992 miniseries)
• Sex in a Cold Climate (1998 do*entary)
• States of Fear (1999 do*entary)
• Red Hot Catholic Love (2002 South Park episode)
• Suing the Pope (2002 do*entary)
• The Magdalene Sisters (2002 film)
• Cardinal Secrets (2002 do*entary)
• Song for a Raggy Boy (2004 film)
• Holy Water-Gate (2004 do*entary)
• Twist of Faith (2004 do*entary)
• Bad Education (2004 film)
• Our Fathers (2005 film)
• Sex Crimes and the Vatican (2006 do*entary)
• Deliver Us from Evil (2006 film)
• Hand of God (2006 do*entary)
• Doubt (2008 film)
• Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2012 do*entary)
• Secrets of the Vatican (2014 do*entary)
• Perfect Obedience (2014 film)
• Spotlight (2015 film)
• The Club (2015 film)
• The Keepers (2017 do*entary miniseries)
• By the Grace of God (2019 film)
• Tell No One (2019 do*entary)

Related

• Debate on the causes of clerical child abuse
• Clericalism
• *sexual clergy in the Catholic Church
• Anti-Catholicism
  • Criticism of the Catholic Church
  • In literature and media

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• :Catholicism portal