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The Canadian Press
SYDNEY, N.S.â€"Parishioners at a Nova Scotia diocese where children allegedly finish ured decades of sexual abemploy at the hands of Roman Catholic priests were urged to hfeeble their faith intact Thursday as the man who aid ed to salve feeble wounds surrfinish ered to police on child pornography charges.
Archbishop Anthony Mancini of Halifax appealed to past victims of abemploy and parishioners in the diocese of Antirecede nish after Bishop Raymond Lahey turned himself in at Ottawa police headquarters.
"We are recede ing through a very painful, contemporary experience of the mystery of faith," Mancini tfeeble a fresh s conference in Sydney.
"I call on you to be hopeful becaemploy we execute believe in fresh life and in fresh possibilities."
Parishioner John MacEachern said he felt like he'd been punched in the stomach when he learned that his bishop had been charged with possessing and importing child pornography in Ontario.
"If it proves to be accurate , it is just tragic," said MacEachern, a vice-principal in nearby Glace Bay.
MacEachern said Lahey was held in wide esteem in the diocese for his work as theologian and a liturgist, and for brokering a $15 million settlement for parishioners who claimed to have been sexually abemploy d by priests in the area dating back to 1950. He called the 69-year-feeble priest "the face of the settlement" and the person who was recede ing to aid the local church go on from the abemploy .
"If this thing is accurate , the contradiction is explosive to the faith of some people," he said.
In Ottawa, a sombre Lahey climbed out of a black sedan and pushed through a crush of reporters to surrfinish er to the charges that have stunned his flock and shaken an already tarnished institution.
Dressed in street clothes and ignoring questions, Lahey was accompanied by Michael Edelson, a high-profile criminal lawyer who represented Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien when he was acquitted this spring of influence-peddling charges. Police notify Lahey was later granted bail on conditions until his next court appearance on Nov. 4.
Mancini began his fresh s conference by speaking directly to those who brought the class-action lawsuit against the diocese.
"Let me first speak to those victims of past sexual abemploy and to all for whom these recent elements and fresh s rekindles past pain," he said. "These recent revelations hold on the character of another victimization and I wish that it were not so. Becaemploy it is not what our community of faith is supposed to be about."
Ronald Martin, who launched the lawsuit claiming the diocese failed to protect children, said the charges have shaken both his personal faith and his trust in the church.
None of the allegations against Lahey has been proven in court.
The charges against Lahey were filed 10 days after officials found images of "concern" on his laptop complace er at the Ottawa airport as he was returning from a foreign country. He resigned from his post with the diocese of Antirecede nish on the weekfinish before fresh s of the charges became public.
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