Rosica faces lawsuit for sexual abuse

A decades-old allegation of sexual abuse has left the priest accused and a bishop now under investigation by the Vatican for allegedly not taking the complaint seriously.

A lawsuit filed in March accuses Father Thomas Rosica, the national director of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, of sexually abusing a young priest in the run-up to the event, while Bishop Ronald Fabbro of London has come under fire for failing to act when he was informed of the allegations in 2015 or for failing to forward them to his religious order, the Congregation of Saint Basil (Basilians), according to online news agency The Pillar. Both men are members of the Basilians.

It has led to the withdrawal of Rosica’s faculties of priestly ministry. A faculty is an authorization by a church authority that allows a priest to teach, sanctify, or govern for the good of the Church. It is withdrawn pending the outcome of the process.

“It’s in legal hands and I can’t comment on it,” Rosica told OSV News on August 30 when asked about the case. Rosica’s attorney, J. David Murphy, also declined to comment to OSV News.

The lawsuit, in which the plaintiff is demanding a jury trial, seeks at least $3.7 million in damages plus court costs.

The plaintiff, a now 55-year-old priest referred to in the lawsuit as “MB,” also accuses Rosica’s order, the Basilian Fathers of Toronto, of being “vicariously responsible and liable for Rosica’s actions.”

The charges have yet to be proven in a court of law.

According to The Pillar, which broke the news on August 28, the suit alleges that Rosica developed a mentoring relationship with the plaintiff, who had recently been ordained at the time, in the 1990s. The priest was pursuing graduate studies at the time, The Pillar reports. The priest was also invited to help Rosica prepare for World Youth Day, which drew thousands of young Catholics to Toronto in the summer of 2002.

Rosica allegedly developed a close relationship with the young priest, one of “authority and trust,” the lawsuit alleges. This “allowed Rosica to be alone with the plaintiff and to exert control over him, abuse him, and sexually assault him.”

Rosica has denied any inappropriate conduct and has called on a judge to dismiss the lawsuit so the allegations can be heard in a canonical court. He has argued that the Ontario court has no jurisdiction in the dispute and that he and the plaintiff, as ordained priests and the alleged assaults occurring while they were “engaged in duties on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church,” mean that a canon court should hear the case.

In a separate defense statement, the Basilian Fathers of Toronto reiterated that argument, stating that “as an ordained priest, the plaintiff’s relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, including the Basilians, is governed by canon law and is entirely ecclesiastical in nature.”

The Basilian Fathers also argued that “the claimant has not had access to and has not exhausted the procedures of canon law relating to the claims alleged.”

Both Rosica and the Basilian Fathers invoked the legal doctrine of laches in their defense, arguing that the plaintiff had waited an unreasonably long time to bring forward his accusations.

However, the plaintiff stated in his claim that he had “only recently been able to deal with these effects” because he was “unable to continue due to the mental and psychological impact of the abuse, including severe addictions.”

The complaint was filed through the Canadian bishops’ system for reporting sexual abuse or cover-ups, The Pillar reported, adding that the complaint was forwarded to the Archdiocese of Toronto and is being processed by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops.

The Archdiocese of Toronto said it was aware of the allegations against Rosica, but noted that such matters involving a priest in a religious order are normally a matter for the order, in this case the Basilians, and the archdiocese would not impede that process. The London Diocese did not respond to a request from The Catholic Register.

Originally from Rochester, New York, Rosica has held a number of prominent positions within the Catholic Church and its entities. His career took off after WYD 2002. He founded and directed Salt+Light Television in 2003 and was appointed a consultant to the then Pontifical Council for Social Communications in 2009. In 2013, he was appointed Vatican spokesman ahead of the conclave that elected Pope Francis and has served as media advisor to two synods of bishops, in 2008 and 2018. Rosica also served as the English-language liaison to the Vatican summit on clergy sexual abuse in February 2019 and as the English-language media attaché to the Holy See Press Office.

Rosica ran into trouble in 2019 when he resigned from Salt+Light amid repeated accusations of plagiarism in his published works.

Fabbro has been Bishop of London since 2002 and was Superior General of the Basilians for the previous five years. Fabbro helped draft the Abuse Policy for Canadian Bishops for many years, which was adopted in September 2018. He has also been a leader in addressing abuse in the diocese in recent years following allegations of abuse and cover-ups dating back to the 1950s. In late 2019, the diocese confirmed that a list of priests credibly accused of abusing minors, released by SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) SW Ontario, was “substantially accurate.”

Fabbro met many survivors and their families and promised to support them on their journey.

(With files from OSV)