Victim of St. Kevin’s priest settles with Catholic diocese
Joseph Bonomi forced girl, 9, to act as lookout while he raped her sister
AWelland Catholic church that once harboured one of Niagara’s most notorious priests is at the centre of another decades-old scandal that has resulted in a legal settlement with the Niagara Catholic diocese.
A woman, who at the age of nine in 1974 was forced by then-priest Joseph Bonomi of St. Kevin’s church to act as a lookout while he raped her 14-year-old sister in his car, reached a settlement with Diocese of St. Catharines last month in a civil case.
The details of the settlement are not being disclosed — nor is the name of the victim, whose sister’s identity was sealed under court order during Bonomi’s 1998 trial for having sex with a minor — but her lawyer said the case shows the typical definition of an abuse victim is sometimes too narrow.
“So this is a case where a young girl is watching what is being done to her sister, and that definitely caused a great deal of mental health harm,” said Robert Talach, who has been representing victims of clergy abuse for more than 15 years. “It certainly alters how she understood what relationships are.”
Bonomi, who was convicted in 1998, raped the woman’s sister over a two-year period. Sometimes in his car and other times in the rectory of St. Kevin’s church on Niagara Street in Welland.
He did not serve any prison time after his conviction and received an 18-month community service sentence.
Bonomi got the teenaged girl he raped pregnant, and she later had an abortion.
Talach said Bonomi did not last long in the priesthood, leaving the church in 1979. He later married, had a daughter and opened a Thorold variety store.
He died in March 2012. Talach said his legal argument leaned heavily on understanding of the civil tort “assault and battery.” While battery is a physical attack on someone, courts have ruled that “assault” is the threat of harm by someone. So while the victim in this case was not physically assaulted, the psychological and emotional harm is real and long lasting.
Bonomi was not the only St. Kevin’s priest to sexually assault a child. The church is also where St. Catharines resident William O’Sullivan was sexually abused for three years in the 1980s by former priest Don Grecco — who has been criminally convicted for the sexual assault of at least six boys during his years as a priest.
O’Sullivan said he was also abused by another St. Kevin’s priest. The years of sexual assault sent him on a dark path that included drug abuse and prison time from which he has recently emerged as an advocate for victims of clergy abuse.
For the past 110 consecutive weeks, O’Sullivan has protested outside St. Kevin’s to raise awareness and give a voice to survivors, many of whom have difficulty coming forward.
“I cannot tell you the number of times people, victims of priests, have come up to talk to me and turns out I’m the first person they have ever spoken to about what happened to them,” O’Sullivan said.
O’Sullivan said he is not surprised another case is linked to St. Kevin’s.
“I will tell you what I have been saying for years. That place was a rape factory,” said O’Sullivan, who is also represented by Talach in a civil case against the diocese.
Talach said a single church can become the site of a cluster of sex abuse cases, particularly churches in ethnic communities.
“Somewhere along the line, the church figured out these were good places to put troublemaking priests,” he said. “In the case of St. Kevin’s I am not going to say if there was that kind of pattern there. I would need to take a much closer look at the church, its history and the community.”
The Diocese of St. Catharines did not immediately respond to an interview request Wednesday.
Talach said priests use their station to manipulate victims. For older victims, he said, the standing and authority of a priest is a powerful tool. But for a nine-year-old girl, too young to grasp the notion of deference to a community leader, a priest’s seeming supernatural powers are enough.
It can be difficult for survivors to seek help, O’Sullivan said. Recognition of what was done to them often happens in adulthood. Shame and fear often keep them as silent as a priest did during the years of abuse.
O’Sullivan said there are people and agencies survivors can turn to, including the police.