Well-known media figure Fr. Thomas Rosica has been accused of sexually assaulting a younger priest during the lead up to the Church’s 2002 World Youth Day in Toronto, Canada.
Rosica has denied any “improper conduct” with the priest, and urged a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him, so that allegations can be addressed in a canonical court. Rosica’s faculties for priestly ministry were withdrawn in March, after the alleged victim filed suit against him.
Rosica was the principal organizer of the 2002 World Youth Day, a Vatican advisor and media attaché, and was a fixture in Catholic media and television for nearly two decades, before his prominence was stalled by 2019 reports of widespread plagiarism. The priest was also a high-profile participant in the Vatican’s 2019 global abuse summit, convened by Pope Francis, where he urged that the problem of clerical sexual abuse not be “ignored.”
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According to a lawsuit filed in March in the Canadian province of Ontario, Rosica developed a mentoring relationship with a newly ordained Canadian priest in the late 1990s, while the priest was in graduate studies. Rosica also invited the young priest to assist in preparations for the 2002 World Youth Day, for which Rosica had been appointed chief executive officer.
The lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by The Pillar, does not identify the plaintiff-priest by name; use of a pseudonym in such suits is permitted in Canadian law. The plaintiff-priest, whose identity is known to The Pillar, declined to answer questions about the case.
When they first met, the young priest “was impressed with Rosica who was influential, well-connected, and internationally recognized within the Roman Catholic Church,” according to the lawsuit.
The complaint alleges that Rosica developed a “close personal relationship” of “authority and trust” with the young priest, “under the guise of the role of a senior priest” giving guidance to the newly ordained priest.
That relationship “allowed Rosica an opportunity to be alone with the Plaintiff and to exert total control over him, prey upon him and sexually abuse him,” the lawsuit charged.
The suit alleges that Rosica initially “made unwanted physical contact with the Plaintiff, including long hugs and touching the Plaintiff’s body and arms.”
But in the summer of 2000, and over the next several months, the suit charges, Rosica exposed himself to the young priest, and repeatedly “groped and fondled” the young priest’s genitalia.
“Rosica facilitated the abuse under the guise of his role as teacher, priest, and guidance counselor, and further with a view of implicitly or explicitly helping the Plaintiff’s career within the Church in return for Rosica’s sexual advances,” the suit charges.
The older priest “used his position of authority and trust, as well as the dependency relationship that he had fostered with the Plaintiff, to ensure that the Plaintiff did not tell anyone about the behaviors they had engaged in,” the lawsuit adds.
Rosica’s attorney told The Pillar Aug. 28 that he was not able to comment on the allegations against his client.
But in a response filed in an Ontario court, Rosica denied “that he had a close personal relationship with the Plaintiff in any capacity, and denies he had any control or influence over him, or that he preyed upon him or sexually abused him.”
Instead, Rosica’s response claimed that he had “infrequent ministerial contact with the Plaintiff between 1996 and 2002, but denies sexually abusing or sexually assaulting or making unwanted physical contact or engaging in any improper conduct with the Plaintiff.”
Rosica asked the court to dismiss the case against him, arguing that “this matter is governed by the Codes of Canon Law,” and should be adjudicated in a canonical context.
“Fr. Rosica pleads the Court has no jurisdiction over the subject matter of this dispute as the Plaintiff and Fr. Rosica are ordained priests and the alleged assaults occurred while they were engaged in duties on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. Any such complaints or allegations would be governed by Canon Law. The court should defer to the ecclesiastical court and its application of Canon Law.”
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The plaintiff’s lawsuit also charges that Rosica’s religious order, the Congregation of St. Basil, failed to properly supervise Rosica, and ignored issues which arose when he was a seminarian, and during his priesthood.
The suit alleged that the order knew Rosica had been accused of acting inappropriately with other young men, before his alleged relationship with the plaintiff.
It charged that in some of Rosica’s assignments, the priest had been the subject of complaints “about his actions with young males,” and that the order “took no steps to stop the behaviour or to protect the Plaintiff, and instead, took steps to attempt to cover-up the behaviour.”
“The Basilians knew or ought to have known that Rosica had engaged in deviant behaviour and failed to investigate such. In failing to investigate and identify any past failings of Rosica, they also failed to identify any victims who may have been in need of counseling, assistance and support because of the actions of the Rosica,” the lawsuit charged.
According to the lawsuit, the priest-plaintiff suffered difficulty in relationships, difficulties with mental health, and difficulties in his priestly vocation, because of Rosica’s alleged sexual assault.
For its part, the Basilian order is also likely to petition a judge that the case should be resolved in a canonical forum, according to sources close to the case.
An attorney for the order has not yet responded to The Pillar’s request for comment.
But in March, the order removed Rosica’s faculties for priestly ministry, according to documents reviewed by The Pillar.
Despite that, Rosica was listed as the facilitator of a “Walking with Francis” retreat at a Jesuit-owned retreat in July, and is advertised to lead another such retreat in January, at which he will “lead us each day with conferences, group reflections, Eucharistic Celebrations, and opportunities for individual Spiritual Direction.”
The priest is also scheduled to offer an Advent retreat at the same retreat center in November.
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Rosica, 65, was ordained a priest in 1986, and rose to prominence when he was the principal organizer of Toronto’s World Youth Day in 2002.
In 2003, Rosica helped launch Salt+Light Television, a Toronto-based Catholic television network. The priest was appointed in 2009 a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, and in 2013 a Vatican spokesman ahead of the conclave which elected Pope Francis, and was a media advisor during 2008 and 2018 Synods of Bishops at the Vatican.
Rosica was also a participant in the Vatican’s February 2019 global summit on clerical sexual abuse, which was convened by Pope Francis in the wake of the 2018 Theodore McCarrick scandal.
“We’ve watched one country after another face [clerical abuse scandals],” Rosica told reporters at the start of that summit. “And more countries to come. This is now at the highest level of the Church. This is at the universal level. Nobody can ignore this right now.”
In the same month, Rosica praised an archbishop appointed by the Vatican to “eliminate the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by clergy and its cover-up by bishops and heads of religious orders.”
In 2019, Rosica resigned his leadership position at Salt+Light, and several university board positions, amid widespread indications that he had serially committed plagiarism in his published works.
Rosica said that he had been neither “prudent nor vigilant with several of the texts that have surfaced,” and said that the apparent plagiarism had been a “lack of oversight.”
“If there was an error on my part, it is that I have often relied on others who have generously helped me in my preparation of various texts and I did not do the necessary checking into sources, etc. I regret that. It was never wilfully done,” Rosica said in a February 2019 statement.
Since the 2018 Theodore McCarrick scandals, advocates have called for the Church to give more attention to the prospect of the sexual abuse, coercion, and assault of adults within the Church, especially that perpetrated by clergy. Pope Francis himself has frequently recognized the problem, and urged that solutions be found to address it.
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