Vatican Defrocks Priest Who Abused Thomas Roberts, Others

Fifteen years after being convicted of sexually abusing three boys while chaplain at Calvert Hall and John Carroll high schools in Baltimore, Father Jeff Toohey has been defrocked following an order from the Vatican.

WJZ reports: "The Pope's decision means Toohey is permanently severed from the priesthood...Baltimore's new archbishop declined on-camera interviews but released a statement apologizing to sexual abuse victims at the hands of priests. Archbishop Edwin O'Brien reiterated the archdiocese's commitment to protecting children and helping to heal victims of abuse. He says, 'We are deeply sorry for the pain suffered by survivors of abuse due to the actions of clergy.' Toohey's defrocking is effective immediately. Church observers expect more announcements involving priests in the US, Ireland and Australia."

In March 2007, Roberts spoke candidly with Anderson Cooper about the abuse in a special report:

"It's probably the worst place you can be in your life. Because there's so much shame that goes along with this. There's secrecy. There's shame. There's self-hatred, self-doubt. Uh, every mixed up emotion you can have that you don't feel you can talk to anybody. It was the most twisted and turned-around environment that I could have ever have been in and coming from a place of struggle as a child and into a young boy. It was a prison. I mean it was like backing me into a corner with nowhere to go. I was robbed here. Of my self-respect, of my own image. You know part of my soul even. This place paralyzed me thinking I would die with this secret. I would die with this secret."

In December 2006, Toohey requested and received a lighter sentence for his sexual abuse conviction when a judge allowed him to to serve out the final eight months of an 18-month prison sentence for sexual abuse in home detention rather than in prison.

Roberts' follow-up interview to the special report with Cooper on AC360, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Anderson Cooper's report on Thomas Roberts' sexual abuse at the hands of a gay priest had one glaring omission: "While it was unquestionably courageous for the man to speak so candidly about his sexual abuse at the hand of the family priest as a teenager, there seemed to be a glaring absence in the discussion: namely, about how Roberts, as an out gay man, has been affected by the abuse as a grown, sexualized adult...the fact that Roberts is an openly gay man and was the victim of an ongoing sexual assault by another man (and the fact that the other victim, Goles, is also gay) can very easily lead to a cause-effect conclusion in the minds of viewers (i.e., if you are molested by a priest, you will be gay; if you are a gay adult, it is likely because your sexual development was interrupted by same-sex abuse). This interview would have been a fantastic opportunity to address these misconceptions (which are already rampant) and put them to rest."

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Thomas Roberts to open up to Anderson Cooper about sexual abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest: "My abuser was Father Jeff Toohey, a trusted man of God. He was the equivalent of a religious celebrity in my private all-boys Catholic school in Baltimore, Maryland. Father Jeff was every boy's friend and mentor. I considered him my mentor as well. When my parents divorced, I was sent to Father Jeff to help me cope with all the changes. Divorce in the mid-1980s still seemed so foreign. Plus, I was just a kid, and I didn't know much about divorce. I just knew it sucked. All I had at that time in my life was my family and school. Those were my constants. But as my family fell apart, so did my life at school. After the abuse began, high school became a prison of shame and lies."

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Anderson Cooper to Interview Thomas Roberts on Priest Abuse

Anderson Cooper will speak with openly gay fellow CNN newsman Thomas Roberts this Monday, March 12th at 10:30 in an AC360 piece entitled "Sins of the Father" in which Roberts will discuss the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest between 1987 and 1989 when he was a student at Calvert Hall College High School, a Catholic school for boys.

Roberts, who came out of the closet publicly last year at a National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association conference in Miami, expressed disappointment in December about a judge's decision to give Roman Catholic priest Jerome F. Toohey Jr., a more lenient sentence. Here are a few excerpts from the show:

Roberts on the abuse:

"It's probably the worst place you can be in your life. Because there's so much shame that goes along with this. There's secrecy. There's shame. There's self-hatred, self-doubt. Uh, every mixed up emotion you can have that you don't feel you can talk to anybody. It was the most twisted and turned-around environment that I could have ever have been in and coming from a place of struggle as a child and into a young boy. It was a prison. I mean it was like backing me into a corner with nowhere to go. I was robbed here. Of my self-respect, of my own image. You know part of my soul even. This place paralyzed me thinking I would die with this secret. I would die with this secret."

Roberts on the judicial system:

"I don't know how to define justice in this. What's justice? I mean, what . . . do I get early release from this? No. You don't get early release from knowing what happened to you. Do you get early release from the shame and the secrets and the lies and the cover-up and all of that? You just don't. You just have to deal with the fact that that was your life. You did it, you had to put up with it to survive, and it'll be your story for the rest of your life. No early release from this story."

No word on whether or not Anderson will ask him the question no doubt many would like to hear: how has coming out of the closet affected your news anchor career?

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