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...

Previously
Anderson Cooper to Interview Thomas Roberts on Priest Abuse [tr]
Priest who Abused CNN's Thomas Roberts Given Lighter Sentence [tr]

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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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CNN Anchor Thomas Roberts expressed disappointment at a decision by Baltimore County Circuit Judge John G. Turnbull II to approve a request from Roman Catholic priest Jerome F. Toohey Jr. to serve out the final eight months of an 18-month prison sentence for sexual abuse in home detention rather than in prison.

Toohey pleaded guilty in 2005 to sexually abusing Roberts between 1987 and 1989 when Roberts was a student at Calvert Hall College High School, a Catholic school for boys. At that time, evidence from a previously dismissed suit by another former student, Michael Goles, was used to obtain a stricter sentence for Toohey. That sentence has all but been erased.

Said Roberts: "I was let down by a trusted system (the Roman Catholic church) years ago. I fear today that I will be let down again. This was a lenient sentence."

Goles expressed dismay at the recent decision: "Thomas and I don't get early release. We're stuck with life sentences for what we suffered."

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I've always held a special place in my heart for CNN anchor Thomas Roberts, so I was interested to read a report by Beantown Cuban from the annual National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association conference that was held in Miami this month.

If he hadn't made his sexuality known before, he reportedly let it all out in Miami, announcing that the conference was the "biggest step" he had taken to really being out in public, and that he had slowly been coming out at CNN over the years.

Beantown Cuban reports that Roberts (who caused a lot of "swooning in the hotel's hallways" - no doubt) said he was proud of his partner, and said something that might be taken as words of wisdom to one of his fellow anchors:

"When you hold something back, that's all everyone wants to know.''

Bravo to Roberts. And if you haven't tuned in to Headline News to see him, you'd best be touching that dial.

(thanks christine)

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