Relieved since June of the statute of limitations which prevented them from acting, two alleged victims who would have served as a sex toy for priests in the 1950s and 1960s decided to bring a class action against the diocese of Quebec.
In 1954, Gaétan Bégin was barely 13 years old when the parish priest, Rosaire Giguère, asked him to come and meet him at the presbytery to talk to him, he said, about the health of his mother who was precarious.
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“My father often said that Curé Giguère could work miracles. So, in my child’s head, I believed that if I made him happy, he would cure my mother, ”said the man, now 80 years old.
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Little by little, the braces turned into intimate caresses and then into complete sexual assault.
“When we have our childhood stolen, we cannot age in peace,” added the man with emotion.
Ten years ago, Pierre Bolduc, who was also said to have been the victim of a priest in the 1960s, denounced his alleged aggressor, the priest Jean-Marie Bégin.
However, the limitation period prevented him from continuing on a path that could have led him to appeasement.
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“On June 12, the Quebec government abolished this backward law. Out of respect for us, the victims, we ask Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix and the diocese of Quebec to show compassion by cooperating with the justice system in order to put an end to this interminable saga, ”he mentioned.
To carry out their fight, the two men enlisted the services of Me Marc Bellemare as well as those of Me Alain Arsenault, an expert in this type of remedy.
Large number
“For a victim who denounces, nine do not do it … With this remedy, which targets all people who have been sexually assaulted by members of the clergy since 1940, the anonymity of people will be respected”, underlined Me Arsenault by specifying that there could be thousands of victims.
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The collective action concerns “all people, as well as their heirs, who have been sexually assaulted by members of the clergy or lay pastoral staff under the responsibility of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Quebec and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Quebec between the 1is January 1940 and the judgment to be intervened ”.
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After having taken note of the demand for collective action, the Archdiocese of Quebec announced that its representatives had undertaken an “internal investigation” and that they would “collaborate with the justice system to shed light on these allegations” unwittingly. comment further “at this stage of the legal process”.
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