Catholic priest Paul David Ryan molested boys. A... -
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Published on: 5/31/1997
Last Visited: 10/6/2009
Broken Rites has researched the story of Father Paul David Ryan, a sexually abusive Australian Catholic priest who was transferred to the United States.
He targeted boys in both Australia and the USA.
Ryan has admitted guilt.
One of his Australian victims ended up committing suicide -- and this boy's mother has finally forced the church to apologise.
With the permission of his Australian superiors, Father Ryan made seven trips to the United States - and he ministered in parishes there.
In between these trips, his Australian superiors kept placing Father Ryan in various Australian parishes, giving him access to Australian victims.
In Australia, the church even promoted him to a higher rank in the priesthood.
Father Ryan's movements were revealed in an Australian criminal court case, held on 8 September 2006.
Ryan appeared in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court in the state of Victoria, aged 57.
He was jailed for at least a year after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting two altar boys in his parish house at Penshurst, a rural district in south-western Victoria.
Three incidents concerned one boy ("Drew") and two incidents concerned the other boy ("Anton").
These two were not Ryan's only victims.
These were merely the two who were chosen by the prosecutors for the purposes of this court case.
It is impossible to estimate the number of boys who were targeted by Ryan in both countries.
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Ryan was never prosecuted for the sexual offences against Peter.
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Typically, Ryan used to invite a boy to his parish house, where he would show him videos containing sex scenes.
He would offer alcohol (and, in the United States, marijuana) to the boy before undressing him and mauling him - in the lounge room or in bed or while the boy was having a bath.
Ryan's offences were facilitated by the fact that his status as a "celibate" priest placed him above suspicion in the Catholic community.
Unsuspecting parents would allow their son to have an overnight stay in Father Ryan's parish house, thinking that their son was in safe hands, but the victims were reluctant to report the assaults because they felt embarrassed or because they did not want to upset their parents or because they thought their complaints might not be believed.
The cover-up disrupted the adolescent development of these victims, and some had to undertake years of psychological counselling to repair the damage.
The inside story of this criminal priest
When Broken Rites began operating an Australia-wide telephone hotline in 1993, it soon began hearing mentions of Father Paul David Ryan in the Diocese of Ballarat.
This diocese covers the western half of the state of Victoria.
Broken Rites kept contact with some of these callers.
Eventually, in 2005, detectives from Victoria Police began investigating Ryan.
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Broken Rites can reveal now the full story of Father Ryan and the church's handling of this case.
Paul David Carl Ryan (born 12 September 1948) was originally from Adelaide, South Australia.
After working in his late teens, he began training for the priesthood at the Adelaide Catholic seminary (St Francis Xavier's seminary, conducted by the Vincentian Fathers) in 1969, aged 20.
In June 1971, half-way through third year, the Adelaide seminary asked Ryan to leave.
Meanwhile, Ryan became a close friend of prominent priest of the Melbourne archdiocese, Father Ronald Dennis Pickering, who had already been a priest for 20 years.
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In late 1971, Paul David Ryan moved to Victoria to take up a temporary teaching position in the Diocese of Ballarat.
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In October 1971, Ryan applied to Bishop Mulkearns to sponsor him as a Ballarat candidate for the priesthood at the Melbourne seminary (Corpus Christi College).
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On 28 May 1976, aged 27, Ryan was ordained in St Patrick's Cathedral, Ballarat.
In that very week, a Ballarat woman (Mrs M) contacted the diocese in distress, complaining that Ryan sexually abused her son ("Sid") at the Ballarat North parish.
After this abuse, she said, Sid had a breakdown and had to leave his university course.
The mother blamed Ryan for this and she threatened to "go to the newspapers" about Ryan if he was allowed to minister in parishes.
Despite Mrs M's complaint, the church took a tolerant attitude towards Ryan, hoping that he might mend his ways.
Sex in the seminary, 1972-6
After his ordination, like all seminarians, Ryan remained at the Melbourne seminary until the end of 1976 to complete his studies.
About October 1976, according to seminary correspondence, the seminary authorities learned that Father Ryan had been engaged in sexual relationships with about six trainee priests during his seminary course [more about this later].
At the end of 1976, having completed his seminary course, Paul Ryan was living with Fr Pickering, who was the parish priest at St Peter's parish at Clayton, in Melbourne.
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Ryan was to also to become a frequent visitor at a later parish of Pickering's, in Gardenvale, Melbourne.
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Ryan frequently carried out priestly duties in Pickering's parish, including conducting services.
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But where could they put Ryan?
According to seminary documents, the seminary arranged for him to see its consulting Catholic psychologist, Ronald Conway who, in turn referred Ryan to a Catholic psychiatrist, Dr Eric Seal.
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Seal supported a suggestion by Pickering that Ryan should have at least a year's "spiritual formation" in a religious community overseas.
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In January 1977, Fr Harvey was asked where Paul David Ryan could undergo "spiritual formation" in the United States.
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The Ballarat diocese was keen to place Ryan in the U.S. quickly because Ballarat usually made its parish appointments at this time (January) and some awkward questions could be asked if Ryan was not assigned to a parish or to further study.
Father Harvey suggested that Ryan could stay at a certain Catholic "spiritual center" in the state of Maryland.
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Harvey's letter suggested that, as well as "spiritual formation", Ryan should do "some form of work or study while here.
(This idea about Ryan working in the U.S. would eventually result in more sexual abuse - against U.S. victims.)
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The Melbourne seminary replied to Harvey (on 19 February 1977), stating that the sexual behaviour of Ryan and his fellow seminarians had included "mutual masturbation … but it seems certain that more serious acts occurred not infrequently".
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The letter said that Ryan was sexually active "even on the night of his ordination."
The Melbourne seminary's letter added: "As to how long homosexual acts have been occurring, I do not know.
A close friend of Paul's, Fr Ron Pickering, told me that some seven years ago he met Paul in Adelaide and the company he was mixing with at that time was definitely questionable . . . I know that during his stay at Ballarat incidents occurred.
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Ryan went to the U.S. in February 1977 for 15 months ( trip no. 1).
When he returned to Australia in June 1978, the Ballarat Diocese considered appointing him to one of its parishes but a senior priest pointed out that Mrs M (the above-mentioned mother of Ryan's victim "Sid" in 1975-6) might protest, thereby creating a public scandal for the church.
Ryan remained in Victoria, for the next 12 months and spent much of this time at Fr Ronald Pickering's new parish -- St James's parish in Gardenvale, Melbourne.
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Ryan used to bring boys to the Gardenvale parish house -- and so did Pickering.
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Ryan continued to visit the Melbourne seminary for several years, even in the 1980s, and acted as a mentor to younger seminarians.
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From June 1979 to April 1980, Paul Ryan was again in the U.S. ( trip no. 2) and did some theological studies there.
During these U.S. study trips, Ryan lived and ministered in parishes.
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One boy (" B") was in 7th and 8th Grade, aged 14, at the Star of the Sea Grade School when Ryan was there.
G stated that Ryan plied him with alcohol and marijuana and took the boy to bed, where he sexually abused him.
Two other boys (" M" and "R") stated that Ryan held "counselling" and "religious instruction" sessions with the two boys (when they were aged 14 to 15) and sexually abused them.
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Victim "B" wrote in a letter to his local diocese in 1995: "Although the general population of the church [at Star of the Sea parish] was shielded from knowing the specific details for Fr Ryan's removal, it was more or less common knowledge among certain known victims and their families."
Ryan's Australian super
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