One way or another, the lives and careers of Fr. Thomas Rosica and Fr. Michael Bechard have been entwined for nearly 30 years. The two priests are now locked in a civil case that may prove to be the final nail in the coffin of what was, up until five years ago, an illustrious ecclesiastical career.
In 1997, Rosica was 38 years old and on the cusp of a rapid evolution from small to big fish in the Catholic media pond. Bechard, 10 years younger, was a newly ordained priest for the Diocese of London, the neighbouring diocese to Toronto where Rosica was chaplain at the University of Toronto’s Newman Centre.
Even before Rosica hit the big time, Bechard says the Basilian priest was seen as a model to younger priests.
“It was obvious that Tom had the endorsement of our bishop (John Michael Sherlock),” Bechard told The Catholic Register.
It wasn’t just the validation of the hierarchy that prompted Bechard to look up to the older priest. Bechard was impressed by his Scriptural knowledge and erudition. Rosica, he felt, “was embodying the values I assumed priests embodied.”
The relationship that developed between Bechard and Rosica is now before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. In March 2024, Bechard launched a $3,650,000 civil suit against Rosica and the Basilian Fathers. Bechard, in the substance of the suit, alleges he was groomed by Rosica, that his order knew “or ought to have known that he was vulnerable to the attentions and influence of Rosica,” and that in the summer of 2000, the older priest made uninvited advances and sexually assaulted him on three separate occasions.
In a countersuit, Rosica rejects any claim 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.”
The two men tell a very different tale, and the courts have been asked to arbitrate a “he said-he said” situation. Or, more accurately, a “he said-he can’t say.” While Bechard has gone public with his depiction, Rosica is effectively in silent orders.
“I can’t say anything. We trust in the justice system and in God,” he told the Register while acknowledging he has legal counsel acting to contest the claims.
Bechard says Rosica first invited him to spend time at the Newman Centre. According to the suit, “Rosica thereafter began to spend more and more time with the Plaintiff under the guise of the role of a senior priest.”
Bechard told the Register there was an all-expenses’ paid trip to Ireland in 1997 with “two other young men and someone that worked at the Newman Center.”
After Bechard returned to Canada in 2000 from the University of Notre Dame upon completion of an MA in theology, he was brought on to the World Youth Day team by Rosica. It’s there he alleges the assaults took place.
It was, he says, the night before the two men were to travel to Ottawa to meet with Jean and Aline Chrétien when one of the incidents — “heavy groping” — took place.
“The next day Tom said, ‘I want you to come and work with me in Toronto on World Youth Day.’ I told him that I had been assigned to chaplaincy in London. He said, ‘I can really make your career go places.’ I thought, it’s not a career, and I don’t want to go anywhere. I just want to serve God’s people.”
The Register stresses that while Bechard’s allegations form the substance of his lawsuit, they have not been proven in court and involve a civil claim for financial damages, not a criminal matter.
Even though Bechard stepped back from Rosica and his purported offer to “make his career go places,” Bechard’s priestly experience echoes the career of his more famous one-time mentor. Like Rosica, Bechard was long involved in campus ministry. He was director of Campus Ministry at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario for 20 years. Like Rosica, he became a familiar face on Canadian television screens as a regular guest on CTV’s Canada AM. In 2022, he accompanied presenter Lisa Laflamme in CTV’s cross-country coverage of Pope Francis’s visit to Canada.
Asked why it took him over 20 years to file suit, Bechard cites several factors. He says following the alleged abuse, he became addicted to alcohol and benzodiazepines. Recovery took time. By the time Bechard felt he was ready, Rosica was at the height of his influence and power.
“I had a lot of fear and anxiety about coming forward because of Tom’s power in the Church. My thought was, ‘who’s ever going to believe me, this young kid from the Diocese of London when there’s this guy who’s translating for the Holy Father?’ I think the power differential and Tom’s ability to move through those circles meant he felt he would be protected and none of us would ever come forward.”
Asked to clarify the phrase “none of us,” Bechard confirms he is in contact with other men he says experienced behaviour similar to what he alleges in the lawsuit. He is unaware if any of them plan to launch legal actions. The Register has not yet been able to confirm there are others with complaints.
“I do think that people are waiting to see what happens here,” Bechard says.
The elapsed time between the alleged incidents and the suit runs parallel with the rise and fall of Fr. Thomas Rosica.
If there is such a thing as an “it-priest,” Rosica was “it.” In terms of profile, think Bishop Barron or Fr. Mike Schmitz, albeit on a Canadian scale and before the widespread use of social media.
After years combining successful campus ministry at the Newman Centre with academic contributions at St. Michael’s College and St. Peter’s Seminary, London, Rosica was appointed CEO of World Youth Day Toronto in 1999. The success led to a 16-year reign at Salt + Light Media Foundation as founding CEO. Those accomplishments led to media work at the Vatican. Rosica spent nearly six years as the face of English communications at the Holy See.
But in 2019, he was shown to have a lengthy history of plagiarism. He left his position at Salt + Light, and was removed from various academic and honorary posts. Bechard says he was moved to file suit in late 2023 when he perceived Rosica beginning to be invited again to lead retreats and lecture in his diocese.
“I thought that after the plagiarism scandal Tom would have drifted off. When we received an email in our diocese from our bishop that indicated Tom was coming to do two weeks of priestly formation in April 2024, I thought: ‘I can’t remain silent anymore.’ ”
In addition to the lawsuit, Bechard brought forth a second legal action. In February 2024, he launched a Vos estis complaint against London Bishop Ronald Fabbro.
Bechard says that while he was serving as director of liturgy for the diocese, and seeing that Rosica was continuing to receive speaking invitations, he mentioned his experience to Fabbro. He told Fabbro he thought it inappropriate for Rosica to be invited to teach there.
“I would hope that when a priest comes to his bishop with this sort of a concern, the bishop isn’t going to deflect or defer. In my case, Bishop Fabbro said, ‘I’m unaware of this and I need to go to another meeting.’ That was the end of the conversation.”
A spokesperson for the Diocese of London told an American media outlet that “a diocesan priest did inform Bishop Fabbro of alleged misconduct by Fr. Rosica that had taken place years earlier. The bishop advised the diocesan priest that the correct course of action was to contact the Congregation of St. Basil so they could begin an investigation.”
Bechard said he had “no recollection of Bishop Fabbro instructing me at any time to contact the Basilians.” Complicating the matter is that Fabbro is a Basilian who served as General Superior of the Congregation of St. Basil.
A 2019 Vatican directive initiated a discrete canonical procedure for the investigation of bishops who commit sexual crimes or are complicit in the cover-up of sexual crimes. In 2021, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), established a confidential hotline and an online portal for reporting bishops “whose actions or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil investigations or canonical investigations regarding sexual abuse.”
Bechard acted anonymously at first. In the civil suit, he is identified merely by his initials.
“My hope in the beginning was to settle all this without a lot of public notoriety,” he said.
“My intention was never to bring shame or turmoil to the Church, the Basilians or anyone. I (wanted) to make sure those that failed to act are held accountable, and that Fr. Rosica was never placed in a position where he could do this to others.”
Bechard hopes the process will lead to more attention being paid to the issue of abuse of priests by other priests.
“We don’t often talk about grooming or abuse taking place within the clergy, but I think we’re becoming more aware of not only how people exploit their power for prestige or office of the Church, but how they often exploit their power for sexual favours.”