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A core-area residence that’s been home to London’s Roman Catholic bishops for more than 90 years is being sold to provide compensation to victims of sexual abuse.The nine-bedroom home at 90 Central Ave., near Talbot Street, has been listed for sale at $850,000 since Dec. 14 and will remain on the market until sold, a spokesperson for the Diocese of London said yesterday.
“The proceeds from the sale will be tied to a fund that will be used for sexual abuse settlements,” Ron Pickersgill said.
He said Bishop Ronald Peter Fabbro decided to sell his home, where three priests also live, to help meet the diocese’s commitment to compensate persons abused by priests.
Fabbro is exploring options for his living quarters, including the possibility of living in a church rectory, Pickersgill said.
The Central Avenue property has been home to every Roman Catholic bishop in London since it was given to Bishop Michael Fallon as a gift in 1914, said Pickersgill.
Principal residents of the home have included bishops Gerald Emmett Carter, who became a cardinal, John Michael Sherlock and most recently, Fabbro.
The property has a history dating back to 1818, said Owen Price of Royal LePage Triland Realty, the listing agent.
“It was originally a farm property owned by John Kent, who settled in London,” said Price.
His son, Thomas Kent, a prosperous London businessperson, built the house in 1876 and it was known for years as Blackfriars, said Price.
It was sold in 1913 to a staunch Catholic, John Donnelly of Buffalo, who donated it to Fallon as a diocesan residence, he said.
The bishop added an extension to the front of the house, including pillars on stone pedestals and a large verandah.
The house is considered one of the finest examples of 19th-century Italianate architecture in London, Price said.
“It’s a house full of history, although it hasn’t been plaqued and officially designated” as an historic site, he said.
The 6,600-square-foot house has seven bathrooms, four fireplaces and large living and dining rooms.
“It’s a very big house that’s in need of some repairs,” said Price.
In recent years, the diocese has been hit with dozens of lawsuits from sexual abuse victims and the prospect of paying millions of dollars in compensation.
Fabbro has said publicly that church has to be committed to justice for the victims.
I for one am glad that sins this horrible are now out in the daylight. Not that the sins occured. When they are exposed they can be delt with. I’d advocate the old rite of deposition of a cleric, where the cleric dressed in the litugical garments proper to his office is brought into the Church, (Usually the Cathedral Church) and one by one the garments of his office are removed, rent, (torn) and discarded. In the case of a priest or bishop, the places he was anointed, (hands for the priest) hands, and forehead for the bishop) are scraped with a shard of glass to symbolically remove the oils they where anointed with. Then with the base of the bishop’s crosier they are prodded out of the Church to the waiting hands of the secular authorities to face trial and punishment.
To put things into perspective, as there have been many a protestant minister, jewish rabbi, judge, school teacher and others in positions of authority who have abused, adults and children, it is a misappropriation of authority, not a sexual compulsion, a power trip, not a proclivity. Here is a link to the Christian Science Monitor article about how prevalant the issue is in Protestant Chruches, and not just among their clergy. [url:20knk1oz]http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0405/p01s01-ussc.html[/url:20knk1oz]
In recent months, a local “Christian Minister” and his son where both accused and convicted of molesting little girls in their “Church”. They had in the past couple of years attempted to win converts from local Catholic Churches by saying it was a Catholic problem, and then ended up being bigger molesters of children themselves.
A core-area residence that’s been home to London’s Roman Catholic bishops for more than 90 years is being sold to provide compensation to victims of sexual abuse.
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