A new report released by the Michigan attorney general detailed the history of sexual abuse by priests in the Kalamazoo diocese.
Photo by Michigan Attorney General’s Office
It started out as a sleepover in the rectory at a Michigan Catholic church in 1981.
Boys, as young as 12 and 13 years old, were invited to stay overnight at the priest’s living quarters with the Rev. Dennis Boylan, a priest within the Diocese of Kalamazoo, one of the attendees recounted in 2006. They watched R-rated movies and sneaked sips of the church wine, he said, according to meeting notes. As bedtime approached, something was off.
Boylan had the young boys push the beds into his room, according to church meeting notes in 2006, and at least one boy was sexually abused as some slept in the same bed as Boylan.
The victim recalled shaking because he was so upset, so Boylan gave him “two pills to calm down,” according to the meeting notes. He said he later learned those pills were Valium, the notes say. Boylan died in 2018.
A new report released May 22 by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel details dozens of sexual abuse allegations dating back to 1971 within the Diocese of Kalamazoo. Two reports preceded this one, the Diocese of Marquette and the Diocese of Gaylord, and more reports are expected to come in the investigation, Nessel said in a news release.
The new report details accusations of sexual misconduct or abuse against 19 priests toward children and adults, according to the report.
At least 12 of those priests were either ordained or later became part of the diocese. The rest were part of others but had “ministered” in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Bishop Edward M. Lohse said during a May 22 news conference.
Of the 19 accused, 12 were accused of inappropriate sexual conduct with minors, five were accused of misconduct or abuse with adults, and two were accused of misconduct or abuse with both minors and adults, Lohse said.
“You were entrusted to our care, and we failed to protect you,” he said.
This years-long investigation spans multiple Catholic dioceses in Michigan. Since the investigation’s launch in 2018, the state has received more than 1,000 tips reporting sexual abuse, according to the news release. The report indicated 65 of those tips were concerning priests of Kalamazoo.
“The ugliness detailed in the attorney general’s report is not the whole of who we are, but it is a part and we must acknowledge that fact and own it so that it does not happen again,” Lohse said.
Decades of abuse
The entire investigation looks into instances of alleged sexual abuse and misconduct by priests from 1950 and on, but Kalamazoo’s diocese was not established until 1971.
Some of the 19 priests were accused of sexual misconduct or abuse while they were part of the diocese, while others had a history prior to joining.
In one instance, a priest with a known history of sexual misconduct was transferred to Kalamazoo despite having performed sex acts with a 16-year-old boy shortly after the priest was ordained in New York, according to the report.
The Rev. Thomas Francis Devita was suspended from Kalamazoo’s diocese when the United States bishops approved a Charter for the Protection of Minors and Young People, according to the report. This doctrine required that priests who had engaged in sexual misconduct be removed from their roles to the public.
Devita was suspended in 2002 but took a voluntary administrative leave in exchange for the suspension to be rescinded, according to the report. He died in 2013.
The report said the majority of the inappropriate conduct that may have violated Michigan law occurred prior to 2002.
The attorney general’s office said the department did not determine whether the allegations were credible, but Kalamazoo’s bishop said the diocese individually looked into cases.
There were 14 priests accused of sexual misconduct or abuse with minors, according to Lohse. He said the church’s review found the accusations against 10 of those priests to be credible.
Of the 24 allegations concerning sexual misconduct or abuse toward adults, Lohse said 22 of them were credible. Seven priests were accused of this in the report, according to Lohse.
While the church found many of these allegations to be credible, only two of the 19 priests accused faced criminal charges, according to the report.
Criminal charges
Eleven Catholic priests in Michigan were prosecuted. Nine of them faced sexual assault charges, one was convicted of rape, and another was convicted of attempted false imprisonment, according to a news release by the attorney general.
In Kalamazoo, two of the 19 priests accused faced criminal charges.
The Rev. Brian Stanley pleaded guilty to attempted false imprisonment in 2020 after he was accused of “immobilizing a teenage boy by wrapping him tightly in plastic wrap and using masking tape as additional binding to cover the child’s eyes and mouth, leaving him bound and alone in the janitor’s room for an extended period of time before returning and eventually letting him go in 2013,” according to the news release.
The Rev. Jacob Vellian was charged with two counts of rape in 2019, but he died in 2022 while awaiting extradition from India, the attorney general said.
“While this report and the criminal prosecution brought against these clergymen won’t erase survivors’ pain, I hope their brave decision to come forward brings them a measure of closure after what has been a long and arduous journey,” Nessel said in the release.
Due to the statute of limitations, criminal charges against the accused priests may not be possible, according to the report. The majority of the allegations made in the report occurred before 2002, and the statute of limitations prior to 2001 was six years after the incident or the day the victim turned 18.
“Where appropriate, criminal charges were brought,” according to the report. “For the vast majority of cases in all six Dioceses and the Archdiocese, a criminal prosecution has simply not been possible either because the priest who engaged in the sexual abuse of minors was dead, the (statute of limitations) had expired, the conduct did not violate Michigan law, or the person who was allegedly sexually abused by the priest did not wish to pursue criminal charges.”
Between 1950 and 2002, about 4% of Catholic priests were accused of sexual abuse, according to a landmark report published in 2006 by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Kalamazoo is about a 140-mile drive west of Detroit.