Thomas A. Kane

February 22, 2002

Priest in abuse suit sold condos before claiming bankruptcy

Author: ROBIN WASHINGTON, Boston Herald

A Worcester Diocese priest now running a language school in Mexico sold off property holdings to a monsignor and a longtime companion shortly before being named in two child molestation suits and filing bankruptcy, real estate records show.

The Rev. Thomas A. Kane, who ran the now-defunct House of Affirmation for troubled priests in Whitinsville before being sued himself for child molestation in 1993, sold property in Florida and the Back Bay in transactions recorded in 1992 and 1994, records show.

The revelations about Kane, to whom church officials have acknowledged sending regular payment, follow the diocese's removal Wednesday of the Rev. John J. Bagley from St. Mary's in Grafton and criticism of its support for the Rev. Peter Inzerillo of St. Leo's in Leominster, despite at least two allegations of sexual misconduct.

The diocese is also struggling to decide how it will comply with a request by Worcester County District Attorney John Conte for the names of all priests accused of sexual misconduct, and their alleged victims.

"There still is discussion as to the specifics of what he's looking for," diocese spokesman Ray Delisle said yesterday, adding that church lawyers are asking the DA for a "clarification."

Of Kane, Delisle said the payments, labeled a "benefice" and intended for indigent priests, would be suspended.

"At this stage, because of what's been uncovered, the bishop is asking for qualification as for the need for this benefice," he said.
Kane did not respond to e-mail requests for an interview from his home in Guadalajara, Mexico.

According to a real estate transaction dated May 18, 1992, Kane sold an Oakland Park, Fla., condo previously valued at $30,200 to Monsignor Brendan Riordan, of Long Island, N.Y., for $18,000.

A second record shows Kane's sale of a Back Bay condo on Dartmouth Street to longtime business associate and roommate Babak Bagheral for $70,000 on Jan. 21, 1994, six months before Kane initiated bankruptcy proceedings in which he listed Bagheral as a creditor.

Neither Bagheral, who now runs the Boston branch of Kane's Worldwide Teachers Development Institute, nor Riordan, pastor of St. Aloysius in Great Neck, N. Y., could be reached for comment on the sales, which multiple sources called the tip of the iceberg in the suspended priest's attempts to hide millions in property holdings.
A Westboro priest critical of the church's handling of sex abusers in its ranks called the Kane saga another sad chapter in the troubled diocese.
"It doesn't surprise me," said the Rev. Steven M. LaBaire of St. Luke the Evangelist Church, who in 1996 gave a deposition about a sex abuse charge by an adult against Inzerillo that he said the diocese failed to act upon.

"There was no follow-up at all. It was very clear that they didn't want to have anything to with it," he said of the deposition, in which he said the diocese's lawyer was so hostile that a judge barred him from further participating in the case.

The accusation, the second one against Inzerillo, followed a suit filed in 1994 by Edward Gagne of Spencer claiming that he was sexually abused by the priest when he was sent to him to talk about entering the seminary.

Gagne also claimed the Rev. Brendan O'Donoghue, then pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary in Spencer, molested him as a minor six years earlier.

Gagne, who settled the suit for $300,000 in 1999, signed a confidentiality agreement but said yesterday he cannot in good conscience remain silent about the case.
"I was told that this is a standard practice with these cases, especially when there's a settlement involved. Yet it makes it almost impossible to come back in the future and say, `Wait a minute. I discovered there's another crime here,' " he said.

Delisle said there is nothing to prevent alleged victims who settle from filing criminal charges, however.
"We make people aware of their right to take these cases to the authorities. We would cooperate fully with the DA's office if they want to go to them," he said.
But, he added, "A lot of victims do not want to pursue this and don't want their names out there."

Though Delisle said O'Donoghue is no longer in active service with "no priestly duties whatever," he said the diocese is satisfied with keeping Inzerillo at the Leominster parish.

"He is still a priest of the diocese and was reassigned to a parish because there was no finding against him," he said.
Bagley, the Grafton pastor and a former Vatican official, was placed on administrative leave Wednesday after Worcester Bishop Daniel P. Reilly learned of an allegation against him of sexual misconduct with a minor in 1967, Delisle said.

LaBaire questioned the inconsistency of diocese officials who would remove one priest from service but retain another one similarly accused.

"There are so many of these cases. You have to ask yourself could this have had a different outcome if it had been dealt with forthrightly years ago," he said.
"There are abusers in every profession but what is very troubling is that the church has couched this, hid it and covered up for the sake of appearances. This is a sad day of reckoning."

Robin Washington may be reached at rwashington@bostonherald.com

April 24, 1993

Bishop Places Rev. Kane on Leave; Priest Subject of Claim of Sex Abuse

by George B. Griffin; Telegram & Gazette Staff

The Rev. Thomas A. Kane, associate pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Gardner, has been placed on indefinite leave in the wake of allegations that he sexually assaulted a 9-year-old boy.

The allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston on behalf of Mark D. Barry, 34, of Uxbridge.

The suit alleges that Kane assaulted Barry off and on for 11 years, beginning in 1968 when Barry was a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Uxbridge.

Barry said in an interview that he hoped one day to be able to forgive Kane. That forgiveness, he said, would begin to heal his psychological wounds.

"I have to heal," Barry said. "That's God's will. I have to put this behind me if it takes a jury trial three years from now."

Barry alleges he was forced by Kane to perform a number of sexual acts at St. Mary's Church and the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville, a psychological treatment center for the religious that Kane co-founded and directed.

Kane was not at Sacred Heart Church or its rectory yesterday and did not return phone calls to the Telegram & Gazette.

DENIES ALLEGATIONS

Bishop Timothy J. Harrington said in a written statement that the allegations "are a cause of great sadness to me and the people of this diocese."

"When the allegations of Mark Barry against Father Thomas Kane were brought to the attention of diocesan officials, that very afternoon those officials and another member of my staff met with Father Kane," Harrington said. "Father Kane categorically and emphatically denied all the charges.

"Now that those allegations are the subject of public judicial investigation, Father Kane will be granted administrative leave until the matter is resolved."

Barry said the lawsuit was his way of regaining a measure of control over his life.

He said the childhood sexual abuse had left him unable to find a way out of his situation. By the time he was a teen-ager, he said, he was so confused and conditioned to the abuse that he could not stop it. He said he was already on his way to becoming an alcoholic and a drug abuser and was developing the out-of-control behavior that eventually would land him in jail.

PARENTS' TRUST

Now, after months of psychotherapy and sobriety, he said he believes he is on his way to turning things around.

"I am taking my life back," he said. "I've carried this secret for years. But secrets kill. My lawsuit is not an accusation. It's my life."

Barry was an altar boy at St. Mary's and attended the church's school. The abuse began, Barry said, at a time when Kane visited the church regularly to assist with a variety of its functions.

Barry said Kane ingratiated himself to his family, earned the trust of his parents and eventually got their permission to take him on outings, some of which lasted the weekend.

"It started with us taking day trips," he said. "He'd take me to lunch, or to ball games."

Barry said that in the summer of 1968, Kane took him to a cottage in Upton, where he was sexually abused. That incident was the first of dozens of sexual encounters that occurred at the House of Affirmation, at the church and elsewhere, he said. He said Kane plied him with liquor and gave him expensive gifts and money.

BIZARRE STORY

As he grew older, he said, the abuse became more bizarre and the gifts and money larger. Barry said he was was taken to rural retreats, where he was held out by Kane for sex with other priests.

Barry said that Kane also enjoyed voyeurism and offered Barry money to engage in sex with other men while Kane watched, and sometimes took photographs.

As time wore on, Barry said, he felt himself more and more trapped in the relationship.

"At some point, I guess, I felt I owed him," Barry said. "I was eventually living in a house he owned in Vermont and he co-signed for a car I had."

Kane, according to the Manchester, Vt., town clerk, sold a house there in January 1991.

LEADER TO FELON

Barry said he became so out of control as a teen-ager that he went from being class president to being a felon. He served a year in prison for illegal possession of a handgun, and has been arrested on other charges, including larceny by check and breaking and entering. He was charged with assault with intent to rape, but that charge was dropped when a Worcester County grand jury found no evidence to support an indictment.

Barry said his marriage deteriorated and eventually ended in divorce; his drinking and drug use escalated.

"My son's in school now," he said. "And when I look at him and I think of this stuff, I don't know what direction my life might have taken. I had dreams of being an attorney, of doing something. Kane stopped my life at 10 years old. I'm 34 years old now and don't know how long it's going to take me to heal.

"I don't have kid memories. I don't have any boy-meets-girl puppy love kind of memories. My sexual development came at the hands of Kane."

Barry said the abuse has left him struggling with depression and a sense of isolation. He said he believes that eventually, he will be able to overcome these problems.

"Most important of all, I want people to know that whatever you're holding inside, whatever secret or fear, if you take the opportunity to take the situation you found unbearable and unmanageable and tell it to one other person you can trust, then it becomes bearable," he said. "The Catholic Church is an institution, it's a man-made authority. There's one ultimate authority that we have to remember - that's God. He saved my life. My faith is in God. I have no faith in the Catholic Church."

Sunday, June 21, 1992

5 years later, Rev. T. Kane teaches ethics // House of Affirmation scandal

By Paul Della Valle

The thing you've got to love about the Roman Catholic Church is the forgiveness angle.

Take the Rev. Thomas A. Kane, for example.

Kane, you may remember, is the priest who allegedly had his fingers about two-knuckles deep in the till at the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville five years ago.

By the time that scandal played out - allegedly the good padre siphoned off mucho dinero to support his own real estate empire - Kane had been barred from the House of Affirmation for life and several of the managers and employees who blew the whistle on him had been fired.

BREEDING BULLDOGS

Lately, Father Kane has been breeding bulldogs at his pet shop in Boston and teaching classes at Anna Maria College in Paxton. He taught ethics, once and for all proving what a wonderful and whacky world this is.

Now he's got a new gig, associate pastor of Sacred Heart parish in Gardner.

The House of Affirmation didn't fare so well. The publicity from the Kane-sized controversy proved a heavy load, and the once-thriving nonprofit corporation went belly up in 1990. The house, which had provided mental health services for clergy at centers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, California, Missouri and England, was founded by Kane, Sister Anna Polcino and lay Catholic psychiatrist Conrad Baars in 1973. Although not part of the church, it had close ties to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester.

Kane avoided litigation by agreeing to write the House of Affirmation a big check on Oct. 16, 1987. Bishop Timothy J. Harrington of the Worcester Diocese then sent him on sabbatical "to get rest."

RECOMMENDATION

The next year, Harrington wrote a letter of recommendation that helped Kane get a job as director of the National Guild of Catholic Psychiatrists. In his letter, the bishop neglected to mention Kane's fiscal problems at the House of Affirmation.

In the spring of 1991 and again this past spring, Kane, taught an ethics course at Anna Maria. He also taught a course at the college's Wellesley site. Kane is also a part-owner of "Fish on a Leash," a pet store on upscale Newbury Street in Boston, although he's usually there only on weekends, an employee said Friday. For four months recently, Kane had been loaned by the Worcester Diocese to St. Donato's in New Haven, where he served as acting pastor.

In May, Harrington appointed Kane associate pastor of Sacred Heart. He is scheduled to arrive in the Chair City later this week. Why was he appointed?

"Why not?" the Rev. John Barrett, the Worcester Diocese's director of communications, said Friday. "He's a priest in good standing."

It was never made public how much Kane allegedly embezzled because the out-of-court settlement his lawyer agreed to with the diocese's lawyer, Samuel R. DeSimone, contained a non-disclosure provision.

When the story of Kane's alleged fiscal misdeeds first broke in the Telegram & Gazette in September 1987, Kane owned an inn in Isleboro, Maine (he sold that for $650,000 before the settlement), a farm on Islesboro (he sold that to actress Kirstie Alley this spring), three condominiums in Boston in total worth more than $200,000, two condos in Florida worth more than $120,000, a home in Whitinsville worth $98,700 and at least several other properties in this and other states.

Kane also had a major interest in trusts that owned a condominium building at 398 Marlboro St., Boston, valued in 1987 at $720,000, and in properties on St. Stephen Street and Symphony Road, Boston, then with a total value of more than $700,000.

Kane, who never lost his good-standing designation with the Worcester Diocese, continues to live in his suite at 398 Marlboro St., Boston. On Friday, Babak "Bob" Bagheral, Kane's longtime sidekick, answered the phone there and said the priest was vacationing in Canada and could not be reached for a comment until Tuesday.

"When he goes on vacation," Bagheral said, "he really goes on vacation."

AT THE RECTORY

The Rev. Edmond L. Tinsley, vicar general of the diocese, said Kane, 51, will live in the rectory at Sacred Heart once he begins serving there. Tinsley would only say "he is a priest in good standing" when asked why Kane was appointed to Sacred Heart.

Kane's problems began in October 1986 when 11 HOA managers first made their allegations to the House of Affirmation's board of directors. They later went to Cardinal Bernard Law, then Attorney General James Shannon and the T&G because, they claimed, the board and Bishop Harrington were more interested in covering up the scandal than correcting it.

They alleged, among other things, that Kane illegally used the house's tax-exempt numbers for private purchases; that he and Polcino put relatives and friends, including Bagheral, on the House of Affirmation payroll although they did not work there; that Kane used House of Affirmation crews to work on his private properties; and that he charged the House of Affirmation exorbitant rents on properties he leased to the corporation.

"It is important to note," the 11 managers wrote in a letter to Shannon, "that the foregoing abuses are believed to be only the tip of the iceberg."

NEVER PURSUED

Although DeSimone, in his own investigation, found at least some of the allegations to be true, Shannon's office never pursued the investigation.

And it wasn't the first time such allegations had been made. Virginia Baars, the widow of co-founder Baars said in 1987 that her husband tried to blow the whistle on Kane and Polcino in 1975 because he suspected they were keeping "double books." Baars was fired instead and, according to House of Affirmation employees, Kane and Polcino then spread the word that he had been incompetent. Baars died five years later.

Virginia Baars said he died broken-hearted.

June 2, 1988

By Paul Della Valle,Worcester Telegram

The Rev. Thomas A. Kane, who was barred last year from the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville after allegations of financial misconduct were investigated, has been appointed executive director of the National Guild of Catholic Psychiatrists.

Bishop Timothy J. Harrington said yesterday that Father Kane, former president of the House of Affirmation, has been loaned to the guild from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester to serve as the guild's director. Bishop Harrington said he had no problem endorsing Father Kane despite the House of Affirmation allegations.

"He was their choice and I agreed with it," Bishop Harrington said. "That issue (the house of Affirmation allegations) is all settled. I hope that it is dead and gone."

On Sabbatical

Father Kane, 47, had been on sabbatical since October 1986 when allegations that he was siphoning money from the House of Affirmation first surfaced. The allegations were made by 11 House of Affirmation executives and  managers.

Father Kane was a co-founder of the House of Affirmation in 1973. Its purpose is to counsel religious professional, mostly Roman Catholic priests, who suffer from job stress and other mental health problems. Besides the  residential center in Whitinsville, the House of Affirmation has centers and offices in Boston, Missouri, Florida and Connecticut and formerly had centers in California and Natick.

The Worcester diocese commissioned Worcester lawyer Samuel R. De Simone to investigate the allegations against Father Kane last year. De Simone found at least some of the allegations to be true and recommended that the House of Affirmation recover monetary damages.

In October, Father Kane agreed to pay an unspecified settlement. Under the settlement, Father Kane also was barred from any further association with the House of Affirmation.

About the time of the settlement, Father Kane sold several pieces of his extensive property holdings. One piece of property, the Dark Harbor House Inn in Islesboro, Maine, wass old for $650,000, according to Islesboro town records.

Dr. Thomas K. Ciesla, the president of the National Guild  of Catholic Psychiatrists, said he was unaware of the allegations against Father Kane or of the settlement.

"The information I have is that he has the support of the bishop of Worcester," Dr. Ciesla said.

In a press release from the guild announcing Father Kane's appoint, Bishop Harrington is quoted as endorsing Father Kane for the National Guild post.

"Father Kane, co-founder of the House of Affirmation, has had long experience in the fields of psychology and psychiatry," the bishop is quoted as saying. "His public speaking, lectures and writing show his loyalty to the Magisterium of the Church."

Bishop Harrington said yesterday that Father Kane remains a priest in good standing with the diocese and will report to the diocese when his position with the guild ends. His appointment has no termination date.

"I said then (at the settlement) and I say now that Father Kane is in good standing and I saw no reason for not endorsing him," Bishop Harrington said.

Father Kane did not return calls to an answering machine at his Boston condominium Tuesday. The phone there rang unanswered yesterday.

Although Dr. Ciesla said he was not aware of the allegations or the settlement, two other officials of the National Guild of Catholic Psychiatrists said they were.

The program director of the guild, Dr. Robert McAllister of Ellicott City, Md., said he had heard about the problems at the House of Affirmation.

"I'm sure the board (of trustees) has been aware of the charges," Dr. McAllister said. "I was aware of the brouhaha and a settlement, but not of the particulars."

Dr. Louis M. Vuksinick of San Francisco, treasurer of the gild, said he had seen some newspaper clippings about Father Kane's problems at the House of Affirmation and that Father Kane had acknowledged there had been problems. Dr. Vuksinick said the guild's board decided to appoint Father Kane after they received the letter of endorsement from Bishop Harrington.

"When we got the letter from the bishop we thought that things had been worked out," Dr. Vuksinick said.

Drs. McAllister and Vuksinick said Father Kane has been associated with the guild for many years. The former mailing address of the National Guild of Catholic Psychiatrists was the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville. Secretaries there now forward correspondence for the guild to the home of Sister Anna Polcino in New Jersey.

Sister Polcino is another co-founder of the House of Affirmation. The executives and managers who made the allegations against Father Kane also alleged that Sister Polcino was involved in a coverup and said she fired some of them. Sister Polcino is now listed as vice president on the national guild letterhead.

Dr. McAllister said Sister Polcino, in particular, and Father Kane had done much work in revitalizing the 40-year-old guild several years ago after it nearly fell apart.

The guild, a professional organization of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, has as one of its purposes the further integration of religion and psychiatry. It publishes an annual bulletin and holds an annual conference in conjunction with the American Psychiatric Association, according to the 1987 edition of the Encyclopedia of Associations.

Bishop Harrington said he thinks Father Kane will receive a stipend for his work as the guild's executive director. Dr. McAllister said he thinks, but is not positive, that Father Kane assumed the post "out of the goodness of his heart" and is not being paid. Dr. Vuksinick said he does not think Father Kane will be paid since the guild has a small budget and all its officers are volunteers.