(LifeSiteNews) – The Ontario priest who has launched a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against Father Thomas Rosica and his religious order was over 30 years of age when the sexual abuse is alleged to have occurred.  

Nevertheless, in his complaint he alleges that Fr. Rosica interfered with his “normal upbringing and development” and that the Basilian Fathers had deprived him of “a normal healthy adolescence.”  

LifeSiteNews has obtained copies of both the priest’s complaint and Fr. Rosica’s statement of defense. LifeSiteNews is privy to the identity and the career of the Plaintiff, who is well-known in Ontario. He is not a priest of the Archdiocese of Toronto, the city in which Fr. Rosica has resided for decades, but of another diocese.   

From the court documents, LifeSiteNews has ascertained that the Plaintiff was in his late twenties when he first met Fr. Rosica, a member of the Congregation of St. Basil, at a “continuing education day, hosted by [the Plaintiff’s diocese].”  

This was in 1997, a few years before Thomas Rosica, then the chaplain of the University of Toronto’s Newman Centre, rose to prominence as the CEO and Director of World Youth Day 2002 and subsequently the CEO of Salt and Light TV. Nevertheless, the younger priest was, according to his complaint, “impressed with Rosica who was influential, well-connected, and internationally recognized within the Roman Catholic Church.” 

In his complaint, the priest also alleges that Rosica invited him “to join him at the Newman Centre [in Toronto].” He does not reveal if he accepted this invitation but states that the older priest “thereafter began to spend more and more time with the Plaintiff under the guise of the role of a senior priest.”  

Fr. Rosica is ten years older than the Plaintiff.  

According to the court document, the young priest was asked by his bishop to continue his graduate education and then to return to a post in his own diocese. It states that “the Plaintiff turned to Rosica for support and guidance on these and other matters.”   

LifeSiteNews has established that the Plaintiff pursued his studies outside the province of Ontario and then within his own diocese. There is no public record of his being a student at the University of Toronto, where Rosica has taught. The area in which he took up his priestly duties is not within 100 miles of Toronto. 

Apparently coterminous with his work in his own diocese, the younger priest was ordered to help Fr. Rosica with preparations for World Youth Day 2002, a papal event taking place that year in Toronto. The relationship between the two priests was cordial, if not entirely unworldly. According to the complaint, “Rosica began counselling the Plaintiff with respect to religion, guidance, potential advancement within the Church, and other matters.”  

The priest continued to be impressed by Fr. Rosica, whom, according to his complaint, he saw as an “important ecclesiastical and educational authority,” as well as his “priest, teacher, and guidance counsellor.”  

The complaint states the belief of the diocesan priest, who is now over 50, that “Rosica used his positions which were positions of authority and trust, to develop a close personal relationship with the Plaintiff when he was young [sic].” It does allege that Rosica subjected the priest to unwanted long hugs and touching of his body and arms, but it does not allege that sexual abuse, assault or molestation took place until a date when the Plaintiff was over 30.    

The diocesan priest also alleges that Rosica used his influence over him to keep him quiet.  

Throughout the period of time that the aforementioned behaviour was occurring, Rosica used his position of authority and trust, as well as the dependency relationship that he had fostered with the Plaintiff, to ensure that the Plaintiff did not tell anyone about the behaviours they had engaged in.  

He also alleges that Rosica “did wilfully and/or negligently inflict pain and suffering, mental suffering, humiliation and degradation upon the Plaintiff, assaulted the Plaintiff and interfered with his normal upbringing and development solely for the purpose of his own gratification.” 

Whereas both Rosica and the Basilian order are the primary respondents of the lawsuit, Catholic teaching itself is blamed for the abuse. One section reads as follows:  

The Plaintiff had been taught in seminary and otherwise by the Basilians and the Roman Catholic church that homosexuality was intrinsically disordered toward evil, and the abuse by Rosica towards him was the fault of the Plaintiff. 

Another section gives an extensive, and unflattering, description of Catholic doctrine, emphasizing the role of priests. Its emphasis on sin and hell sheds light on the Plaintiff’s startling accusation, given his age at the time of the alleged abuse, that the Basilians had deprived him of “a normal healthy adolescence.”   

The complaint alleges that the Basilians teach “that priests are the chosen representatives on earth of God and have special powers and … are to be viewed with special reverence, power, respect, honour and authority.” 

However, it is not clear from the complaint that the Plaintiff ever attended a school, college, or seminary run by the Basilians, or ever took formal instruction from Fr. Rosica or any other member of his order.    

In his statement of defense, Rosica denies the Plaintiff’s allegations “including the description of events and his interactions with the Plaintiff.” He denies “engaging in any improper conduct with the Plaintiff,” that “he had a close personal relationship with the Plaintiff in any capacity,” and that “he had any control or influence over him, or that he preyed upon him or sexually abused him.” He also denies “that he was in any position of authority over the Plaintiff, or that a trust or dependency or mentorship or support or guidance relationship developed between himself, and the Plaintiff.” 

Additionally, Rosica denies that “he made unwanted physical contact” with the younger priest and denies that “he sexually abused and or assaulted and or molested” him. He does admit to knowing the younger priest, saying that “he had infrequent ministerial contact with the Plaintiff between 1996 and 2002.” 

Rosica argues that this case would be more properly moved to a court of canon law. He also addresses the issue of the Plaintiff’s description of Catholic doctrine, saying “that to the extent the Statement of Claim contains observations of religious doctrine, tenets, ideologies, and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, such allegations are incorrect, misstated or misinterpreted.”  

LifeSiteNews approached Father Kevin J. Storey, the Superior General of Congregation of St. Basil for comment.   

“As you are aware, this matter is before the courts,” Storey replied by email.  “It would not be appropriate for us to provide comments or respond to allegations outside the court process.  The Basilian Fathers have faith in our legal system and the Canon Law system.”  

Thomas Rosica was born in Rochester, New York. He moved to Toronto after joining the Congregation of St. Basil and studied theology at Regis College. Subsequently, he studied at the Biblicum in Rome, where he received a degree, and the École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem, where he did not. From 1994 until 2000, he was in charge of the Newman Centre Catholic Mission at the University of Toronto. He lectured at both Toronto’s St. Michael’s College and London’s St. Peter’s Seminary during this period.  After World Youth Day, he was asked by a private donor to create a TV station that later became the Salt and Light Media Foundation. He also worked as an English-language media attaché in the Holy See Press.  

Rosica’s meteoric career crashed in 2019, however, after LifeSiteNews published a series of articles detailing his frequent plagiarism, a story that was picked up by mainstream media in Canada and by Catholic news outlets around the world.