Nagoya Priest Abuse Victim Speaks

 

Fr. Michael Walsh

The Priests of the Sacred Heart have operated as a religious order in the Catholic Church in Japan since 1952. Japan is part of the order’s mission territory of the Province of Australia. The order also sponsors priests and brothers from the USA and Canada as well. The Province of Australia is the largest of the Sacred Heart. They also have missions in New Guinea, Saipan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and South Korea. All of their mission territories have had allegations of abuse going back to 1984. The Sacred Heart Provincialate in Sydney refused any comment or to validate the following.

Michael Walsh was unlike other priests. He spoke fluent Japanese, he had been studying since high school. He was 36, relatively younger than most priests in Japan. He is an outgoing Canadian who was handsome to girls and a big brother to the guys. Walsh rarely wore clerical collar. He had a magnetic personality who showed the young people around him he cared about their issues and their troubles. They responded with love and acceptance. Something very few foreigners will have in Japan from a vast majority of Japanese – young or older.

Satoshi Tanaka (name changed as requested), then 16, was surprised when Walsh walked up to him during his first visit to Mikokoro in March 2006, a youth center and church run by the Priests of the Sacred Heart in Nagoya, Japan. During other visits Walsh always held conversations with Satoshi. One day, Walsh offered Satoshi to go to a coffee shop. Satoshi agreed and there in the toilet room as Satoshi washed his hands before ordering, Walsh showed Satoshi his penis, and in Satoshi's horror Walsh grabbed Satoshi's pants, pulled them down and held his penis and masturbated him. Satoshi sat stunned with Walsh as they had their coffee. When they left, Satoshi ran to the subway for home. Satoshi never spoke a word of this to anyone.

He said Walsh would fondle him and give him money repeatedly over a two-year period. One day Satoshi told a Sacred Heart Priest about the abuse. The next day Satoshi was met at Mikokoro by an unidentified priest in collar and a lawyer. The lawyer did all the talking. They took a taxi to Satoshi's home to talk to his parents. 

In Japan, if the victim has not gone to the police yet, but to church clergy or representative the fist action is a nondisclosure agreement presented by church lawyers. The victim is barred going to police until the church diocese or religious order completes its investigation. 

As the church authorities and lawyers carried out the investigation, he described the process as "extremely distressing" for a survivor of institutional abuse. A clerical representative of the Nagoya Diocese, the Vice-provincial of Sacred Heart Priests, and a lawyer for the order were the sole people Satoshi spoke to. “Their whole attitude was that I bore proving I was abused without any doubt. I had to satisfy their standard. I was offered no sympathy or even a chance to express my pain.” 

Oddly to Satoshi, the police were not involved. The lawyers reminded him of the NDA he signed with his parents. Satoshi and his parents did not know how the legal system works. Why would they? They are not lawyers and had never been in trouble. The lawyers know this. The ignorance is preyed upon by lawyers and the NDAs are pulled out. With an inkan seal they gave away their legal rights. Every victim who went to church authorities, instead of the police first, tell the same story.

Satoshi later went to the police. The first action police took was to call the Nagoya Diocese office. 30 minutes later the detective told Satoshi there was nothing they could do. His parents had an NDA. The police and prosecutors left the church and Sacred Heart Fathers to investigate itself. In normal circumstances when victims first go to the police, the police receive a complaint and then talk to the accused. Then the prosecutor must have the complaint from the victim in order to indict and try a rape or indecent assault case. Usually the accused and the diocese/religious order make a settlement with the victim and ask him/her to withdraw the complaint, the prosecutor then will not indict the accused. 

In these cases NDAs of priests being accused, the leadership of the diocese or religious order assure the prosecutor that they will investigate fully. If they find new illegal activity then the prosecutor will be notified. This satisfies the police and prosecutor. In the end, Walsh escaped punishment. In all three accusations the Tokyo and Nagoya church authorities together with PSH found the accusations unsubstantiated. A cash settlement was paid to the accusers for their mental anguish, but as no admission of guilt by the religious order and diocese. 

The police refused reporting and prosecution refused indictment accepting the diocese and order’s findings in May 2010, and the cases were closed. Walsh returned to Canada in 2013 a free man and still a practicing priest. From his assignment in Manitoba, Walsh refused any comment and demanded we not contact him again. His superiors in Canada said the same. His name has been removed from the online directory of the Priests of the Sacred Heart in Canada.

Address: Mikokoro Center, 3-6-43 Marunouchi, Naka-ku, Nagoya 460-0002 Japan 

 Priests of the Sacred Heart Canada: http://www.scjcanada.org/index.php  

Priests of the Sacred Heart Japan: http://mikokoro.com/