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An 82-year-old sex abuser priest found ministering in Canada no longer has permission to work in the Archdiocese of Ottawa.
The Roman Catholic priest who served jail time for sexually molesting two under 16 year old girls in the 1970s has been ministering as a priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Ottawa, for at least ten years.
Fr John McCann, a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate was celebrating an occasional Mass and interacting with parishioners. The parish priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church said he had no idea of his colleague’s past, and he was already ministering in the parish when he became its pastor some for years ago.
McCann’s permission to work in Ottawa has now been revoked by the Archdiocese of Ottawa.
Vicar General for the archdiocese Msgr Kevin Beach confirmed McCann has been in Ottawa for at least 10 years but that none of the archdiocese’s records includes any details of McCann’s criminal past. He says he can’t be sure if McCann was granted permission to celebrate the occasional Mass by the archdiocese.
According to Beach, McCann’s ministerial activities are primarily not the responsibility of the archdiocese and are overseen by the OMI superior, Fr John Malazdrewich.
Malazdrewich was not available for comment and the entire OMI leadership were away working and unreachable.
In 1992, McCann pleaded guilty to molesting two girls and was sentenced to 10 months in jail. The offences took place while McCann was a priest at St Augustine’s parish in Vancouver and St Peter’s parish in New Westminster.
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