The law office of Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers over the past two decades has dealt with hundreds of cases of sexual abuse of minors, always representing the victims. In doing so we have learned of some horrid tales of institutional complicity and cover-up. This series is intended to expose that moral corruption to the world. This blog within that series deals with the tale of Father Alfredo Sasso of the Roman Catholic Diocese of London.
Father Alfredo Francais Sasso came to the attention of authorities in 1980 when he accidentally left Polaroid photographs of nude teenage boys in an Owen Sound hotel. The cleaning staff who discovered the pictures notified the police and officers were dispatched to Sasso’s parish in Mount Carmel, Ontario. The investigating officers were shocked to find one of the boys in the photographs at the priest’s residence when they arrived. Ultimately Sasso was convicted of sexual offences with three boys, ranging from 13 to 16 years of age. For destroying the innocence of three boys, he received a sentence of a mere 3 months in jail. The Roman Catholic Diocese of London ensured that Sasso received top notch residential psychological treatment, in part to reduce his potential sentence. No one from the Diocese ever reached out to the victims, despite them being Catholic youth and one in fact, a former altar boy.
Next, despite Sasso being a convicted sex offender with youth and fresh out of jail, the Diocese arranged for him to minister in Catholic parishes out in Vancouver. He was an Assistant Pastor at both Holy Rosary Cathedral and St. Patrick’s parish in the Archdiocese of Vancouver from 1981 to 1985. Once the scene in the London Diocese had cooled off, Father Sasso was quietly transferred back, where he was assigned duties in Windsor working with alcoholics and also severely disabled youth in a residential care facility called Glengarda for Exceptional Children. Yes, you read that correctly, the Bishop put a convicted child molester into a residential facility for severely disabled children. Father Sasso also returned to parish work at the parishes of Christ the King, Blessed Sacrament and St. Paul, all in Windsor. Do you think the parishioners and parents knew that their parish priest was a convicted sex offender?
This office has represented victims of Father Sasso who were abused in Watford, Alvinston, Mount Carmel and Windsor. Whether there are also victims from his earlier parish assignments in Sarnia (St. Benedicts & St. Patrick’s High School), Chatham (Blessed Sacrament) or his time out West is yet to be seen.
If you have any information on Father Sasso, we would welcome hearing from you.
