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Ralph’s lawyer, London-based advocate Rob Talach who has represented abuse victims across the country for more than 15 years, says he first wrote to the Alberta Knights of Columbus in July to inform them of the allegations and the desire of the victims to see the council and bursary renamed.

“They were very appreciative of us letting them know this because, again, this is all kept very hush-hush in the church world,” Talach says. “It’s not like the Basilian (Order) wrote and said, ‘you should know . . .’ — this was the first they heard of it and they were quite pleased that we had notified them.”

Photo by Mike Hensen / Postmedia

Some Calgary parishioners have struggled with the allegations against Cahill. Fergusson says that while it was the right decision to strip Cahill’s name from the council and bursary, he acknowledges some people who knew the priest were upset by the news.

“I’m personally relieved,” says Fergusson. “But then, there were also members of the council who saw a different side of Father Cahill and they were actually quite upset about the name change. I’ve seen both sides.”

Talach says he believes the church’s requirement that priests lead a celibate life is part of the problem in many abuse cases; he says that once he began looking into Cahill, he received a phone call from someone who knew the priest and described him as practically “reeking” of loneliness — “like it was almost like an odour on him, how lonely he was.”

“That has to be part of this conversation. We can’t talk church and sexual abuse cases and just hang it all on the individual perpetrators,” Talach says. “There’s just too much of it. There must be an institutional component. And part of that institutional component is you ask these guys to live these fantasy, lonely lives forever and there are consequences.”

Ralph says he now believes that there were others like him who were abused by Cahill at the same time, including young men interested in the priesthood who lived with Cahill in a house in north Calgary. He now hopes that other men will also find the courage to come forward.

“That’s the benefit that I’d like to see coming from (my) story,” says Ralph. “You have a voice and you should trust that thing, that deepest part of your soul — trust that.”

mpotkins@postmedia.com

Twitter: @mpotkins