Defrocked over abuse accusations, priest ordained by order near Northbrook faces a reckoning

Richard Daschbach, a hero in East Timor, faces trial in the Asian nation. He was ordained by the Society of the Divine Word, the largest Catholic missionary organization.

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This 2010 photo provided to The Associated Press shows now-defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach at the Topu Honis children’s shelter in Kutet, East Timor. Now on trial in East Timor for sexual abuse, he’s not included in the list of predatory priests and brothers newly released by the Society of the Divine Word. Daschbach was ordained at the order’s Techny hub near Northbrook in the 1960s.

This 2010 photo provided to The Associated Press shows now-defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach at the Topu Honis children’s shelter in Kutet, East Timor.

AP

It was the same every night. A list of names was posted on the bedroom door of the Rev. Richard Daschbach, a revered Catholic priest in Asia who’d trained and been ordained decades earlier by his religious order, the Society of the Divine Word, at its Techny grounds near Northbrook.

The child at the top of the roster knew it was her turn to share the lower bunk with the elderly priest and another elementary school-age girl.

Daschbach was idolized in the remote enclave of East Timor where he lived, largely for his role in helping save lives during the tiny nation’s bloody struggle for independence.

So the girls never spoke of the abuse they suffered. They said they were afraid they would be banished from the shelter that the 84-year-old priest from Pennsylvania had established decades ago for abused women, orphans, and other destitute children.

The horrors of what they said happened behind closed doors over a period of years is now being played out in court in the first clergy sex abuse case in a country that is more solidly Catholic than anywhere else in the world beside the Vatican.

The trial was postponed last month due to a coronavirus lockdown but is expected to resume in May.

At least 15 females have come forward, according to JU,S Jurídico Social, a group of human rights lawyers representing them.

The Associated Press has spoken with a third of the accusers. They all recall their experiences in vivid detail. They are not being identified because of fears of retribution.

They said Daschbach would sit on a chair every night in the middle of a room, holding a little girl, surrounded by a ring of children and staff members praying and singing hymns before bed.

“The way that you determine who sits on his lap is by the list that he’d have on his door,” one accuser said. “And that meant that you were the little girl that was going to go with him.”

This woman has accused now-defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach of abuse when she was a child living at the Topu Honis children’s shelter in Kutet, East Timor. Over a dozen accusers have come forward to accuse Daschbach.

This woman has accused now-defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach of abuse when she was a child living at the Topu Honis children’s shelter in Kutet, East Timor. Over a dozen accusers have come forward to accuse Daschbach.

AP

Later, in his room, they said, Daschbach would strip down to white boxer shorts and a T-shirt and then undress the girls, giving them deodorant to put on before fondling them and quietly guiding their hands to touch him. Then, they said, there would often be oral sex. One accuser also said she was raped.

They said Daschbach would sometimes ask the children with him on the lower bunk to switch places with one or two others sleeping on the mattress above. The abuse also occasionally occurred during afternoon naps, they said.

If found guilty, Daschbach faces up to 20 years in prison.

He and his lawyer declined interview requests.

The church defrocked Daschbach in 2018, saying he had confessed to sexually abusing children.

This 2013 photo provided to The Associated Press shows now-defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach leading a service at a church in Kutet, East Timor.

This 2013 photo provided to The Associated Press shows now-defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach leading a service at a church in Kutet, East Timor.

AP

But he maintains strong political ties in East Timor, where he is still treated like a rock star by many, especially at the shelter he named Topu Honis, which means “Guide to Life.”

Former President Xanana Gusmao attended the opening of Daschbach’s trial in February. A month earlier, the independence hero visited the defrocked priest on his birthday, hand-feeding cake to him and lifting a glass of wine to his lips as cameras flashed.

Daschbach’s lawyers have not made their legal strategy public, and court proceedings are closed.

But documents in the case indicate they will argue he is the victim of a conspiracy.

In January, though, the former priest appeared to be preparing his supporters for the worst. He told reporters that his message to the children who remain in the orphanage is this: “Be patient. We won’t meet again because I will be detained for life, but I will still remember you, and you have to be happy there.”

The Society of the Divine Word order’s grounds near Northbrook, where now-defrocked priest Richard Daschbach trained and was ordained.

The Society of the Divine Word order’s grounds near Northbrook, where now-defrocked priest Richard Daschbach trained and was ordained.

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

The son of a Pittsburgh steelworker, Daschbach began his religious studies as a teenager. In 1964, he was ordained by the Society of the Divine Word at its headquarters, called Techny, on Waukegan Road north of Willow Road near Northbrook.

Divine Word is the Catholic church’s largest missionary congregation, with around 6,000 priests and brothers serving in more than 80 countries.

When he arrived in Southeast Asia a few years later, the nation now known as East Timor was under Portuguese control. That colonial rule would last until 1975, when the country was almost immediately invaded by neighboring Indonesia.

A 24-year independence struggle followed, leaving as many as 200,000 people dead — a quarter of the population — through fighting, famine and starvation.

This 2007 photo provided to The Associated Press shows now-defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach’s private chapel at the Topu Honis children’s shelter in Kutet, East Timor.

This 2007 photo provided to The Associated Press shows now-defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach’s private chapel at the Topu Honis children’s shelter in Kutet, East Timor.

AP

Daschbach started the shelter in 1992 and gained his charismatic reputation during the conflict. He often told visitors about defending the women and children living in Topu Honis and surrounding areas, sheltering them in a cave and leading a ragtag group armed with spears to stave off attackers.

Stories soon spread far beyond East Timor about the priest who joined in traditional dances with bells on his ankles, spoke the local languages fluently and said mass in which he blended Catholicism with the area’s customs and animist beliefs.

Foreign donors, tourists and aid workers who made the three-hour hike up the steep, narrow jungle path to Kutet village were met by the grandfatherly priest, often surrounded by laughing kids playing hopscotch in matching uniforms. In many photographs of Topu Honis taken by visitors and posted online, young girls are seen at Daschbach’s side, on his lap or with his arm pulling their tiny shoulders against him.

Some visitors stayed on the mountain for weeks, even months, so impressed by what they saw that they sent tens of thousands of dollars to support the shelter or pay for college scholarships.

Jan McColl, who helped fund Topu Honis, said she was devastated after she and another longtime Australian donor, Tony Hamilton, flew to East Timor and asked Daschbach point-blank whether he was a pedophile.

“He said, ‘Yes. That’s who I am. And always have been,’ ” said McColl, who said he responded calmly while continuing to eat his lunch. “So we just got up and left the table. We were just absolutely distraught.”

Hamilton said the exchange was jarring and surreal and that he has struggled to make sense of it while continuing to support some of the children. He and McColl have given affidavits.

“I think, in some crazy way, he recognizes that what he has done is a crime,” Hamilton said. “But he reconciles it somehow with the good that he’s done.”

This 2010 photo provided to The Associated Press shows children sifting rice at the Topu Honis children’s shelter in Kutet, East Timor.

This 2010 photo provided to The Associated Press shows children sifting rice at the Topu Honis children’s shelter in Kutet, East Timor.

AP

The global clergy sex abuse scandal that’s rocked the Catholic church for more than two decades has led to billions of dollars in settlements and the establishment of new programs aimed at preventing further abuse.

But experts have seen a growing number of victims coming forward in developing nations like Haiti, Kenya and Bangladesh, where priests and missionaries deployed by religious orders such as the Divine Word Missionaries often operate with little or no oversight. Even if they’re found to have sexually abused young victims, they rarely face consequences because, for some, the idea of ever jailing a priest, no matter the crime, seems blasphemous.

In East Timor, many supporters say the accusations against Daschbach are lies, part of a plot to take over the shelter and other property, including a beachside boarding school. After the trial’s opening, dozens of people, mostly women and children, waited outside the courtroom, wailing as the ex-priest waved goodbye to them from a vehicle.

“Law enforcers must see which one is better: Omitting one person or eliminating the future of many?” said Antonio Molo, one of the doubters, who worries that hundreds of children might lose a chance at a better life if Daschbach is gone.

Xanana Gusmao (right), former East Timorese president and prime minister, gives a fist bump to Richard Daschbach (center), a defrocked priest on trial on child abuse charges, after a hearing at a courthouse in Oecusse, East Timor on Feb. 23. Daschbach’s support appears deep and widespread, extending beyond Oecusse to the capital city of Dili. It includes members of the political elite, including Gusmao.

Xanana Gusmao (right), former East Timorese president and prime minister, gives a fist bump to Richard Daschbach (center), a defrocked priest on trial on child abuse charges, after a hearing at a courthouse in Oecusse, East Timor on Feb. 23. Daschbach’s support appears deep and widespread, extending beyond Oecusse to the capital city of Dili. It includes members of the political elite, including Gusmao.

Raimundos Oki / AP

Though the Vatican acted swiftly to investigate and remove the priest when accusations were leveled against him three years ago, the local archdiocese was more accommodating. It agreed to lodge him under informal house arrest at a church residence in the town of Maliana. Daschbach still moved around with relative ease, including taking an overnight ferry to the Oecusse enclave, where he returned to the children’s home, infuriating accusers and their families. Despite being stripped of his priestly duties, he continued to perform mass while there, according to local news reports.

Monsignor Marco Sprizzi, Vatican ambassador to East Timor, said Daschbach should not be allowed to be among children but that there’s little the church can do now.

“Once he’s defrocked ... he’s no more a priest,” Sprizzi said. “He is no part of the clergy. And, of course, that house for children was not — since the beginning — was not belonging to his religious congregation. He did it by himself, and it was in his own name.”

Zach Hiner, executive director of the U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, said the church had a moral responsibility to do more and should have recalled Daschbach to the United States before laicizing him.

“We fear for the vulnerable children that he may still have access to,” Hiner said.

But Daschbach still has strong support within factions of the church in East Timor. Late last year, the archbishop of Dili sacked the president of the church’s “Justice and Peace Commission” and publicly apologized following the publication of a report naming the victims and intimating that prosecutors, police and nongovernmental organizations investigating the allegations had themselves sexually abused the accusers by carrying out forensic exams.

Former donors and the accusers were outraged, saying the report put the lives of those who came forward in danger. And threats of violence have been made against anyone who speaks out against Daschbach.

The former priest faces 14 counts of child sexual abuse as well as child pornography and domestic violence charges.

He also is wanted in the United States on charges of wire fraud linked to one of his California donors. An Interpol “Red Notice” has been issued internationally for his arrest.

The accusers who spoke to the AP described systematic abuse and inappropriate behavior, including Daschbach regularly overseeing the girls’ showers. They said all of the children removed their clothes and stood together around a large concrete water basin outside, with the priest — also nude — going from girl to girl, shampooing their hair and splashing water on their private parts.

They said he also took photos of them naked as they played in the rain and that some girls were told he didn’t want them to wear underwear.

His accusers said they were filled with hope when they arrived at the shelter. For the first time, they had clean clothes, time to play and an emphasis on school. Mainy, they had food. The meals were basic but steady.

In this 2017 photo provided to The Associated Press, a young girl clips the toenails of now-defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach at the Topu Honis children’s shelter in Kutet, East Timor.

In this 2017 photo provided to The Associated Press, a young girl clips the toenails of now-defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach at the Topu Honis children’s shelter in Kutet, East Timor.

AP

The adoration and respect for the white American missionary was so commanding, the accusers said, that they did whatever he wanted without question.

One recalled first arriving at the shelter distraught after her father died and said the priest raped her that same night. She said he continued to do so frequently the entire time she was there.

She said he would lock the door and pull the curtains, telling her they had to be careful and that no one could know. She said he typically chose young children but that, for those like her who were nearing puberty, Daschbach exercised caution.

“He would pull out and say, ‘I have to stop, otherwise you’ll be pregnant,’ ” she said.

Now, accusers say they struggle over how someone who appeared so kind and selfless could ask them to do things that felt so wrong.

“When I was getting abused, I was, like, ‘Is this sort of like the payment?’ ” one accuser said. “That’s what I was computing in my head … ‘This must be the price that I have to pay to be a part of this.’

“You know, like those shiny little dresses that these girls are wearing to church. That’s not free. This is the price tag.”

Contributing: Raimundos Oki

In Dili, East Timor, defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach (center) is presented a cake on Jan. 26 for his 84th birthday.

In Dili, East Timor, defrocked Catholic priest Richard Daschbach (center) is presented a cake on Jan. 26 for his 84th birthday.

Raimundos Oki / AP

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Click here to read Sun-Times Feb. 7 , 2021, report.

Click here to read Sun-Times Feb. 7 report.

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