'Inside job': Clergy sexual abuse survivor shares story decades later

After nearly 50 years in silence, Chris MacLean is ready to share his experience of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

MacLean, who now lives in Toronto, said he was taken advantage of by Father Joe Nelligan while attending Brennan High School in Windsor in 1979.

“It wasn't just my parish priest who I saw on a weekly basis, and if I didn't like him, I could just not go. He was at my high school,” MacLean told CTV News.

MacLean said the two had a close relationship and he admired Nelligan, which made the abuse “much harder” to digest.

“It was an inside job,” he said. “He knew me. He had my trust, and he eventually broke that trust.”

Following the abuse, MacLean, worried about how it would appear, buried the trauma deep within himself.

Over the years, MacLean said when he noticed instances of institutional abuse, he would often loudly chime in. He wasn’t aware it was a response to the harm he had suffered.

As a result, his relationships with family and friends deteriorated.

“Because with time, any cancer is going to consume you if you don't take care of it,” MacLean said. “And like a cancer, years later, it took its toll on my health mentally and emotionally.”

However, MacLean’s promise to keep his biggest secret hidden from the world ended in 2019 when he discovered the documentary Prey.

The film, directed by Windsor’s Matt Gallagher, details a legal battle between sexual abuse survivors and the Catholic Church.

“I started to realize, you know, by not telling your truth, it's the same as being an enabler for what the priests were doing. So, I was afraid to come forward, to be perfectly honest. (Survivors) gave me the courage to come forward,” MacLean said.

On Monday night, the film returned to the Windsor International Film Festival, where it previously won the Liuna People’s Choice Award.

“Chris MacLean, he approached me after the world premiere in Toronto [in 2019] on this same documentary, and he said, ‘I was also abused’ and he said, that's the first time I've ever told anybody is tonight,’” Gallagher recalled in an interview with CTV News ahead of the film’s screening.

Gallagher was familiar with Nelligan and was left “shocked,” by MacLean’s story.

“What doesn't surprise and shock me is that it's still happening, and people are still, you know, being abused and still fighting the church.”

The filmmaker hopes Prey can continue to shine light on clergy sexual abuse.

“I’m hoping that, you know, the word gets out there and people know that this is something that needs to be stopped,” Gallagher said.

For MacLean, the past five years have been about addressing his past and rebuilding relationships.

He said a civil lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of London was recently resolved.

According to MacLean, Nelligan took his own life in the 90s before he could be tried in a court of law.

MacLean said his advice to other victims of sexual abuse is to find the courage to seek help.

“I was holding my truth inside to not hurt people,” he said. “I didn't want to hurt people that knew Father Nelligan, but in doing so, I only did more damage to myself.”