By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org

Randy Ball says when he was raped at age 8 at Camp Fatima in Gilmanton Iron Works by Fr. Karl Dowd, the now notorious deceased priest told him it was all part of God’s plan.

Ball said he is disappointed by the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruling that he is now powerless to seek justice because of the state statute of limitations.

Ball, 59, and his husband, John Thomas, told InDepthNH.org they are both disappointed in the Court’s ruling released on Wednesday that protects the Church at the expense of victims. Ball and Thomas gave InDepthNH.org permission to use their names for this story.

“Randy and I are profoundly saddened and disappointed by the decision, and how it will impact abuse survivors in New Hampshire. While the Manchester Diocese and the perpetrators under its authority may have averted responsibility for their vile misdeeds today, our voices will not be silenced. Our advocacy will continue as we pursue a path by which all survivors of sexual abuse in New Hampshire may obtain justice,” Thomas and Ball said in a statement shared with InDepthNH.org.

Ball filed his lawsuit against the diocese in 2023, decades after his claim expired under New Hampshire’s old statute of limitations law. However, the Legislature changed the law in 2020 to give victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to bring lawsuits. 

But the Court ruled the 2020 statute of limitations change does not apply to Ball, or any victim whose claim already expired under the old limits. New Hampshire’s Constitution prohibits the retroactive application of new laws, meaning that the 2020 law cannot revive Ball’s claim that expired in 1986, the Court ruled.

The Court wrote it understands the decision will have negative consequences for victims of childhood sexual abuse, but the Constitutional right to a statute of limitations defense is immovable.

“We are acutely aware that victims of child sex abuse are some of the most vulnerable victims who deserve all of the protections and remedies available in our judicial system. Further, we recognize that the result here may prevent some victims who have been impacted by sex abuse — during childhood or adulthood — from bringing claims when the statute of limitations has expired before the effective date of RSA 508:4-g [the statute of limitations change.] Our role, however, in our co-equal, tripartite form of government is to interpret the constitution and resolve disputes arising under it,” the Court wrote.

The Court’s ruling was written by Associate Justice Patrick Donovan, and concurred by associate justices Melissa Countway and Bryan Gould. Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, who represented the Diocese as a private attorney, was disqualified from the case.

Associate Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi was on leave due to the criminal case against her when Ball’s appeal was brought to the Court, and her substitute, Superior Court Judge Charles Temple, did not participate in the deliberations.

Olivia Bensinger, the attorney representing the Diocese, said Wednesday’s ruling protects all New Hampshire citizens from the prospect of trying to defend against claims that are decades old. 

“As the statute of limitations law recognizes, a lawsuit concerning a report of abuse that is many years old can be difficult, if not impossible, to defend because witnesses and evidence may no longer remain available. In this case, the report was made 50 years later, and the accused priest died in 2002,” Bensinger said in a statement provided to InDepthNH.org.

Since its own reckoning with the sexual abuse scandal in the early 2000’s, the Manchester Diocese has made strides in protecting children and assisting victims, according to Bensinger.

Many of the new protections for children, as well as the new support programs for victims, are the result of a 2002 agreement with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, however. Under that deal, the state agreed not to charge Bishop John McCormack for covering up the sex abuse committed by New Hampshire priests, and McCormack agreed to publicly acknowledge the Church harmed children by allowing abusive priests to move around from parish to parish.

Dowd escaped the fallout from the sex abuse scandal with his 2002 death, though his career illustrates the corruption and cover up, according to court records.

Dowd was the priest in charge of the diocese’s Camp Fatima and Camp Bernadette for decades despite serious red flags. Dowd was promoted by the diocese in 1971 to be the camp director, after a prior sexual assault complaint at St. Bernard Parish in Keene where Dowd was accused of abusing a 16-year-old boy.

During Dowd’s leadership at Camp Fatima the summer camp became an abyss of child sex abuse, according to court records, with multiple priests and religious staffers raping the boys.

“Several other boys who attended Camp Fatima alleged that Dowd sexually abused them, including one man who alleged he was abused more than 100 times before 1975. The abuse was so pervasive at the Camp that one former camper stated, ‘it was nothing to see somebody take a little kid, go into a cabin, [and] close all the shutters,’” court records state.

Despite the abuse taking place at the camps, Dowd was the camp director until 1990. Several former campers came forward after he died to publicly speak out against the rampant abuse and file a class action lawsuit. That lawsuit was later settled out of court.