Church in
Crisis More allegations arise in Boston
By CHUCK COLBERT
Boston
Cardinal Bernard Law, fending off calls for his resignation while
dealing with new charges of sex abuse against Boston church figures, presided
at Palm Sunday services before a near-capacity congregation of mostly Haitians
and Hispanics at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, located in the South End
neighborhood of the city.
Inside the 1875 cruciform, neo-Gothic structure, nearly two
thousand worshipers listened to narratives of the Passion of Christ enacted by
Spanish-language performers. Dozens, if not hundreds of worshipers, wore small
red-cap lapel pins manifesting their support for Laws remaining as
spiritual head of the nations fourth-largest diocese.
We need him, one African-American woman said
enthusiastically several times outside the cathedral after the Mass.
A handful of protesters were also outside, holding signs that
asked for Laws resignation.
John Harris, of Norwood, Mass., for example, has demonstrated
outside the cathedral on Sundays since the scandal of clerical abuse of
children and young adults exploded in the Boston media nearly three months
ago.
At first, he said, the response of worshipers and passersby was
muted. But on Palm Sunday, he said, people are more
responsive.
A woman, standing with Harris, said, More people are willing
to take our literature. The demonstrators offered pedestrians fliers
detailing the signs of sexual abuse and information on how to report it to law
enforcement authorities.
The scandal in the Boston archdiocese and elsewhere in the New
England region continues to generate front-page headlines and grab top spots in
broadcast media. On Palm Sunday, The Boston Globes Spotlight
investigative team, which broke the story on Jan. 6 of former priest John
Geoghans various alleged abuses, reported yet another significant
development in the widening regional scandal. The lead headline read:
Suit names archdiocese, N. H., bishop; says church failed to halt abuse
by priest.
This report tells of James Hogan, a former Salem [Mass.] man
who alleges that he was sexually molested hundreds of times by a parish priest
in the 1960s, according to the Globe.
Fr. Joseph E. Birmingham, the priest who allegedly molested Hogan
and others, died in 1989 at the age of 55. According to the Globe,
Thomas Blanchette, who also alleges that Birmingham molested him, said he
approached Law at Birminghams funeral and told Law about the
abuse.
According to the Globe Blanchette said of Law: He
laid his hands on my head for two or three minutes. Blanchette said that
Birmingham also molested his four brothers.
Blanchette told the Globe: And then he [Law] said
this: I bind you by the power of the confessional never to speak about
this to anyone else. And that just burned me big time.
I
didnt ask him to hear my confession. I went there to inform
him.
Donna Morrissey, Laws spokeswoman, said that Law had a
vague recollection of such an encounter but no memory of the words
exchanged, according to the Globe.
On Palm Sunday, the Boston Herald continued its reporting
of yet more allegations, including charges of rape and pornographic photo
sessions at the archdioceses Lake Street mansion in 1979 when the late
Cardinal Humberto Medeiros was archbishop.
Two families have come forward with charges of alleged sexual
misconduct directed at a Kingston, Mass., parish priest and vicar, Msgr.
Frederick J. Ryan.
According to Herald reports, James OLaughlin,
an 18-year Wayland, Mass., police officer, said [March 22] Ryan molested his
older brother, Daniel, in 1970, when Daniel was an altar boy in
Boston.
Daniel OLoughlin died in a car crash in 1977, at the age of
20, according to the Herald. James OLaughlin told a reporter that
the family long believed the alleged abuse ruined Daniels
youth. James also said that his brother tried to tell their father
about the abuse when it occurred, and revealed it in more detail in the
mid-1970s after years of delinquent behavior.
The first victim to allege sexual abuse by Ryan was Garry M.
Garland. His charge landed on the front page of the Herald on March 22.
The headline read Bombshell: Vicar accused of molesting teen in
chancery.
A former Catholic Memorial High School student and star athlete,
Garland says that Ryan got him drunk, took him to the cardinals
residence, photographed him in the nude and molested him, according to reports
in the Boston media.
Pending a church investigation, Ryan has been suspended from
duties at St. Josephs Parish in Kingston, Mass.
During a news conference in Providence, R.I., the 38-year-old
Garland, now married and the father of four children, repeated his allegations
against Ryan.
Garland reiterated his charge that Medeiros had
touched him inappropriately in the crotch, according to
ABC-affiliate NewsCenter.5.
Law termed the allegations a character assassination.
Former Boston mayor and former U. S. Ambassador to the Vatican Raymond Flynn, a
Law loyalist, asked repeatedly during his daily AM radio talk show on March 25,
How can a dead man defend himself?
Nevertheless, at his March 26 news conference, Garland of Hanover,
Mass., said, Do you know about shame and guilt? I have a lot of shame. I
have a lot of guilt. Ive been dead since 1979. Cardinal Medeiros was
lucky. He got four more years. Medeiros died in 1983.
Garland said that he would support others who come forward with
allegations. You can assassinate my character all you want, but Im
here. Ill stand up for any victim there is. Its time to be heard.
And I have the courage to do it, he said.
Meanwhile, on the same day as Garlands news conference, the
Boston Herald reported that Essex County investigators were ready to
press criminal charges against suspended priest Ronald H. Paquin, of Malden,
Mass. The Herald reported, Paquin has admitted to molesting
numerous altar boys and post-pubescent teens during his 20-year priestly
career, and even apologized to them in media interviews.
If one of the victims allegations proves to be true, the
abuse falls within the 15-year Massachusetts statute of limitations for rape.
The victim, now a 26-year-old Haverhill man, was 16 years old at the time of
the alleged abuse.
Paquin may also face additional allegations of illicit underage
sex abuses that took place out of state, in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and
Canada, according to the Herald.
Freelance journalist Chuck Colbert writes from Cambridge,
Mass.
National Catholic Reporter, April 5,
2002
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