January 15, 2002
Trial Begins for Priest Accused of Molestation
By PAM BELLUCK
OSTON, Jan. 14 — It is a case that has sent shudders through this largely Catholic city that have reverberated to the highest echelons of the Roman Catholic Church.
A former priest, John J. Geoghan, has been accused by more than 130 people of sexually molesting boys over 30 years as he was transferred from parish to parish. In civil suits filed by many of the complainants against him and the archdiocese, Cardinal Bernard F. Law and five bishops have been accused of knowing about the pattern but continuing to place Mr. Geoghan in positions that put him in contact with young boys.
The case has prompted the cardinal to apologize and helped urge the Vatican to issue rules on accusations of sexual abuse by priests.
The boys, now adults, and their families said Mr. Geoghan raped or fondled children in his rectory bedroom, in his car and in a youth club. They said he made a point of befriending single mothers and insinuated himself into the family, molesting children while bathing them, putting them to bed or praying with them. In one complaint, Mr. Geoghan is accused of molesting seven boys in a single family.
Mr. Geoghan, 66, was defrocked in 1998. But his case has vaulted into the public spotlight in recent months as three criminal complaints and a wave of civil suits have been filed against him.
Pool photo by John Blanding
The Rev. Joseph Casey, left, talked with John J. Geoghan, a former priest, on Monday in Cambridge, Mass., as Mr. Geoghan's sister Catherine Geoghan listened in a break in jury selection in Mr. Geoghan's trial.
In Depth
Crime and Courts | Religion
Jury selection began today in Mr. Geoghan's first criminal trial, in Middlesex County Superior Court in Cambridge. He is charged with molesting a 10-year-old boy while a priest at St. Julia's Parish in Weston, a suburb west of Boston. His second trial, on charges of two counts of raping a 7-year-old boy, is scheduled to begin in late February in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston. A third trial, in which Mr. Geoghan faces two counts of indecent assault and battery involving a 10-year-old boy, has not yet been scheduled.
In the last five years, the archdiocese has settled some 50 lawsuits against Mr. Geoghan for a total of more than $10 million. Eighty-four lawsuits are pending.
Mr. Geoghan's court-appointed criminal defense lawyer, Geoffrey Packard, declined to comment on the charges. Mr. Geoghan does not have a lawyer in the civil cases and is not contesting the charges.
Mr. Geoghan was declared indigent by the state two years ago after he reported income too low to afford a private lawyer. His lack of assets would make it difficult for plaintiffs to collect any damages from him in a civil suit. But The Boston Globe reported today that seven years ago, Mr. Geoghan sold his half share of two houses for a dollar each to a family trust controlled by his sister. The newspaper said the two houses are together worth $895,000 to $1.3 million.
Last week, months after it was disclosed in court documents that Cardinal Law knew in 1984 that Mr. Geoghan had been accused of and treated for pedophilia, the cardinal issued an emotional apology for having allowed Mr. Geoghan to continue serving as a priest. But Cardinal Law, one of the country's most influential Catholic leaders, said he relied on psychiatric assessments that suggested that Mr. Geoghan was cured.
"I was aware that there had been prior instances because I had gotten evaluations," the cardinal said in a news conference.
The cardinal's words did not satisfy those who said Mr. Geoghan molested them.
"The apology was very hollow and bordering on insulting," said Mark Keane, 32, who said he was molested by Mr. Geoghan after he was assigned to St. Julia's parish in 1984. "You put this person who molested hundreds of children in a parish, it blows my mind. This man that was wise enough to become cardinal was not wise enough to know not to put this man with children."
Mr. Geoghan's accusers were similarly unhappy with Vatican rules, announced last week, that required bishops to report accusations of child sexual abuse directly to the Vatican. They criticize the rules because they allowed such accusations to remain confidential. Cardinal Law went further last week for his archdiocese, saying clergy members who knew of such accusations must report them to state authorities unless they were divulged in confession.
"Father Geoghan told the children to keep it secret," said Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer for most of the civil plaintiffs. "The church kept it secret. Now the Vatican has issued guidelines that these things be kept secret."
Later this month, there will be a little less secrecy in the Geoghan case. Under a judge's order in the civil suits, thousands of pages of records, reports, church personnel files and depositions that the church sought to keep sealed will become public.
My comments on this article.
How do people in the organization get away with the same injustices that others are prosecuted for?
Pureheart