-Caveat Lector-
http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/geoghan/part2.shtml
Geoghan preferred preying on poorer children
To therapist, priest cited sexual revolution
By Globe Staff, 1/7/02
John J. Geoghan at a pre- trial hearing in Middlesex Superior Court.
(AP photo)
THE SERIES
Part I:
Church allowed abuse by priest for years
A revered guest; a family left in shreds
Part II:
Geoghan preferred preying on poorer children
In 1985, Law had report on repeat abusers
Geoghan's troubled history
DOCUMENTS
Letter to Cardinal Law from Rev. D'Arcy
Handwritten letter to Cardinal Medeiros from Margaret Gallant
Typed version
Places and dates of Geoghan's service
Nov. 22, 1999 indictment
Dec. 9, 1999 indictment
FROM THE ARCHIVES
NOVEMBER 30, 2001
Judge's ruling frees documents in Geoghan case
JULY 27, 2001
Law defends his response in clergy sex abuse case
DECEMBER 10, 1999
Ex-priest pleads not guilty to rape, molestation charges
JUNE 7, 1998
Cardinal announces defrocking of priest
JUNE 4, 1998
Church pays priest's accusers
FEBRUARY 13, 1997
Priest's 'sick leave' cited
FEBRUARY 4, 1997
Retired priest is sued again for sexual misconduct
JULY 11, 1996
Woman charges priest abused her three sons
CONTACT THE GLOBE
� The Boston Globe Spotlight team would like to hear from readers
willing to share information on this issue. The Spotlight phone
number is (617) 929-3208.
� Confidential messages can also be left at (617) 929- 7483.
� The e-mail address for the Spotlight team is [EMAIL PROTECTED]
This report was prepared by the Globe Spotlight Team: Reporters Matt
Carroll, Sacha Pfeiffer and Michael Rezendes; and Editor Walter V.
Robinson. This article was written by Pfeiffer.
Second of two parts
he telephone call was urgent.
``There is a crisis,'' the Rev. Brian M. Flatley, an archdiocesan
official, told Dr. Edward Messner, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts
General Hospital, on Dec. 30, 1994. Messner's notes from that day
convey the gravity of the situation: ``A priest had admitted abusing
minors in the past and has been acting out again recently . . .
police and the district attorney are involved . . . The allegations
mirror what has come up before.'' Six hours later, the Rev. John J.
Geoghan and Messner began regular therapy sessions in which Geoghan
admitted to being ``drawn by affection and intimacy with boys'' and,
as an MGH psychologist wrote, ``pointed out that his misconduct
occurred, `during a time of sexual exploration for this country.' ''
In 1995 and 1996, according to court records examined by the Globe
Spotlight Team, Geoghan explained why he preyed on children from
poorer families: ``The children were just so affectionate, I got
caught up in their acts of affection. Children from middle-class
families never acted like that toward me, so I never got so
confused.'' Moreover, court documents that include Geoghan's
psychiatric records contain starkly contradictory assessments of his
danger to children from different therapists. He
received at least four clean bills of health between 1980 and 1990, a
period when the archdiocese of Boston assigned him three times to
parishes despite his record of abuse; but declarations that he was an
incurable pedophile after he became a public embarrassment to the
archdiocese in the mid- 1990s. For example, Messner's notes show
that Geoghan told him that Flatley, whose job was to deal with
priests who had molested children, had branded him ``a pedophile, a
liar, and a manipulator.'' Collectively, the publicly filed church
documents add detailed clinical evidence to what the Globe reported
yesterday: Although the 1995 and 1996 psychiatric reports diagnose
Geoghan with a deep-rooted sexual perversion, there were ample signs
years earlier that he was unfit for parish work. Yesterday, the
Globe reported that Cardinal Bernard F. Law, during his first year in
Boston in 1984, assigned Geoghan to St. Julia's in Weston even though
Geoghan had been removed from his two prior parishes for molesting
children. In one of those cases, in 1980, Geoghan asserted that his
repeated abuse of seven boys in one family, which was disovered that
year, was not a ``serious'' problem. That is according to a church
timeline of Geoghan's career - six parish assignments in 34 years
with accusations that he molested more than 130 children. Law, after
celebrating Mass yesterday at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross,
reiterated the archdiocese's statement of Friday that he would not
comment on Geoghan. The documents also contain evidence that
Geoghan's false denials of past sexual abuse through the 1960s and
much of the 1970s helped justify a critical church decision that
freed Geoghan to abuse even more children. In 1989, Geoghan was
forced to take a six-month sick leave from St. Julia's after more
accusations of abuse surfaced. But Law soon signed off on a decision
to return him to the parish, according to church documents. The
Spotlight reports from today and yesterday are based on public
documents filed in connection with 84 civil lawsuits pending against
Geoghan and two criminal cases, the first of which is scheduled to go
to trial in Middlesex Superior Court next Monday. The archdiocese,
Law, and five other bishops are defendants in many of the pending
lawsuits, charged with negligence for not properly supervising
Geoghan. Already, the archdiocese has settled 50 other lawsuits,
paying more than $10 million to Geoghan's victims. The multiple
accusations against Geoghan represent the largest scandal involving
an American Catholic priest since the 1992 disclosure that former
priest James Porter had abused more than 100 children in the Fall
River Diocese in the 1960's. The massive number of documents
compiled by lawyers handling the 84 remaining civil suits have been
under a confidentiality seal sought by the archdiocese. But based on
a motion by the Globe, Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney
ordered that all the documents be made public. They are scheduled to
be released on Jan. 26. The documents already on public file detail
the extent of
Geoghan's lengthy treatment history and make clear the church's
longtime knowledge of his misconduct. The psychiatric documents
offer added insights into Geoghan's troubled mind and the motivations
behind his aberrant actions - often as explained by Geoghan himself.
Geoghan was, by his own assessment, a heterosexual. But, he told
Messner during his treatment sessions that his victims were usually
young prepubescent boys. He said he ``avoided girls,'' explaining
that, ``I picked the boys because in some way they were the safest,
the girls and the mothers would have been more dangerous.'' The
records suggest there were early warning signs. Geoghan, who is 66,
attended St. John's Seminary after graduating from Holy Cross College
and was ordained in 1962. Deposition transcripts refer to
correspondence from Geoghan's seminary days in which his superiors
conclude he has ``pronounced immaturity.'' In an April 1995 session
with Messner, Geoghan said that even as a newly ordained priest he
would ``experience arousal when there was physical closeness'' with
children. In a June 1996 psychological assessment, Dr. Mark Blais, a
Massachusetts General Hospital psychologist, concluded that Geoghan
has a ``powerful sense of emotional deprivation and emotional
loneliness.'' Medical evaluations of Geoghan, which repeatedly
cleared him to return to parish work after incidents of sexual
misconduct in the 1970s and 80s, changed dramatically in the mid-
1990s. By then, complaints against Geoghan were being made with
unsettling frequency, and it was clear he risked becoming an
embarrassment - and financial liability - to the Church. In December
1984, for example, a month after being reassigned to St. Julia's in
Weston following his removal from St. Brendan's in Dorchester,
Geoghan underwent evaluations by two separate Boston-area
psychotherapists. Dr. Robert Mullins declared Geoghan ``fully
recovered,'' and Dr. John H. Brennan advised ``no . . . restrictions
to his work as a parish priest.'' Not everyone was comfortable with
the assignment. Bishop John M. D'Arcy, a popular cleric whose
forthright manner rankled Law, according to a friend of D'Arcy, wrote
to Law in December 1984 to question Law's decision assigning Geoghan
to St. Julia's because of his history of sex abuse. He warned that
placing Geoghan there might result in further scandal. Two months
later, D'Arcy was gone, transferred to a diocese in Ft. Wayne, Ind.,
which he has headed ever since. New allegations against Geoghan
surfaced within two years, and again in 1989. But Geoghan told Bishop
Robert J. Banks in March 1989 that he had ``no more sexual attraction
to children'' and had been ``chaste for five years.'' But the
church's own timeline of Geoghan's misconduct suggests Banks did not
believe him. Within weeks, Geoghan was sent to the St. Luke Institute
in Suitland, Md., where he was diagnosed with ``homosexual
pedophilia.'' The result: ``Told by Bishop Banks he had to leave
ministry,'' according to a church record. Instead, Geoghan was put
on sick leave the following month, and in August was
hospitalized for three months at the Institute of Living, a Hartford
treatment center, where he was discharged in November 1989, as
``moderately improved.'' Banks agreed to send him back to St.
Julia's, subject to approval by another bishop and ``BFL'' - Cardinal
Law. But during 1995 treatment, psychologists at St. Luke concluded
that during the 1989 treatment in Hartford, Geoghan did not tell the
truth about the extent of his sexual abuse of children. He denied any
incidents before the late 1970s, to include long-running instances of
abuse dating to 1962. And the Institute of Living's report to the
archdiocese reflected Geoghan's lie. Moreover, the records state
that Bishop Banks was ``unhappy'' with the Institute of Living's
discharge summary because it was ``different from what he had
understood and based his decision to allow Fr. Geoghan back to
work.'' A reply letter from the institute reports that, ``The
probability that he would act out again is quite low. However, we
cannot guarantee that it could not reoccur.'' Yet the archdiocese
was hit with more complaints in 1991, 1992, and 1994, although the
1992 accusation was dismissed by church officials as ``hearsay and
vague.'' Law finally removed Geoghan from parish duty in January
1993. Midway through his treatment with Messner, Geoghan was
returned to St. Luke in January 1995. His diagnosis after that 10-day
stay was far less optimistic than earlier judgments. ``It is our
clinical judgment that Father Geoghan has a longstanding and
continuing problem with sexual
attraction to prepubescent males,'' his evaluation reads. ``His
recognition of the problem and his insight into it is limited.''
Therapists at St. Luke advised that Geoghan have no unsupervised
contact with minor males and return for residential treatment,
although Geoghan resisted the latter recommendation. Instead, he was
sent in July 1995, to Southdown, an Ontario treatment facility, where
he stayed for four to six months. In 1996, Blais, too, submitted a
pessimistic evaluation. ``Treatment of such a chronic and deeply
ingrained condition would need to be lengthy,'' he wrote. Geoghan
was removed from the priesthood in 1998.
Save 50% on home delivery of The Boston Globe
� Copyright 2002 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing Inc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
