Feast Of The Epiphany

 

 

Twenty one years ago today on January 6th at 5:50PM EST the Boston Globe broke the Spotlight Team's story about Catholic Clergy who had spent decades boy-fucking and enabling boy-fucking in the Boston Archdiocese.  January 6th is the Feast of the Epiphany in the Catholic Church - how supremely appropriate..  Here are a few paragraph's from the Globe's reportage on that day.   This article was prepared by the Globe Spotlight Team: reporters Matt Carroll, Sacha Pfeiffer, and Michael Rezendes; and editor Walter V. Robinson. It was written by Rezendes. Since the mid-1990s, more than 130 people have come forward with horrific childhood tales about how former priest John J. Geoghan allegedly fondled or raped them during a three-decade spree through a half-dozen Greater Boston parishes. Almost always, his victims were grammar school boys. One was just 4 years old. Then came last July’s disclosure that Cardinal Bernard F. Law knew about Geoghan’s problems in 1984, Law’s first year in Boston, yet approved his transfer to St. Julia’s parish in Weston. Wilson D. Rogers Jr., the cardinal’s attorney, defended the move last summer, saying the archdiocese had medical assurances that each Geoghan reassignment was “appropriate and safe.” But one of Law’s bishops thought that the 1984 assignment of Geoghan to St. Julia’s was so risky, he wrote the cardinal a letter in protest. And for good reason, the Spotlight Team found: The archdiocese already had substantial evidence of Geoghan’s predatory sexual habits. That included his assertion in 1980 that his repeated abuse of seven boys in one extended family was not a “serious” problem, according to an archdiocesan record. The St. Julia’s assignment proved disastrous. Geoghan was put in charge of three youth groups, including altar boys. In 1989, he was forced to go on sick leave after more complaints of sexual abuse, and spent months in two institutions that treat sexually abusive priests. Even so, the archdiocese returned him to St. Julia’s, where Geoghan continued to abuse children for another three years. Now, as Geoghan faces the first of two criminal trials next week, details about his sexual compulsion are likely to be overshadowed by a question that many Catholics find even more troubling: Why did it take a succession of three cardinals and many bishops 34 years to place children out of Geoghan’s reach? Donna Morrissey, a spokeswoman for Law, said the cardinal and other church officials would not respond to questions about Geoghan. Morrissey said the church had no interest in knowing what the Globe’s questions would be.  The full article can be found here.   Notes:    On April 23rd 2003 - Father Geoghan was strangled and stomped to death while in protective custody at a maximum security prison in Lancaster MA.  Bernard Law - Senior Manager and John Geoghan's chief enabler fled to Rome where he was granted Vatican City citizenship (in order to evade US prosecution) by way of an ArchPriest appointment at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Bernie died at the ripe old age of 86.  ~