WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Kathleen A. Shaw TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
kshaw@telegram.com
WORCESTER— The Rev. Robert M. Hoatson, a priest of the Newark, N.J., Catholic diocese, plans to demonstrate at 6 tonight outside the upper gate of the College of the Holy Cross during a speech by the Rev. Daniel Berrigan S.J..
The college is celebrating its Jesuit heritage this week.
Rev. Hoatson has vowed to demonstrate regularly at the college until the administration changes the name of its Millard Art Center, named after a priest whom Rev. Hoatson has called a “serial sexual predator.” A previous demonstration about the name was held Aug. 30.
Rev. Hoatson, president and founder of Rescue and Recovery International, an organization that gives services to survivors of clergy sexual abuse, recently wrote to Rev. Berrigan and asked him to cancel the speech. He also asked Rev. Barrigan not participate in Holy Cross events until the college changes the name of the art center. He said he did not expect Rev. Berrigan to agree.
Rev. Berrigan will speak at 7 in the Hogan Campus Center on “Poetry and Peacemaking in the Warmaking State.”
During his demonstration at the college, Rev. Hoatson will carry a sign and hand out fliers voicing his concern about the art center’s name. He said he wants to “conscientize the Holy Cross community and those who will be in attendance.”
Rev. Hoatson comes into the area regularly because he is supporting a group of alleged victims of Monsignor Fred Ryan in the Boston area. He also has been visiting with a survivor of clergy sexual abuse who is incarcerated at the federal prison at Devens and is helping a Northampton woman who is an alleged victim of clergy sexual abuse.
For the Holy Cross demonstrations, Rev. Hoatson is acting in support of Patricia A. Cahill of Lancaster, Pa.., who has consistently maintained she was sexually abused as a child by the priest for whom the building is named. The Rev. Daniel F.M. Millard, who died more than 30 years ago, was her uncle. Although she received compensation from the Camden, N.J., diocese for counseling related to this alleged abuse, other Millard family members have steadfastly denied any occurrence of abuse by this priest.
Rev. Berrigan himself is no stranger to demonstrations. He has been arrested as part of civil disobedience actions in his quest for peace and he is one of the Catonsville Nine demonstrators who were arrested in Maryland after burning draft records to protest the Vietnam war.
The Holy Cross administration has said that, although it takes allegations of sexual abuse seriously, after talking with Millard family members it will not change the name of the art center.