Geoghan
preferred preying on poorer children
To therapist, priest cited sexual revolution
By Sacha Pfeiffer; prepared by the Globe Spotlight Team: reporters Matt
Carroll, Sacha Pfeiffer and Michael Rezendes; and editor Walter V. Robinson
Boston Globe
January 7, 2002
http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/stories/010702_geoghan.htm
Second of two parts [See Part
1.]
[In this two-part article, links to the documents have been provided
by BishopAccountability.org. See also our library of over 100 archdiocesan
documents on Geoghan. With Part 2, the Globe published two related
articles: In
1985, Law had report on repeat abusers, by Michael Rezendes; and Geoghan's
troubled history.]
The 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."
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John J. Geoghan at a pre-trial hearing
in Middlesex Superior Court. (AP Photo) |
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 prompted
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 of 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 1960s.
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, "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." [See the 7/31/54 letter
from Msgr. John J. Murray, rector of Cardinal O'Connell Seminary,
to Msgr. Thomas J. Riley, rector of St. John's Seminary.]
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 Fort 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." [See Rev. Brian M. Flatley's 7/11/96 updated
summary of allegations.]
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."
[See also Banks's 11/30/89 letter to the Institute of Living, stating that he was "a bit disappointed
and disturbed."]
A reply letter from the institute reports: "The probability that
he would act out again is quite low. However, we cannot guarantee that
it could not reoccur." [This quotation is from Flatley's 1996 updated summary
of allegations; see also the Institute of Living's 12/13/89 letter,
from which Flatley gave an abbreviated quote.]
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." [Another quote from Flatley's summary
of allegations.]
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.
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 1/7/2002.
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