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	The Archdiocese Hierarchy Knew That Father Brennan Was a Troubled Priest with a History of Inappropriate Relationships with Minors. Philadelphia Grand Jury Presentment February 14, 2011 http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/PDFs/clergyAbuse2-finalPresentment.pdf [pdf] Archdiocese records show that, in 1991, five years before Mark was raped, Cardinal Bevilacqua appointed Father Brennan to the faculty of Cardinal O'Hara High School in Springfield, Pennsylvania, and granted him a secondary assignment as the livein chaplain at Divine Providence Village, a residential facility for young women with developmental disabilities. In both posts, Father Brennan was known to have inappropriate relationships with minors. The Grand Jury reviewed several reports of interviews conducted by investigators for the Archdiocese. In one, Dr. Thomas O'Brien, the director of guidance at Cardinal O'Hara, said that Father Brennan and other priests took students out of class to conduct closed-door meetings, a practice that Dr. O'Brien felt the need to ban. Father Brennan focused particular attention on "David" (not his real name), a male student with whom he would frequently "hang out." One afternoon, Dr. O'Brien heard noises coming from inside Father Brennan's office, and then watched as the priest and David tumbled out of the office, wrestling with one another. In the words of other staff members at Cardinal O'Hara, including Dr. O'Brien's secretary, the relationship between Father Brennan and David was "not healthy." Documents in Father Brennan's file show that, during the priest's off hours, he frequently hosted loud parties, which were attended by David and a half-dozen or so other students from Cardinal O'Hara. Sister Patricia McCafferty, who was among the religious sisters responsible for administering Divine Providence Village, suspected that Father Brennan served alcohol to David and other minors at those parties – a suspicion that Mark Bukowski would later confirm. Witnesses testified that by the summer after David's high school graduation, when he would have been 17 or 18 years old, he moved in with Father Brennan at Divine Providence Village for a period of several months. Father Brennan told the sisters, falsely, that David was his nephew. Documents in Father Brennan's file record that the sisters registered a complaint with Archdiocesan officials about Father Brennan's behavior. Those complaints were passed along to Msgr. Lynn. However, the Secretary for Clergy did not address the underlying problem of the priest's inappropriate relationships with young people. Instead, he had someone tell Father Brennan that loud parties and permanent guests were not allowed at Divine Providence Village. Memos from Msgr. Lynn to the file record that, in April 1995, about four months after being admonished about hosting permanent guests at Divine Providence Village, Father Brennan met with Msgr. Lynn to discuss a possible change of residence. At the meeting, Father Brennan told the Secretary for Clergy that he did not get along with the sisters at Divine Providence Village, and said that he did not know why this was the case. Msgr. Lynn, according to his own notes of the meeting, said nothing about the fact that Father Brennan was living with a boy under false pretenses and holding boisterous parties with students where underage drinking was suspected. Records in Father Brennan's file show that, in June 1995, Cardinal Bevilacqua transferred the priest to St. Mary Magdalen, a parish in Media, Pennsylvania (with an attached elementary school), where Msgr. Lynn knew the pastor to be on friendly terms with Father Brennan. Although this assignment was apparently granted as a favor to Father Brennan, he grew unhappy during his time there, he told church officials. In March 1996, Father Brennan met with Msgr. Lynn to request a leave of absence. The Secretary for Clergy wrote in his file that the priest was "afraid that [his unhappiness] is beginning to show in his work and in a sense giving scandal to others because he is not performing up to expectations." At the time, Father Brennan told Msgr. Lynn that he believed his unhappiness was a byproduct of sexual abuse he had suffered as a child (though, when questioned years later, he denied having experienced such abuse). Soon after the meeting with Msgr. Lynn, according to Archdiocese documents, Father Brennan met with Cardinal Bevilacqua, and repeated to him the claim that he needed a leave of absence to deal with psychological ramifications from his own childhood sexual abuse. Cardinal Bevilacqua granted Father Brennan a temporary leave of absence. He noted in a memo to the priest's file, "My interview with Father Brennan has raised certain doubts in my mind about his honesty. I suspect, without any evidence, that he is not telling the full story of why he wishes this leave of absence. He seemed almost anxious to tell about his sexual abuse and did so without hesitation or embarrassment." In June 1996, according to Msgr. Lynn's notes, Father Brennan called the Secretary for Clergy because he was upset that other priests had been talking about his living arrangement with David, and suggesting that it was one of the reasons he had left Divine Providence Village. Msgr. Lynn told Father Brennan that he knew "there was a rumor circulating to that effect. . . . [but] not to be concerned about these rumors; . . . we only take the facts as we find them. Rumors are not put into personal files." (Msgr. Lynn did not record in the notes for this telephone call that he knew Father Brennan's living arrangement with David was more than a "rumor," that in fact it had been reported through channels by the religious sisters at Divine Providence Village, who had observed the situation firsthand.) Father Brennan engaged in inappropriate behavior with the Bukowski family before preying on Mark Bukowski. Father Brennan's first assignment upon joining the priesthood in 1989 had been as an assistant pastor at St. Andrew Church in Newtown, Pennsylvania, where he developed a close relationship with the Bukowski family, who were parishioners. Mark told the Grand Jury that Father Brennan often visited the Bukowskis on weekends during his time at St. Andrew, and continued the practice for years after he left the parish in 1991, sometimes staying overnight with the family. Father Brennan's close relationship with the Bukowskis was well documented in an investigation performed by the Archdiocese's investigator. We reviewed that investigation in the Archdiocese documents turned over to the Grand Jury. Father Brennan was particularly close to Mark, who was about 9 years old when the relationship started, and to Mark's mother, Patricia. During the visits, Father Brennan would drink heavily with Patricia, and then engage in classic grooming behavior with Mark. Mark told the Archdiocese investigator that Father Brennan would regularly bring up the topic of sex when talking with him. He also made a point of having close physical contact with Mark whenever they were together. During one visit, Father Brennan became intoxicated and then conducted a physical examination of Mark's nipples, according to the victim. On other occasions, Father Brennan gave Mark shoulder and back massages. And on almost all his visits, he initiated wrestling matches with Mark and Mark's older brother John. No matter what the form of contact, Mark said he always felt that Father Brennan "went too far." Father Brennan raped Mark Bukowski.
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