Former Marist House Priest Is on Sex Abuse List

By Julia Spitz
MetroWest Daily News
April 12, 2012

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/top_stories/x668518056/Former-Marist-Center-priest-is-on-sex-abuse-list

[Archdiocese of Boston's list of accused priests]

[New Garabedian List - BishopAccountability.org]

A priest who lived at the former Marist House in Framingham for more than 15 years was among a dozen clerics named in recent sexual abuse claims settlements, Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian announced yesterday.

The Rev. Henry Rancourt, who moved to a retirement building owned by the Stigmatine order in Waltham after the Marist retreat center closed last year, was anonymously accused of molesting boys while serving at St. Angela’s Parish in the Mattapan section of Boston in 1992.

Rancourt, who also served in parishes and schools in Michigan, New York and Ohio, was at the Marist House in 1987-88 and again from 1994 until the center closed in 2011, according to records on the bishopaccountability.org watchdog website.

His status as a priest is listed as “active’’ by the Archdiocese of Boston.

The settlements involving the 12 clerics accused by people represented by Garabedian include four priests with no ties to Massachusetts, and several who have been dead for many years.

Garabedian’s recent settlements with the Archdiocese of Boston include cases involving a former Boston Police chaplain whose only previous connection with the scandal was as a whistleblower.

The chaplain, the Rev. James Lane, and the Rev. Rickard O’Donovan, who were named in printed reports earlier this week, are both dead.

An archdiocese spokes-man confirmed the two settlements but said church investigations into the priests were inconclusive and the allegations went back 40 years.

Also on the list of clerics named in cases Garabedian has settled within the past 14 months are Brother Robert Burgess, who was assigned to St. Dominic Savio High School in Boston at the time of the 1970 allegation; and Brother Peter Claver, who served in Andover before his death in 1975.

The Archdiocese of Boston maintains a list of priests who have been accused of wrongdoings, and information on their status, on its bostoncatholic.org website

Associated Press material was used in this report.

Julia Spitz can be reached at 508-626-3968 or jspitz@wickedlocal.com