A Second Priest in Boston Is Accused of Years of Abuse

By Pam Belluck
New York Times
April 5, 2002

Boston - For weeks, the central figure in Boston's pedophile priest scandal has been John J. Geoghan, the now-defrocked priest accused of molesting nearly 200 boys while archdiocesan officials, aware of his history of sexual abuse, transferred him from one parish to another.

Now there are accusations of a similar pattern with a second priest, the Rev. Joseph E. Birmingham. More than 30 people have come forward in recent weeks with accusations that Father Birmingham, who died in 1989, molested them in his 30-year career as a priest. Several say that they told church officials about the accusations, but that Father Birmingham was merely transferred to other parishes.

Robert A. Sherman, a lawyer who filed a suit last month on behalf of a man who said Father Birmingham had molested him hundreds of times over four years, today amended that lawsuit to add the names of 13 people who claim they were abused by Father Birmingham. Mr. Sherman said in an interview that 17 other people had come forward with similar accusations in the last week.

"He had a 30-year history in parishes, and he was a major pedophile," said Mr. Sherman, who has represented scores of people who received settlements in cases of sexual abuse by members of the clergy. "He knew that other people had complained about him, and he continued to molest children."

The Archdiocese of Boston has settled at least one case involving Father Birmingham. In 1996, it paid $60,000 to Paul Cultrera, who claimed that the priest abused him when he was an altar boy in the early 1960's, The Boston Globe reported.

Several of the recent accusers contend that church officials were told about the accusations involving Father Birmingham as early as 1963 and did nothing to prevent him from continuing his career or continuing to have contact with children.

Howard McCabe said in an interview today that after he discovered in 1963 that his son Michael, who was training to become an altar boy, had been repeatedly molested by Father Birmingham in the sacristy at Our Lady of Fatima in Sudbury, Mass., he and his son and another father and son met with a monsignor.

Mr. McCabe said he did not remember the monsignor's name, but he said his parish priest later told him that Father Birmingham would be removed from Sudbury and made a chaplain at a hospital in Salem, where he would get psychiatric treatment.

Mr. McCabe said that a year later, his son saw Father Birmingham on a skiing trip, traveling with "a busload of young kids."

Father Birmingham had been assigned a post in Salem, as a priest at St. James church.

In 1970, a group of mothers arranged a meeting with another church official, Msgr. John Jennings, to complain that Father Birmingham had molested their children.

Mary McGee, one of the mothers, said today that they asked Monsignor Jennings to arrange psychiatric treatment for Father Birmingham, to report the complaints to Father Birmingham's next parish, in Lowell, and to keep him from teaching young children.

Mrs. McGee said the monsignor refused those requests and told them, "Ladies you have to be very careful of slander."

Monsignor Jennings, who was added as a defendant in the lawsuit today, lives in an assisted-living facility and could not be reached today. A spokeswoman for the archdiocese, Donna M. Morrissey, said she could not discuss accusations that were part of litigation.

Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the archbishop of Boston, also became a defendant in the lawsuit today, because another of Father Birmingham's accusers said he told the cardinal about the sexual abuse accusations at Father Birmingham's funeral in 1989.

The accuser, Thomas Blanchette, said the cardinal told him that he had removed Father Birmingham from active ministry as soon he learned of the accusations against him. Mr. Blanchette said the cardinal asked if he could pray for Mr. Blanchette, and then said, "I bind you by the power of the confessional not to speak to anyone about this again."

Ms. Morrissey, the archdiocese spokeswoman, said in a statement that the cardinal "has a vague recollection of such an encounter," but "he has no memory of the words exchanged.

"It is inconceivable to him, however, that he would ever have counseled someone never to speak of what they have suffered."

The bishop of the diocese of New Hampshire, John B. McCormack, is also a defendant in the lawsuit. Mrs. McGee said that in 1970, the mothers met with Father McCormack, then a priest who had served with Father Birmingham at her church in Salem. She said Father McCormack told the group to contact Father Birmingham's new parish priest, in Lowell.

Another accuser, James Hogan, said that while he was in Salem in the 1960's, Father McCormack saw Father Birmingham take him to his bedroom in the rectory.

"He saw me in the rectory at times with Father Birmingham," Mr. Hogan said. "It was obvious what was going on."

A spokesman for Bishop McCormack, who much later was put in charge of handling sexual abuse claims for the archdiocese, said that the bishop denied Mr. Hogan's accusations, but that he recalled telling the mothers to contact Father Birmingham's pastor and believed he had contacted the pastor himself.