One longtime parishioner at St. Joseph's, who asked that her name not be used, told The Boston Globe that in February 1979 she and her husband complained directly to Bishop Daniel A. Hart, who was the regional bishop for the South Shore at the time. Hart has been bishop of the Diocese of Norwich since 1996.

"We told Bishop Hart, "If he's not moved out of here, we're going to the police. And we want him in a place where he's not involved with children,'" the woman recalled. A week later, she said, Gale was removed from the parish. But within six months, she recalled, he visited the parish "with a carload of kids" from Waltham.

Through a spokeswoman, Jacqueline Keller, Hart declined Tuesday to answer questions about the Gale transfer. Keller also told The Day Wednesday that Hart would not comment.

The Globe reported earlier this month that in 1984 Hart fielded the complaint of a Franklin, Mass., couple who alleged that a parish priest had twice sexually assaulted the wife. The couple charged that Hart treated them with hostility. Although Hart made no promise to look into the matter or refer it to his superiors, the couple was convinced he took their complaint seriously. The parish priest was transferred.

Hart also refused to answer questions about the 1984 complaint.

Gale was indicted Tuesday by a Middlesex County grand jury, charged with four counts of raping a Waltham altar boy between 1980 and 1984, when the alleged victim was between 10 and 14 years old. Over four years, the boy was molested about twice a month, according to Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley.

Gale is the eighth priest this year to be criminally charged with molesting children within the Boston Archdiocese.

Months after revelations that the archdiocese knowingly moved pedophile priest John J. Geoghan from parish to parish, the Gale indictment highlights yet another case in which an alleged multiple offender was shuffled around with the knowledge of archdiocesan officials.

Indeed, even after Gale was finally removed from parish ministry in 1991 – whisked out of the Infant Jesus rectory in Brookline without explanation to the pastor – he was allowed to live at St. Monica's Church in South Boston. It was there, in 1993, that Gale allegedly tried to seduce a 17-year-old boy, an incident the alleged victim said was so traumatic that he abandoned thoughts of becoming a priest and lost his faith in the church and in Cardinal Bernard F. Law.

Gale's alleged molestation of boys began while he was a seminarian in the mid-1960s, according to Globe interviews with his alleged victims and archdiocesan records that have been turned over to lawyers.

As early as 1968, the year of Gale's ordination, there are records of complaints about Gale to the archdiocese. Gale, who is now 61, allegedly molested at least one boy at Our Lady of Lourdes in Jamaica Plain in the early 1970s before moving on to Quincy, where he lasted less than three years.

In Waltham, where he spent almost eight years, it was again parishioners who forced his removal, in 1987. But even then, Gale was sent to yet another parish, in Brookline, after treatment and "a clean bill of health," according to the Rev. Walter E. Casey, who was then pastor of Infant Jesus parish.

One of Gale's alleged victims at St. Joseph's in Quincy, Kevin P. Kelly, said in an interview Tuesday that his parents and other parents brought their complaints about Gale's abuse to the pastor, the Rev. Joseph J. Downey, in early 1979. Within days, he said, Gale was gone.

Downey, in an interview this week, said he was recently cautioned by archdiocesan officials not to discuss the case. But when asked whether Gale was transferred because of the complaints, the retired pastor said, "You're on the right track."

Downey, who is 82, paused a moment, then said how pained he is at this year's disclosures. "We were innocent priests. We didn't know how to handle those things," he said. "We should have known better. But it was something that wasn't out in the open then."

According to Coakley, the Waltham victim, who is now 32, was allegedly raped in the associate pastor's suite in St. Jude's rectory, behind an unused altar in the church storage basement and occasionally in Gale's car by a public park in Waltham.

Gale was arrested by police Tuesday at his Middleton, N.H., home and arraigned on a fugitive from justice charge in state court there. He was released without bail after promising to appear in Middlesex Superior Court Wednesday morning for arraignment on four counts of child rape.

Prosecutors were able to bring the charges despite the 15-year statute of limitations because it appears that Gale has been living in New Hampshire for the last few years, which halted the clock.

Gale, in a brief telephone interview in early January after the Globe found his name in documents that suggested he had molested children, asserted that he had been removed from ministry because of a drinking problem. Since January, he has not responded to more than a score of messages, including written notes, seeking an interview.

In 1996, Kelly received an $80,000 settlement from the archdiocese. In February 1979, when Kelly was 12, Gale allegedly took him to New Hampshire and raped him at a home Gale owned with his sister.

This past April, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating turned the Kelly case over to New Hampshire authorities for possible prosecution.

Kelly is one of at least three alleged victims of Gale who received settlements from the archdiocese several years ago. This year, several others have filed civil claims against him.