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	O'Malley Aims to Foster Healing: to Lead Service in Hingham Where Abusive Priests Served By Don Conkey Patriot Ledger [Hingham MA] June 1, 2006 http://patriotledger.com/articles/2006/06/01/news/news04.txt Nancy Goggin will be there tonight when Cardinal Sean O'Malley leads a prayer service at St. Paul's Church in Hingham, asking God's forgiveness for the damage done to people by abusive clergy. Goggin, of Randolph, has followed the cardinal's "Pilgrimage of Repentance and Hope" to some area churches because she counts herself among the indirect victims of the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. While not personally abused by a priest, Goggin said she nonetheless saw the scandal unfold and felt the foundation of her faith ripped away. "Many people have felt separated from God, unconnected from their spirituality," said Goggin, 44, a longtime member of Immaculate Conception Church in Stoughton. "It is like a grieving process." St. Paul's is the seventh of nine parishes on Cardinal O'Malley's 'visit' list, in addition to an opening Mass that was held at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on May 18. Tonight's service will be at 8 o'clock. The Rev. James Rafferty, the current pastor at St. Paul's, hopes that tonight's visit by O'Malley has a positive effect on people like Goggin who have felt separated from their faith. "It is good outreach to people who are still hurting over this terrible scandal that has afflicted our church - St. Paul in particular- throughout the archdiocese, and sadly, throughout the country," the Rev. Rafferty said. While a cardinal's visit is ordinarily an honor for a parish, that is not the case for St. Paul's tonight. The series of Masses and prayer services are being held at churches that suffered higher numbers of abuse cases. John Geoghan molested at least a dozen children while he was associate pastor at St. Paul's between 1967 and 1974. Geoghan never went to trial for his crimes in Hingham. He was convicted and sent to a maximum-security prison in Shirley in 2002 for an unrelated case in Woburn and was murdered in his cell by another inmate in August of 2003. Another abusive priest who served at St. Paul's, John Hanlon, is serving three life sentences; one of them is for a 1994 conviction for raping a St. Paul's altar boy at a Scituate cottage in 1980. Goggin said that from what she has seen at the services on the pilgrimage so far, Cardinal O'Malley has taken a large step in the right direction. "The service is absolutely beautiful," she said. "To see the cardinal and the priests prostrate themselves on the altar, in an act of reparation for the sins of the scandal, is very beautiful and very powerful." The prayer services "are very moving and appropriate," the Rev. Rafferty said. "There is repentance, turning to acknowledging the failure of leadership to handle this well; acknowledging terrible sins and crimes; and acknowledging the pain and suffering by families who have been hurt." Not everyone at the church tonight will be convinced that this is a big leap forward, however. Stan Doherty, a Hingham resident who is a member of St. Paul's, has held protest signs at other venues in the series and will again tonight. Doherty said he is not an abuse victim, but is protesting as a supporter of victims. "We see Cardinal O'Malley as being in a real bind," he said. "At some level, he may really want to protect children in Massachusetts and may want to do justice for survivors and for current children, but it has not stopped. "To achieve that would put him in conflict with his day job: to protect the reputation and bank accounts for the archdiocese." But Doherty does see some good coming out of the cardinal's visit. "At least, they are using language that finally admits there were sins and crimes committed by these priests and by the bishops who were running the system," Doherty said." Don Conkey may be reached at dconkey@ledger.com .
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