By Katie Liesener
MetroWest Daily News
June 1, 2006
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=131671
As part of a nine-day journey through the Archdiocese of Boston, Cardinal Sean O'Malley came to St. Julia parish in Weston last night to lead a prayer service for healing and repentance in the wake of the sex abuse scandal that shook the faith of many Catholics.
Speaking before the congregation, O'Malley acknowledged the devastation caused by priests' sex abuse and the failure of Catholic Church leaders to respond to the crisis as it emerged.
"Only by contrite confession, heartfelt contrition and firm purpose of amendment...can we hope to gain the forgiveness of our brothers and sisters," O'Malley said in his homily.
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Paul Keller, of Medford, holds a sign of Anna Hagan Webb, of Wellesley, who holds a John Geoghan sign. Photo by Milton Amador |
"We ask your forgiveness."
But forgiveness does not come easily in the former parish of convicted child molester and former priest John Geoghan, who was beaten and strangled in Shirley state prison.
Standing outside the church in protest, Joe Gallagher, a former 25-year member of St. Julia, was not impressed with O'Malley's visit.
Gallagher raised six children in the church, four of whom were altar boys while Geoghan was at the parish from 1984 to 1993. Gallagher said he was close to Geoghan and publicly defended him even as his number of accusers grew.
"I consider Catholicism an impediment to my faith," he said, holding a sign with the picture of an 11-year-old boy whom he said Goeghan molested.
Gallagher and other protesters came last night to attract attention to their request that O'Malley create a public registry of names, locations and employees of the archdiocese who have been disciplined for sexual misconduct, and to support the repeal of statutes of limitations on sex crimes.
They have not yet had a response from O'Malley, a church publicist confirmed.
Another protester, Lynne Pollino of Wellesley, used to attend Bible study at St. Julia. She stopped attending soon after the crisis became public.
"I started hearing about all the child abuse, and it broke my heart," she said. "I thought, 'How can people sit here and study the Bible. Where's the outrage?'"
Pollino said O'Malley's visit could not be for the benefit of survivors because many would be too scared to enter a church again.
"He's having people meet in the church, but a lot of survivors are terrified of the church, of the rituals of the church, and its symbols," she said.
The service opened with the reading of a statement provided by an anonymous survivor who "felt unsafe to come into this atmosphere," according to the parishioner who read it.
Tom Blanchette, a survivor of sexual abuse by the Rev. Joe Birmingham, a priest who served in Sudbury, told of the abuse he and his four brothers endured, and the toll it took on their lives.
Tearfully, he told the congregation of forgiving Birmingham on his deathbed and asking God to grant him eternal life.
Nancy Goggin, a Catholic from Randolph who attended the service and several other services on O'Malley's journey so far, believes they are helping to reconcile and heal the church.
"He feels all the pain they feel. He cries with them," she said of O'Malley's response to victims. "This might be the most important thing he does for the Archdiocese of Boston. It's the piece that's been missing."
Goggin said she prayed in the church with a friend who was a victim of abuse as she worked through her own crisis in faith. She said she nearly left the church.
"But God helped me realize my anger was justified, but misplaced," she said.
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