Betrayal (36 page)
April 12, 1979. Cardinal Medeiros's letter ends Shanley's appointment to the Ministry to Alienated Youth and appoints him associate pastor at St. John the Evangelist parish. The letter also orders Shanley to fulfill his duties in “full conformity” with Church teachings.
January 16, 1990. Rev. Robert J. Banks's letter to San Bernardino's Rev. Philip A. Behan recommends Church-provided room and board for Shanley while on sick leave from the Boston archdiocese. It refers to Shanley as “a priest in good standing.”
December 9, 1991. Rev. John B. McCormack, now a bishop in New Hampshire, tells Bishop Alfred C. Hughes that Shanley “is a sick person.”
February 29, 1996. Cardinal Law grants senior priest retirement status to Shanley.
June 12, 1997. Cardinal Law, in a letter to New York Cardinal John O'Connor that apparently was not sent, writes that he would not object if Shanley were named executive director of the Leo House.
June 18, 1997. Rev. William F. Murphy tells Cardinal Law that Shanley's application to run the Leo House in New York City was rejected because Cardinal O'Connor felt it was “too volatile to risk the publicity which might arise.”
September 6, 1997. Murphy tells Shanley that some restrictions on him have been lifted. “All that is written in stone is that you are not allowed to engage in any parish ministry.”
This book is based primarily on original reporting by the staff of the
Boston Globe,
including hundreds of interviews with victims and perpetrators of clergy sexual abuse; numerous church officials, including bishops, priests, nuns, seminarians, lay leaders, and lay staff; government officials, including prosecutors and elected officials; academics, including sociologists and theologians; interest groups representing victims, priests, and Catholic laypeople; and attorneys. We also relied on a large number of Church documents filed in connection with criminal and civil court cases, on statements and other documents published by the Church and by advocacy groups, on the past and current coverage of the clergy sexual abuse crisis by the
Globe
and other news organizations, on the scholarly work of academic researchers and other authors, on opinion polling conducted by the
Globe
and other organizations, and on public statements by Church leaders at news conferences and from the pulpit. In these notes we acknowledge the people we interviewed and the publications we quoted in this book.
Chapter 1: Father Geoghan
Interview quoted:
Frank Leary.
Sources quoted:
A considerable amount of material for this chapter was drawn, from ten thousand pages of court documents obtained by the
Globe
under a court order. The documents, from eighty-four civil lawsuits filed against former priest John J. Geoghan and seventeen Church officials, include depositions, correspondence, and psychiatric evaluations.
Cardinal Law's letter to Geoghan, concluding “God bless you, Jack,” is dated December 12, 1996, and is part of Geoghan's court file.
The letter from Monsignor John J. Murray, rector of Cardinal O'Connell Seminary, to Rev. Thomas J. Riley, rector of St. John's Seminary, is dated July 31, 1954, and is part of the court file.
Geoghan's recollections about his father, his struggles with his father's death, and his thoughts about his early childhood are taken from a confidential 1989 report prepared by St. Luke Institute in Maryland. It is part of the court file.
Details of Geoghan's earliest days in the priesthood are taken from a series of letters between his uncle, Monsignor Mark H. Keohane, and Rev. Thomas J. Riley, rector of St. John's Seminary, dated July 1955.
Geoghan's remarks to therapists about his earliest sexual feelings are taken from the 1989 St. Luke report.
The acknowledgment of Geoghan's sexual arousal in the company of boys is noted on page 55 of the deposition of Dr. Edward Messner, a Massachusetts General Hospital psychiatrist, taken on December 27, 2001.
Geoghan's assertion that only on “rare occasions” did he touch a seven-year-old boy and was “careful never to touch” one family's only girl is noted on page 19 of Geoghan's sentencing report of February 15, 2002, prepared by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Geoghan's quotation about his wish that he had sought advice about “how to deal with children from dysfunctional families” is from a critique prepared by Geoghan of a 1995 St. Luke Institute report. It is contained in the sentencing report, page 22.
The quotation from Geoghan observing that “the children were just so affectionate” is taken from a June 1996 evaluation of Geoghan conducted by Dr. Mark Blais of Massachusetts General Hospital. Blais's comments are noted on page 26 of the sentencing report.
Rev. Thomas W. Moriarty's assessment that “something is not right” with Geoghan is from Moriarty's deposition of February 23, 2001.
Joanne Mueller's account of Geoghan's assault on her son is taken from Mueller's deposition of August 17, 2000.
Maryetta Dussourd's description of Geoghan's abuse of one of her sons is from her August 24, 2001, deposition.
Rev. William C. Francis's statement that “there was talk that [Geoghan] had been fooling around with kids” is from Francis's deposition on March 30, 2001.
Leonard Muzzi's recollection about Geoghan at his home in Hingham, Massachusetts, is from a sworn statement contained in Geoghan's court file.
Geoghan's fondling of a young boy on the eve of the child's First Communion is described on page 6 of the Commonwealth's sentencing report.
The accusation that Geoghan fondled a young boy in the bleachers at Fenway Park is detailed on page 8 of the sentencing report.
The quotation from Geoghan that “youngsters I was involved with were from troubled homes” is taken from Geoghan's critique of the St. Luke report about him. It is excerpted on page 24 of the sentencing report.
Rev. Francis H. Delaney's comment about a housekeeper's contention that Geoghan had children upstairs at the rectory is from Delaney's deposition of April 27, 2001.
The quotation from Cardinal Medeiros that Geoghan “will receive a grant of $2,000 to help with your expenses” is from a letter from Medeiros to Geoghan dated August 26, 1982, and is contained in Geoghan's court files.
Catherine Geoghan's comments about her brother's feeling “upset” about the charges against him and Geoghan's victims showing up at his home in Scituate, Massachusetts, are taken from her deposition of September 8, 2000.