Rev. Brian M. Flatley's assessment of Geoghan as a “pedophile, a liar, and a manipulator” is noted on page 53 of Messner's deposition of December 28, 2001.
Geoghan's admission that he had “inappropriate sexual activity with prepubertal boys in the early 1960s” is contained on page 18 of the Commonwealth's sentencing report.
Catherine Geoghan's account of the decision to place the family real estate holdings in her name alone is from her September 8, 2000, deposition.
The description of Geoghan's emotions and actions in the mid-1990s is drawn chiefly from Messner's deposition.
Geoghan's resistance to attending meetings of Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous and his statements about being on “the verge of death row” are from Messner's deposition.
The decision to fund Geoghan's retirement from its clergy medical fund is discussed in a December 4, 1996, archdiocesan memo.
Chapter 2: Cover-Up
Interviews quoted:
Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, Air Force chaplain; Mitchell Garabedian, attorney, Roderick MacLeish Jr., attorney; Raymond Sinibaldi, alleged clergy sexual victim.
Other interviews:
Jeffrey R. Anderson, attorney; Robert Anderton, alleged victim; Jason Berry, author; Sylvia Demarest, attorney; Maryetta Dussourd, mother of alleged victims; David Finkelhor, director, Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire; William H. Gordon, attorney; Mark Keane, alleged victim; Donna M. Morrissey, spokeswoman for the Boston archdiocese; Matthew J. McNamara, attorney; Patrick McSorley, alleged victim; Dr. Robert W. Mullins, physician; Jeffrey A. Newman, attorney; Jean Palermo, alleged victim; Monsignor Thomas E. Reidy, vicar general, Springfield–Cape Girardeau diocese; Philip J. Saviano, New England director, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests; A. W. Richard Sipe, author and psychotherapist.
Sources quoted:
Much of the material used for this chapter is taken from the Geoghan court documents.
Margaret Gallant's letter to Cardinal Bernard F. Law is dated September 6, 1984; Law's reply is dated September 21, 1984.
Law acknowledged consulting with Bishop Thomas V. Daily and placing Geoghan in the category of “in between assignments” in a public court document filed on June 4, 2001.
Rev. James H. Lanes contact with Geoghan was described in confidential interviews.
Rev. Francis S. Rossiter's knowledge of the allegations against Geoghan are noted in a confidential Church chronology of Geoghan's career, dated August 22, 1994. Rossiter's denial that he was informed of Geoghan's troubled past is made on pages 75–81 of his deposition, taken on April 11, 2001.
Cardinal Bernard F. Law's 1984 arrival in Boston was covered by
Boston Globe
religion reporter James L. Franklin in several newspaper stories.
John Logue's comparison of Law and the late president John F. Kennedy was taken from a
Globe
story dated March 30, 1984.
Rev. Paul A. White's comparison of Law and the late Cardinal Richard Cushing was published in the
Globe
on March 30, 1984.
Bishop John M. D’ Arcy's letter to Law is dated December 7, 1984.
Geoghan's activities at the Waltham Boys & Girls Club are detailed in Suffolk County civil lawsuits and a Middlesex County criminal complaint dated November 22, 1999. On January 18, 2002, Geoghan was sentenced to a 9-to-10-year prison term for indecently touching a ten-year-old boy in the club's swimming pool.
Geoghan's evaluation by the St. Luke Institute as a “homosexual pedophile, non-exclusive type” and the characterization that he was a “high risk” are dated April 26, 1989.
Bishop John J. Banks told Geoghan he would have to leave the ministry on April 28, 1989, according to a confidential chronology of Geoghan's career prepared by a Church official.
Law's statements about the Church's lack of knowledge of child sexual abuse was reported in the July 27, 2001, edition of
The Pilot.
The estimate that Geoghan molested at least thirty children after Law reassigned him to St. Julia's Church, on November 13, 1984, was made by examining allegations in civil lawsuits and criminal complaints.
The 1981 removal of Rev. Leonard R. Chambers from a Missouri parish was confirmed in an interview with Monsignor Thomas E. Reidy, vicar general of the Springfield–Cape Girardeau diocese.
The story of Rev. Gilbert Gauthé is drawn from Jason Berry,
Lead Us Not into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children
(Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), pages 7, 11, 18, 156, and from interviews with the author.
The account of the House of Affirmation and the Rev. Thomas Kane was drawn from a
Boston Globe
story dated April 24, 1993, and from a story in the
New York Times
dated April 19, 2002.
Law's support for the writing of the 1985 confidential report “The Problem of Sexual Molestation by Roman Catholic Clergy” was described in an interview with Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, one of the report's authors. All quotations from the report are taken from an original copy of the document.
Mark Chopko's comments on behalf of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops were made in 1992 to
Globe
religion reporter Franklin. Franklin also reported that Doyle lost his position at the Vatican embassy in Washington and was unable to renew his teaching contract.
Bishop James A. Quinn's statements are taken from a transcript of his speech to the Midwest Canon Law Society in April of 1990, a copy of a deposition taken from him on May 26, 1995, in a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit against the Cleveland diocese, and a story in the
New York Times
dated April 14,2002.
The story of Gregory J. Riedle's lawsuit against Rey. Thomas Adamson and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is drawn from an interview with attorney Jeffrey R, Anderson and a May 23, 1992, story in the
Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The account of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in New Mexico relies on numerous newspaper stories, including the
Santa Fe New Mexican,
March 8, 1998; the
Albuquerque Tribune,
March 20, 1998;
USA Today,
March 26, 2002; and the
Palm Beach Post,
June 26, 1998.
The lawsuit and criminal charges against Rev. Rudolph Kos of the Dallas diocese are drawn from an interview with attorney Sylvia Demarest and newspaper stories in the
Dallas Morning News
dated July 25, 1997; March 29, 1998; July 11, 1998; and September 30, 2000.
The case of Rev. James R. Porter was the subject of extensive reporting by the
Globe
in newspaper stories by Don Aucoin, Linda Matchan, and other reporters. The account of the Porter story also relies on interviews with attorneys Roderick MacLeish Jr, and Matthew J. McNamara, confidential sources, and Porter's alleged victims.
The story of the alleged abuse suffered by Raymond Sinibaldi and Robert Anderton is drawn from interviews with them and their attorneys.
Accounts of the Church's fight against state legislation that would have required clergy to report allegations of sexual abuse of children sire drawn from stories in the
Boston Globe.
Accounts of Law's 1993 policy on clergy sexual abuse come from reporting by the
Globe
and interviews with Law published in 1992 and 1993. Law's pledge to “report such incidents to civil authorities in accordance with the law” was taken from a
Globe
story dated January 15, 1993.
The characterization of an unholy alliance among the Church, victims, and their lawyers was drawn from numerous interviews with attorneys and victims.
The legal strategy employed by attorney Mitchell Garabedian was drawn from court documents and interviews with Garabedian and his associate. William H. Gordon.
Rev. David A. Holley's story is drawn from an August 31, 1997, article in the
Dallas Morning News,
and from an interview with one of Holley's victims, Philip J. Saviano.
Wilson D. Rogers's statement about medical evaluations of priests accused of sexual misconduct was published in the July 27, 2001, edition of
The Pilot.
The story of Geoghan's doctors — John H. Brennan and Robert W. Mullins — and their spotty credentials is drawn from public court documents, state medical files, and interviews, as well as from correspondence and records of Geoghan's psychiatric treatment that were unsealed by the court.
Brennan's letter saying that he had met with Geoghan and that they had “mutually agreed” he could resume his ministerial duties is dated January 13,1981.
The evaluation from Mullins describing Geoghan's “unfortunate traumatic experience” was received by the Church on October 22,1984.
The description of Geoghan's therapy as “friendly paternal chats” comes from an Institute of Living evaluation dated November 4, 1989.
Information about the referral of clients to Brennan by the late Rev. Fulgence Buonanno comes from confidential interviews.
Bishop Banks's notes of his conversation with Brennan, in which Brennan urged him to “clip” Geoghan's wings, are dated April 28, 1989.
The evaluation by the Institute of Living that Geoghan could be “a high risk taker” is dated November 4, 1989. Banks wrote that he was “disappointed and disturbed by the report” in a letter dated November 30, 1989.
The Institute of Living's letter to Banks stating it was “quite safe” to return Geoghan to active ministry is dated December 13, 1989.
The account of Geoghan's last years as a priest and his defrocking by Law is taken from newspaper stories in the
Globe.
Law's statement that he did not have the “powers of incarceration” is taken from a
Globe
newspaper story dated June 7, 1998.
Chapter 3: The Predators
Interviews quoted:
Jean Bellow, former Massachusetts Department of Youth Services worker; Lynne M. Cadigan, Tucson attorney; Cornelius Coco, former Alpha Omega staff psychologist; John Isaacson, former Massachusetts Department of Youth Services assistant commissioner; Howard McCabe, father of alleged victim; Michael McCabe, alleged victim; Andrew Menchaca, alleged victim; A. W. Richard Sipe, psychotherapist-author; Frank Taylor, father of alleged victim; Peter Taylor, alleged victim.
Other interviews:
Robert Abraham, alleged victim; Arthur Austin, alleged victim; Robert P. Bartlett, alleged victim; Thomas Blanchette, alleged victim; Paul Busa, alleged victim; Rev. James M. Carroll, Massachusetts priest; Paul Cultrera, alleged victim; Katbryn D'Agostino, former parishioner, St. John the Evangelist, Newton, Massachusetts; Carmen Durso, attorney; John J. Facella, father of alleged victim; Gregory Ford, alleged victim; Paula Ford, mother of alleged victim; Rodney Ford, father of alleged victim; Harold F. Francis, father of alleged victim; Sheila Francis, mother of alleged victim; Mitchell Garabedian, attorney; Jacqueline M. Gauvreau, former parishioner, St. John the Evangelist, Newton, Massachusetts; Frederic Halstrom, Boston attorney; Laurence A. Hardoon, Boston attorney; James Hogan, alleged victim; Olan Horne, alleged victim; Rev. Bernard Lane, Massachusetts priest; David Lyko, alleged victim; Roderick MacLeish Jr., attorney; Marjorie Mahoney, sister of alleged victim; Mary McGee, mother of alleged victim; Patrick McGee, spokesman for Bishop John B. McCormack of Manchester, New Hampshire; Raymond P. McKeon, retired Chelmsford, Massachusetts, police chief; Jeffrey A. Newman, Boston attorney; Kevin O'Toole, brother of alleged victim; Ronald H. Paquin, former Massachusetts priest; William E. Rayno, former head of sexual assault unit, Mcthuen, Massachusetts, police department; Robert A. Sherman, Boston attorney; Rev. John J. White, Massachusetts priest. Numerous alleged victims and their family members spoke to the
Globe
on condition of anonymity, so while some of their stories appear in this book, their names do not. Many others spoke to the
Globe
on the record, but space constraints prevent their accounts from being included.
Sources quoted:
Quotations from letters written by Paul R. Shanley and Cardinal Bernard F. Law are from sixteen hundred pages of previously confidential files released by the Boston archdiocese in April 2002.
Shanley's remarks to a reporter in 1969 were reported in the
Boston Globe,
November 24, 1969.
Other sources:
Jason Berry,
Lend Us Not into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children
(Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000).
Information about clergy sex abuse cases in Arizona is from numerous stories that appeared in the
Arizona Daily Star, Los Angeles Times,
and
Tucson Citizen
in 2002.
Some information about allegations made against various priests is culled from civil lawsuits filed by alleged victims and their families.
Chapter 4: The Victims
Interviews quoted:
Thomas Blanchette, Patricia Dolan, Frank Doherty, Michael Doherty, Virginia Doherty, Christopher T. Fulchino, Thomas P. Fulchino, Timothy Lambert, Armand Landry, Bryan MacDonald. Kenneth A. MacDonald, Patrick McSorley, Courtney Doherty Oland, and Peter Pollard. All are victims or family members of victims.
Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, confirmed in an interview that the archdiocese was aware that Rev. Peter R. Frost had abused minors.
Chapter 5: Explosion
Interviews quoted:
Christopher Dixon; William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights; Bishop William S. Skylstad, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Sources quoted:
Reports taken from other newspapers, most notably the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
and the
Hartford Courant,
are attributed directly to them unless otherwise noted here.
Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell's remarks about his “awesome responsibility” during his installation are from the
Palm Beach Post,
January 15, 1999.
Bishop Thomas V. Daily's comments that begin “I am a pastor” are from his deposition of September 15, 2002. It is part of the Geoghan court file,