Three weeks after Geoghan arrived in Weston, Bishop DArcy protested the assignment to Law, citing Geoghans problems and adding: I understand his recent abrupt departure from St. Brendans, Dorchester may be related to this problem., A copy of the letter contains a redacted paragraph, an apparent reference to the Rev. . Officials claimed not to know how the videos, recorded by the prison surveillance systems, were made public.
Finally, in 1998, the church defrocked Geoghan, removing him from the priesthood. He was found guilty on February 21, 2002, of indecent assault and battery for grabbing the buttocks of a 10-year-old boy in a swimming pool at the Waltham Boys and Girls Club in 1991, and was sentenced to nine to ten years in prison. Then came last July's disclosure that Cardinal Bernard F. Law knew about Geoghan's problems in 1984, Law's first year in Boston, yet approved his transfer to St. Julia's parish in Weston. Banks was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay in 1990. image11on.src = "http://cache.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/images/universal/newnav/2002_scandal_on.gif";
Geoghan was eventually convicted of a single count of molesting a boy at a public swimming pool and later murdered by his prison cellmate. The Spotlight e-mail address is
But other specialists had long since warned Catholic bishops of the high risk that priests who had abused children would become repeat offenders. And he had been removed from at least two parishes for sexual abuse. Geoghan consultant ties eyed, September 4
spotlight@globe.com. But court records reviewed by the Globe show that when Benzevich appeared in Garabedians office for a pre-trial deposition in October 2000, he was represented by Wilson Rogers 3d - the son of Laws principal attorney. Mueller recalled the boy saying. It reads: "12/11/84 Dr. [Robert] Mullins - Father Geoghan 'fully recovered.' . A former priest, Anthony Benzevich, has said he alerted church higher-ups that Geoghan frequently took young boys to his rectory bedroom. Accused of molesting two boys at Cushing Hall, one in 1967-68 and one in 1971. Law allowed Geoghan to stay in Weston for more than eight years before removing him from parish duty in 1993. He just zeroed in on some kids.. Then she met Geoghan, who oversaw altar boys and Boy Scouts at the parish. Retired Monsignor Francis S. Rossiter, Geoghans pastor at St. Julias, refused to be interviewed last week. }
Now, as Geoghan faces the first of two criminal trials next week, details about his sexual compulsion are likely to be overshadowed by a question that many Catholics find even more troubling: Why did it take a succession of three cardinals and many bishops 34 years to place children out of Geoghans reach? The archdiocese appealed to the state Appeals Court, arguing that the Globe - and the public - should not have access to documents about the churchs inner workings. Geoghan protested, saying there was no one else to celebrate the 4 p.m. Mass. Almost immediately, Geoghan was working with First Communicants, befriending young children and their parents, even taking some boys to his family's summer home in Scituate, where - parents say they later discovered - he sexually abused the youths. John E. Thomas, the pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas, a nearby parish, according to court documents and accounts by Dussourd and a church official who asked that he not be identified. Three years later, after more allegations surfaced against him, he spent several months in therapy in the Southdown Institute in Ontario, Canada. The story behind a celeb-studded wedding party at 1928 Beacon Hill. Geoghan's first trial on sexual molestation charges is scheduled for Jan. 14 in Middlesex Superior Court. Then, under oath, Benzevich changed his story. One example: When Law was named a defendant in 25 of the lawsuits, Rogers asked a judge to impound any reference to the cardinal, arguing that his reputation might be harmed. MacLeish declined to provide any information about the family, and said a legal claim has yet to be filed over the son's treatment by Geoghan. One of his alleged victims, Anthony Muzzi Jr., said in an interview last week that in addition to his own abuse, his uncle caught Geoghan abusing his son. Banks was concerned about the conclusions of the institute's discharge summary. That complaint to church officials coincides with the time frame when Geoghan received in-patient treatment for sex abuse at the Seton Institute in Baltimore, according to Sipe, the psychotherapist who was on Seton's staff at the time. Even so, the archdiocese returned him to St. Julias, where Geoghan continued to abuse children for another three years. if(navigator.appVersion.indexOf('MSIE')>=0)document.write(unescape('%3C')+'\!-'+'-');
Of the priests, few would speak publicly. The Scituate house, a seven-room home at 64 Oceanside Drive with sweeping views of the Atlantic, is assessed at $268,500. On Dec. 7, Bishop John M. D'Arcy wrote to Law, challenging the wisdom of the assignment in light of Geoghan's "history of homosexual involvement with young boys. The second, more serious set of charges are due to be tried in Suffolk Superior Court in late February. Director Cushing Hall, Scituate, a home for troubled teenagers, 1971-85. According to McSorley, Geoghan, who knew the family from St. Andrew's, learned of his father's suicide and dropped by to offer condolences to his mother, who is schizophrenic. var s_wd=window,s_tm=new Date;if(s_code!=' '){s_code=s_dc('nytbglobe');if(s_code)document.write(s_code);}else document.write('
