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Priests worry of a ‘2002 redux’
By Sean Philip Cotter
Catholic priests voiced their “frustrations and anxieties” over renewed church sex abuse scandal as Cardinal Sean O’Malley sought to address cover-up allegations to the clergy of the Boston archdiocese yesterday. “Is this 2002 redux?” The Rev. Paul Soper, the archdiocesan secretary for evangelization and discipleship, said was the overriding concern of the approximately 300 priests who attended O’Malley’s meeting at St. Julia’s in Weston. Soper was referring to the year the massive Boston archdiocese sex abuse scandal made worldwide headlines. “They worry we’re falling into that kind of abyss,” Soper said of the churchwide scandal now exploding in Pennsylvania with allegations of official mishandling reaching Boston and even Rome. O’Malley’s closed-door meeting at the church lasted more than an hour and a half. Priests speaking afterward said O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, gave his side of the story in the scandal involving the ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick — which he is alleged to have ignored. He had another archdiocesan official talk about the ongoing investigation into abuse allegations at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton. The meeting also included a town-hall section where priests were able to speak their piece, with many voicing worries or frustrations. “It was a struggle for everybody,” said one priest who didn’t give his name. “People got out their frustrations and anxieties,” Father George Szal of the Immaculate Conception Church in Revere. Soper said he and most priests present have confidence in O’Malley, though some made it clear they did not. O’Malley, chairman of Pope Francis’ Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, faces accusations of ignoring a priest’s letter trying to warn him three years ago about McCarrick, who was stripped of his title in June after allegations of sex abuse were deemed credible. O’Malley has placed the blame on his executive secretary, who the cardinal said never passed the information along to him — an explanation he repeated yesterday. “He said he never got the letter,” Soper said. Soper said he believes O’Malley. But he said major structural changes do need to happen. “Policy is the only thing that is going to get us through this,” Soper said. O’Malley declined comment after the meeting through a spokesman, though the archdiocese did get together a couple of priests, including Soper, to speak to the media after the event. Father Stephen Zukas of St. Edward the Confessor in Medfield said the meeting was productive, giving people a chance to talk the issues out and pray together. “It was beneficial to have this,” Zukas said. The meeting comes less than a week after a letter by a former Vatican diplomat to the United States accused Pope Francis of brushing the allegations against McCarrick under the table. In the wake of the letter, which makes reference to O’Malley’s McCarrick scandal, some are calling for both Francis and O’Malley to step down. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, a longtime advocate for victims of sexual assault in the church, held a press conference outside the church, calling for criminal investigations similar to the recent grand jury probe in Pennsylvania that found 1,000 victims of 300 priests. “The church must answer to secular law,” Garabedian said. “It’s time for the Catholic church to come clean.” Attorney General Maura Healey’s office said it is reviewing the Pennsylvania report and reaching out to the Boston archdiocese and to local district attorneys to take a look at the policies in place regarding child abuse. A small group of protesters gathered outside the church — once presided over by the late disgraced ex-priest John Geoghan, a notorious predator who was one of the first priests reported to be abusing children — waving signs with messages such as “Bishops knew about McCarrick and did nothing.” “Cardinal Sean O’Malley, you had to have known about these things,” said protester Bob Hoatson, a former priest who now runs a group advocating for survivors of sexual assault. “We hope we’ll finally get the answers to these questions.”
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