Repeat offender

By Hwei Wen Foo and Ellen Barry
Boston Globe
April 3, 2002

Despite the Catholic Church’s attempts to provide therapy for its sex-offender priests, some of them – like Father John Geoghan – spent years moving in and out of the system. Geoghan is accused of molesting 130 boys, one as young as 4 years old.

 Key    Alleged act of abuse Alleged acts of abuse    Treatment Treatment 


 1960s
Alleged act of abuse  Early 1960s 
At Blessed Sacrament in Saugus, Geoghan often took young boys to his rectory bedroom to "wrestle," said a fellow priest.

Treatment  1968 
Geoghan received treatment for sexual abuse at the Seton Institute in Baltimore, according to a therapist there at the time.

14 plaintiffs have accused Geoghan of abusing them during this period.
 1970-1988
Alleged act of abuse  1974 
Geoghan abuses a 12-year-old Roslindale boy at St. Andrew's Church in Jamaica Plain, according to criminal charges.

Treatment  April 3-12, 1989 
Geoghan is assessed at St. Luke Institute in Maryland, which he describes as "cold, mechanistic." He received an electrocardiogram and CAT scan. Diagnosis: homosexual pedophilia.

90 plaintiffs have accused Geoghan of abusing them during this period.
 1988-1998
Treatment  Sept.-Nov., 1989 
Geoghan spends three months in residential treatment at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Conn.
   Psychiatrist Robert Swords offered a diagnosis of "atypical pedophilia, in remission." Swords wrote that Geoghan was "clinically quite safe to resume his ministry."

Alleged act of abuse  1992 
Geoghan fondles an altar boy donning vestments for a christening ceremony, according to criminal charges.

Treatment  January 1995 
Geoghan returns to St. Luke Institute. His superiors are told he should not have unsupervised contact with male minors.

Alleged act of abuse  1995 
Geoghan allegedly molests a Weymouth boy.

Treatment  July-September 1996 
Geoghan in residential treatment at Southdown, a psychiatric hospital in Ontario. "The primary objective is to aid Fr. John in being able to experience, identify, and express his feelings," wrote therapist Samuel Mikhail. In December, he is granted senior priest retirement status.

 1998 
Geoghan is defrocked. 		16 plaintiffs have accused Geoghan of abusing them during this period.


Sources: Court documents;
news reports; Mitchell Garabedian.

From: http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2003/public-service/works/globe13.html		 Graphic: Globe Staff/Hwei Wen Foo and Boston.com