MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe
By Lisa Wangsness
| Globe Staff
April 11, 2012
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has reached settlements in sexual abuse cases involving two priests, including the Rev. James H. Lane, a beloved Dorchester pastor and veteran Boston police chaplain whose only previous connection with the abuse scandal was as a whistleblower.
The Boston priests – Lane, who died in 2007, and the Rev. Rickard O’Donovan, who died in 2000 – are among a dozen clerics named in separate sexual abuse claims against dioceses and religious orders that Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian says he settled in the last 14 months. The settlements were five- to six-figure amounts, said Garabedian.
As is standard, none of the settlements involved an admission of guilt.
Terrence C. Donilon, an archdiocesan spokesman, confirmed the two settlements but said in a statement that archdiocesan investigations were inconclusive because both involved a single victim who professed to have been abused more than 40 years ago by a priest who died before he could answer the allegations.
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