SPRINGFIELD (MA)
iobserve
By Father Bill Pomerleau
SPRINGFIELD – Testimony in the civil trial of Springfield Bishop Emeritus Joseph F. Maguire and former Springfield Bishop Thomas L. Dupré began July 24 with dramatic testimony from abuse victim Andrew Nicastro.
Fighting back tears at several points in during his 45 minutes on the witness stand, Nicastro recounted how he had been a happy child, in an intact nuclear family, growing up in Williamstown before a new priest, then-Father Alfred C. Graves, arrived at St. Patrick Parish in 1981. But by early 1982, his pastor had begun to sexually abuse him in the parish church and rectory.
“It was done with laughter. I felt chosen,” Nicastro said in a quiet voice after recounting in graphic detail how Graves had improper sexual contact with him behind St. Patrick’s sanctuary after funeral or wedding liturgies, and in the rectory where he was invited in during his daily newspaper delivery,
Nicastro said the abuse continued until shortly after Graves became the pastor of the former St. Matthew Parish in Indian Orchard in October, 1985. The priest invited him to an overnight stay in his new rectory, where he smoked cigarettes and relaxed with the man he then considered a special friend.
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