BOSTON (MA)
Jamaica Plain News
January 5, 2018
By David Ertischek
The Archdiocese of Boston has reached a five-figure settlement with a man, who as a boy, was sexually abused by a priest at the St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Jamaica Plain in the 1970s.
When he was approximately from the ages of 10 to 13, William Brown was sexually abused by Father Arnold Kelley, who now lives in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Brown was a parishioner, band member and religious education student (CCD) at St. Aquinas Parish (located at 97 South St.). Kelley was assigned to the St. Aquinas Parish from 1966 to 1976.
Brown filed a civil lawsuit in the Essex County Superior Court in 2016 after coming forward alleging that Kelley sexually abused him from 1973 to 1976.
As early as 1997, the Archdiocese of Boston was made aware of sexual abuse allegations by a child against Kelley at St. Rita’s Parish in Lowell. A media conference announcing the settlement was held on the sidewalk outside of St. Rita’s on Jan. 3rd.
“My client, by coming forward, is creating transparency which the Catholic Church should create but refuses to. In doing so William Brown is empowering himself, other victims and making the world a safer place for children,” said Mitchell Garabedian, Brown’s attorney. “This is another example of purportedly the most moral institution in the world acting the most immorally.”
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