LINCOLN (RI)
Valley Breeze
Oct. 3, 2019
By Alrene Violet
It takes a lot to top the gall of Gov. Gina Raimondo who is intent on awarding a no-bid, 20-year, $1 billion contract to IGT, whose lobbyist is her personal friend, political partner, and campaign contributor. Then, last week, along came her past gubernatorial challenger, Mayor Allan Fung, who has submitted to the Cranston City Council an up to 35-year contract worth up to tens of millions of dollars also, apparently without bid, to one of his campaign contributors. As outrageous as these self-dealings are, there is one other story unearthed by the Boston Globe which tops the chart as moral blindness, and it involves a priest.
The Rev. Barry Gamache arrived at the St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Bristol, R.I. in 1997. A predecessor priest, Rev. William C. O’Connell had been prosecuted by my office and sentenced to jail for the sexual molestation of a child. Upon his arrival, Padre Gamache told his parishioners that he would do everything to protect their children. Not!
The Boston Globe investigated a former Bristol politician, David E. Barboza, who had been accused of sexual misconduct with three boys in the 1970s and 1980s. He was hired by Pastor Gamache to handle the church’s finances. Two other men subsequently reported directly or through another reverend their allegations of sexual abuse as children when they spotted Barboza in 1998 wearing a white robe on the altar during services. They also reported to the State Police out of concern for young boys in the parish. In turn, the police notified the diocese who confirmed that it had previously investigated the complaints about Barboza and had presented its results to “the pastor who maintains the day-to-day authority for parish administration.” Gamache (whom I cannot bring myself to call “Father”) did nothing.
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