SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Republican - MassLive [Springfield MA]
April 14, 2023
By Stephanie Barry
A Hampden Superior Court judge said a longtime attorney for the local Catholic diocese may have led an attempt to spin a public response to rape allegations against late Bishop Christopher J. Weldon.
Judge Karen L. Goodwin rejected Springfield lawyer John “Jack” Egan’s request to remove himself from a lawsuit filed in 2021 by a Chicopee man who said Weldon and a group of other priests gang-raped him and other youngsters while they were altar boys in the 1960s.
The man further alleges the diocese mistreated him and tried — with Egan’s help —to cover up Weldon’s participation in the alleged rapes of altar boys in priests’ living quarters, behind the altar at St. Anne’s Church in Chicopee and at a Catholic campsite in Goshen.
The plaintiff, identified only as “John Doe” in court filings, made claims that Egan, who has represented the diocese for decades and through scores of clergy abuse allegations, defamed him and engaged in a civil conspiracy.
In a 48-page decision, Goodwin, a former federal prosecutor appointed as a special judge in this case, also noted that in 2019 Egan appeared to insist that the diocese issue statements that absolved Weldon from any active participation in the alleged sexual assaults — despite indications to the contrary.
In May 2019, after then-Berkshire Eagle editor Larry Parnass brought the man’s allegations to the diocese, church spokesman Mark Dupont sought Egan’s counsel in crafting a response.
A diocesan board reviewing allegations of sexual abuse previously found the man’s abuse allegations credible, and a report was drafted by a former special investigator detailing the man’s accusations aimed at Weldon. Egan may have disregarded both, Goodwin found.
“Viewing the record in a light most favorable to Doe, a jury could find that Egan’s advice to tell Parnass ‘that the individual said Bishop Weldon never abused him’ was reckless, contrary to what Egan had reason to believe, and done in bad faith to cover up Doe’s known allegations against Weldon in order to protect Weldon’s reputation and that of the Diocese,” the judge wrote.
Parnass is now executive editor at The Republican.
Egan referred a request for comment to his attorney, John Bagley, who did not immediately respond. A spokeswoman for the diocese also declined comment, citing the pending litigation.
Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are the Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield, a corporation; Archbishop Mitchell T. Rosanski, former bishop of the local diocese; former victim advocate Patricia McManamy; former special investigator and retired state trooper Kevin Murphy; Dupont; and John Hale, former chairman of the review board.
A trial is scheduled to begin on May 3.
The scandal unfolded in a somewhat lurching fashion, with Dupont, the diocese spokesperson, initially flatly denying Weldon had any role in the abuse. But Parnass was armed with personal accounts of the abuse by Doe and a 2018 letter from Hale thanking the man for sharing the details of the abuse by Weldon, the late Rev. Edward Authier, and the late Rev. Clarence Forand.
“The Board has no other authority except to notify the Bishop (Rozanski) that we find your allegations credible,” the 2018 letter read, in part.
In her ruling, Goodwin cited an email trail to support her findings.
Parnass challenged the diocese with the letter and the allegations in a series of emails beginning May 29, 2019. A news story in the Eagle followed. By the next day, Egan was sending emails to Rozanski, Dupont and others insisting Doe’s account was not correct and Weldon’s role was more passive.
“Improper conduct was never alleged, rather a failure to discipline was,” Egan wrote in an email on May 30.
Rozanski replied: “Yes, thank you. This is a good response.”
Except it was inaccurate.
On May 31, Dupont sent emails to Egan and members of the review board saying, “I’ve attached the original letter (from the review board) and Kevin (Murphy’s) response. Jack, the Weldon allegation is a bit more complicated, please read Kevin’s report.”
The same day, Egan shot back an email that read, in part: “In the end it should be that the individual said Bishop Weldon never abused him.”
Later that day, Dupont sent Parnass an email chastising him for an “inaccurate characterization” of Doe’s account, blind copying Egan.
“Let me be clear, the Review Board has never found that the late Bishop Christopher Weldon … engaged in improper conduct with anyone,” Dupont’s email read.
Rozanski ultimately hired retired Superior Court Judge Peter Velis to conduct and independent, yearlong investigation into the allegations and draft a report that was made public on June 24, 2020.
Velis said he found Doe’s allegations “unequivocally credible.”
Weldon, who died in 1982, served as Springfield’s most revered cleric for 27 years.
Following public disclosure of Velis’ report, Weldon’s name and likeness were stripped from properties across the diocese including a rehabilitation center named after him. His body was exhumed from a prominent spot marked by a towering obelisk at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Springfield and shipped off to another gravesite. His name now appears on the diocese’s running list of clergy and lay employees, both living and dead, who were credibly accused of sexual abuse.