QUINCY (MA)
WBZ [Boston, MA]
September 26, 2025
By Aaron Perseghian
Survivors of clergy sexual abuse and advocates gathered outside City Hall in Quincy, Massachusetts Friday to denounce controversial comments recently made by Mayor Tom Koch.
Protesters displayed photos and stories of children who had been sexually abused by priests. Among them was Francis Michael Sullivan, who said he was abused 50 years ago.
“This stuff’s been going on for years, it happened to me 50 years ago. Very nervous, sick to my stomach. It just brings back a ton of memories I don’t want to relive,” said Sullivan.
The demonstration came after Koch was interviewed by radio host Dan Rea on his show, Nightside with Dan Rea, on WBZ News Radio Monday evening. Koch was on the show to discuss the legal battle over two statues of Catholic saints that are set to be erected on a public safety building in the city and carry an $850,000 price tag. The fate of the statues is now in the hands of a judge after a hearing earlier this month.
Controversial comments on clergy sex abuse
When the conversation shifted to the Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse scandal, Koch said, “It was mostly homosexual issues, not pedophilia.” He also asserted that child sex abuse is more prevalent among other groups. “The teachers and coaches and stuff is higher than it was percentage-wise than in the church.”
Koch issued an apology Wednesday at a Quincy School Committee meeting but also made more comments supporting what he said.
“My point was to remind him that 4% of it was pedophilia, I didn’t have the facts in front of me but I went back and refreshed before tonight and 80% was same-sex attraction post-puberty,” Koch told the school committee and residents. “I never meant to disparage anybody.”
Koch repeated his apology on Thursday when speaking with WBZ-TV.
Advocates say apology isn’t enough
Survivors and advocates at the demonstration Friday said an apology isn’t enough and are calling on Koch to meet directly with them.
“We want Mayor Koch to fess up. We want him to meet with victims and let them educate him as to what pedophilia is because homosexuals do not abuse children, pedophiles do,” said Dr. Robert Hoatson, the co-founder of Road to Recovery, a charity that works with sexual abuse victims. He said the mayor’s remarks risk deepening the stigma that survivors already face. “He has to atone for this in some way, not only to the [LGBTQ+] community but to survivors of sexual abuse who now may go into the shadows because he’s, in a sense, put them there again.”
“It’s a pedophile that abused me. It’s not a homosexual,” said Sullivan.