Assignment Record– Rev. Paul J. Mahan

Summary of Case: Mahan is accused of sexually abusing at least a dozen children, boys and girls. He was removed from his first assignment
after ordination due to accusations, and accusations continued to surface throughout his priesthood. He was sent to treatment repeatedly, and in
1995 was determined by one facility to be "untreatable" and a "sociopath". He was defrocked in 1998, and is last known to have been living in
Virginia.

Ordained: 1968
Laicized: 1998

   

Start Stop Assignment Town/Accusations State Position Notes

1968

Boston archbishop was Richard James Cushing (1944-1970), followed by Humberto Sousa Medeiros (1970-1983).

1979 St. Ann's

Boston (Neponset)

• Named in a March 2000 lawsuit of having sexually abused two brothers in 1969 when they were ages twelve and seven. The boys were St. Ann's parishioners. The abuse is said to have taken place on Mahan's boat, at St. Ann's and on Boy Scout outings. (Boston Globe
March 15, 2000)

• Four more men filed suit, in June 2000, accusing Mahan of molesting them when they were boys between 1969 and 1982 at St. Ann's and at St. Joseph's in Needham. (Boston Herald
June 14, 2000)

• In an August 2000 lawsuit, three additional men accused Mahan of sexually abusing them as children at St. Ann's. (Boston Herald
August 23, 2000)

• Accused of molesting a female second grader in 1976, beginning on her first communion day at St. Ann's, and continuing at least through fifth grade. The girl is said to have told a nun who responded angrily, twisting her arm and telling her never to say anything like that again. (Boston Herald
February 25, 2002)

MA 3/4, 3/3, 2/3

Parish had a school with 673-566 students.

Mahan was transferred out of St. Ann's after a series of accusations surfaced against him. (Boston Herald
February 11, 2002)

1979 1982 St. Joseph's

Needham

• Accused of abusing children at St. Joseph's.

MA 3/3

Parish had a school with 461-431 students.

Mahan was transferred out of St. Joseph's after more accusations of child sexual abuse arose against him. (Boston Herald
February 11, 2002)

1982

Bernard Joseph Law succeeded Medeiros (1984-2002).

Feb. 1994 St. Matthew's

Boston (Dorchester)

• Mahan was accused in a 1999 lawsuit of having molested his nephew, when the nephew would visit from New Jersey during the summers to help Mahan fix up the parish school. The boy is said to have been eleven years old when the abuse started, and it lasted for about five years. Mahan was removed from St. Matthew's in 1993 and sent to treatment. The suit said Mahan nonetheless would visit the boy and his family, and the abuse continued. (Boston Herald
January 14, 1999)

MA 1/2, 1/1

Parish had a school with 205-247 students.

Cardinal Law knew of accusations against Mahan as early as 1993. (Boston Globe
May 23, 2002)

1994   Sacred Heart Cambridge MA    
1994 1998 Absent on Sick Leave

 

• Accused in 1997 of raping a second nephew, who was 11 years old. Mahan was living in Marblehead MA. (Boston Herald
March 15, 2002)

   

Not indexed beyond the 1997 Directory.

Mahan was sent to St. Luke's Institute in Maryland twice, and was found by St. Luke's in 1995 to be "untreatable".and a "sociopath". (Boston Globe
May 17, 2002) He had also been sent in 1995 to Southdown, a treatment facility in Ontario, Canada. Mahan was allowed by the archdiocese after these assessments to leave the priesthood and move to Marblehead MA, where he was accused of going on to rape at least one more boy, his 11 year old nephew. The archdiocese had not warned the community, nor Mahan's family. (Boston Herald
May 17, 2002) He was defrocked in 1998. Mahan was last known to be living in Arlington VA, where he worked at a Radio Shack. (Boston Globe
May 23, 2002)


Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1969-1998)

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the
first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand
3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's
publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the
previous year as well. However, Kenedy and Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records
are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate
assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving
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This assignment record collates Mahan's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the
media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system
presumesthat a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil
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This assignment record was last updated on July 17, 2012 .