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Note: The documents in this file are offered solely for educational purposes. Should any reader wish to quote or reproduce these documents for sale, the original publisher should be contacted and permission requested. BishopAccountability.org makes no claim regarding the accuracy of any document we post. Bishop responds to release of namesSun Chronicle (Attleboro MA) Bishop Sean O'Malley, head of the Diocese of Fall River, is speaking out in response to the release on Thursday by Bristol County District Attorney Paul Walsh of the names of 21 area priests accused of abuse. In a statement released Saturday, he promised continued cooperation with investigators. On the list was the Rev. Donald Bowen, who was pastor at St. Mary's Church in Norton decades ago. Bowen is accused of sexually assaulting a local girl while at St. Mary's in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Walsh is seeking the extradition of Bowen, who is now living in Bolivia. Also on the list was the Rev. Stephen Furtado, who was removed by O'Malley a few months ago as pastor of Attleboro's Holy Ghost Church. He was accused of impropriety involving one person in Canada, which is outside Walsh's jurisdiction. That case has been forwarded to the proper authorities, Walsh said. Bishop O'Malley's statement says: ``When I came to Fall River, I was unaware of old cases of child abuse. I was focused on the Porter case and how to establish policies to ensure the safety of our children. After the policies were in place, I tried to bring any past cases that came to my attention into conformity with those policies by requiring that reporting laws be followed, that perpetrators be removed from parish ministry and unsupervised access to children, and that they be evaluated by a team of psychologists. ``In the last few months, half the dioceses of the United States reviewed their files and turned over names of priests accused over the last 50 years. The Fall River Diocese did the same. All of the names reflected events that took place between 20 to 50 years ago. ``If I had had any indication that civil authorities were interested in prosecuting these older cases, I would have done this exercise sooner. It is my firm conviction that child abuse is a crime, and that it is preferable to have civil authorities investigate the accusations and make a determination about their validity. The Diocese of Fall River pledges itself to continue cooperation with civil authorities.'' Priest pleads not guilty to assault By Steve Urbon As criticism of the district attorney's actions in the church sexual
abuse cases mounted, a former Bristol County priest pleaded not guilty
in Superior Court yesterday to charges that he sexually assaulted a young
girl in the late 1960s and early 1970s. [Photo Caption - With court officer Wayne Cathcart, left, by his side, the Rev. Donald Brown pleads not guilty to two counts of sexual assault in Bristol County Superior Court yesterday. Jack Iddon/The Standard-Times] Gray and balding, the stern-faced Rev. Bowen, 64, appeared in court wearing a blue windbreaker, a yellow shirt open at the collar, khaki pants, loafers -- and handcuffs. He spoke clearly when he twice said, "not guilty" to the charges , but otherwise did not speak either before or after his arraignment. A group of about a half-dozen supporters also left the courthouse without comment to reporters. Another man wearing religious jewelry, who appeared to be in his 60s, watched the proceedings and said only that he was a friend of Rev. Bowen. The priest left the courthouse in a vehicle driven by his attorney, Peter Muse of Boston, an old friend of the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Walter Shea. In court, Mr. Shea sketched out the case against Rev. Bowen. He said the priest won the confidence of the victim's household: "He was a friend of the family," he said, "and then developed a sexual relationship with the victim" from the time she was 9 until age 16. Shortly thereafter, he left for his missionary work with the Boston-based Society of St. James. The prosecution asked the court to impose a $5,000 cash bail or $50,000 surety, but the judge was unconvinced that Rev. Bowen posed a flight risk. Instead, Rev. Bowen was ordered to have no contact, direct or indirect, with the victim or her family, and to surrender his passport and report to probation officers. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for Nov. 14. The priest is the only one of 21 whose names were made public last week by District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr., who expressed anger and frustration at the Diocese of Fall River and Bishop Sean P. O'Malley. He said the diocese had been slow and uncooperative in providing the information about settlements involving those priests, and blamed the delay for his inability to prosecute before the statute of limitations expired. Initially there was a flurry of praise from victims' lawyers, but that has been followed by a backlash from some of Mr. Walsh's supporters among the local bar. Kenneth Sullivan, a defense attorney for a half century in Bristol County and now retired, said: "I came away with the firm belief that the due process clause of our Constitution, as dramatic as it may sound, is the bedrock of our society. Whenever there is intrusion for political purposes it is an outrage. And if it isn't political, people should be greatly concerned with what the district attorney understands to be his role." Former St. Mary's priest pleads innocent to abuse charges By Eric Convey and Tom Mashberg Three decades after he left St Mary's Church in Norton for South America, Rev. Donald Bowen is back in the U.S. facing charges he allegedly abused a young Norton girl in the 1960s. Bowen, 64, pleaded innocent Tuesday to one count indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and one count of committing an unnatural and lascivious act as the grand jury indictment was read in Bristol Superior Court. Prosecutors allege Bowen, who also served at St. Patrick's church in Somerset, befriended a Norton family, while serving as St. Mary's associate priest in the 1960s and sexually abused their daughter over a six-year period starting when the girl was 9 years old. "Having established a relationship with the family of the victim, he established a sexual relationship with the young victim," Bristol County Assistant District Attorney Walter Shea said. The abuse allegedly continued until the 1970s when Bowen went to work
for the St. James Society, a Boston-based missionary society, in South
America. Bowen last worked in Bolivia, before returning to New Bedford
this month to face the charges against him. Under state law, the statute freezes when a defendant leaves Massachusetts. Otherwise, a defendant is only prosecutable for up to five years after a crime was committed. Bowen was released on personal recognizance Tuesday after his lawyer, Peter Muse, argued that bail was unnecessary because the priest had traveled thousands of miles precisely so he could appear in court. Though her name has not been released, Bowen's alleged victim came out publicly in a local newspaper with her story last April. Bristol County District Attorney Paul Walsh told reporters this week the indictment was sealed with the victim's willingness to testify. The Diocese of Fall River settled with the victim for a sum of money in 1992. Bowen was indicted last week about the same time the Bristol County DA's office released the names of almost two dozen priests listed in church files as potential abusers. Shea said after the arraignment that based on the publication of those names his office has had a number of calls. "We're investigating every call that we get," he said. Priest names were news, pure and simple By Ned Bristol nbristol@thesunchronicle.com
or 508-236-0344 The big news out of Bristol County this week was the arraignment of a retired priest on a charge of sexually abusing a young girl. The case happened to be from Norton. But this priest, Donald Bowen, was just one of 21 present or former Bristol County priests who were identified last week by the district attorney's office as having been accused of sexual misconduct. None of the other 20 priests were charged, however. Two of the priests were dead; some of the alleged victims didn't want to go to court, and nearly all the cases were too old to prosecute. None of the priests were in active ministry. It was unusual for the DA, Paul Walsh, to release the names, since normal practice is not to identify people who are investigated but ultimately not charged. Walsh decided to make an exception, saying the public interest and past church secrecy argued for disclosure of the names. He also said he hoped the publicity would prompt other alleged victims to come forward. Publicity? Two newspapers, The Providence Journal and the Standard Times of New Bedford, didn't publish the names out of concern for the rights of the accused. But other daily newspapers in the region, including The Sun Chronicle and The Boston Globe, did publish the names, according to someone who made a survey. There were good reasons for doing so, I believe. They have to do with the difference between the media and the government institutions the media covers. DA Walsh released the priests' names at a news conference attended by numerous media representatives including TV stations. He also posted the names on his Web site, www.bristolda.com, for all the world to see. The disclosure of the names was a major news event and part of probably the biggest news story of the year, a story with compelling public interest. The names were out in the public domain. It's the media's job to bring the news to the people. We and several other newspapers did that. This is not to say The Sun Chronicle or the other news organizations agreed with Walsh's decision, only that once the district attorney acted, the media had an obligation to report the news, not censor it. This is also not to say that any news organization would routinely publish the names of people accused but not charged with a crime. The difference here is the significance of the priest abuse scandal with all its ramifications. Arguments for and against Walsh were vigorously made during and after his press conference. The district attorney himself said he felt compelled to act because of an alleged lack of cooperation from the Fall River Diocese, the past protection of accused priests by church secrecy, and the prospect some of the priests could be prosecuted if more victims came forward. (More have, he said this week.) Walsh also said most of the 49 original victims had won settlements from the church. The priests' names had been provided by the diocese and some of the men had previously been publicly identified when they were removed from active service. Attorneys for victims of clergy sexual abuse cheered Walsh's action, saying it increased the chances some priests would be brought to justice. They also said Walsh's action buttressed their argument for abolishing the statute of limitations in cases of child rape and molestation. Opponents, including other district attorneys, said Walsh had ruined the reputation of priests who would have no opportunity to defend themselves and challenge their accusers in court. Attorneys also said identifying the priests could lead to false accusations by people hoping to get a lucrative settlement from the church. The district attorneys in Norfolk and Middlesex counties said they did not intend to release the names of priests who were investigated but not charged. Another district attorney said he could see both sides of the argument. `` It's a real balancing test -- the rights of individuals who have the potential for being accused of a crime but they can't be prosecuted versus the public safety and the right of citizens to know,'' Essex County DA Kevin Burke told the Associated Press. `` It's a real tough call,'' said Burke, who is president of the Massachusetts District Attorney's Association. The argument over Walsh's actions and his motivations -- he is an elected official -- could go on and on. The argument over publishing the names, however, seems to me to be cut and dried. This was news in the public interest. It was in the public domain. The people deserved to have it from their local newspaper. Accused priest lashes out at district attorney By Steve Urbon "Guilty until proven guilty." That's the sort of justice that awaits clergy facing sexual abuse charges, in the words of a retired Fall River priest whose name was on a list made public by Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. In a wide-ranging interview with The Standard-Times and in written comments, the Rev. John P. Cronin, 71, lashed out at Mr. Walsh, at victims' lawyers, at the press and at diocesan officials. The latter, he maintained, are more interested in disposing of the problem than in seeking justice for the accused. Bishop Sean P. O'Malley, said the Rev. Cronin, has done a superb job looking after the well-being of victims of clergy abuse even as he shortchanged diocesan priests. The slightly built, gray-haired priest, wearing wire-rimmed glasses and a dark civilian suit -- he is banned from dressing in priestly garb -- had especially harsh words for Mr. Walsh, who released the names of 20 accused priests whom he cannot prosecute because the statute of limitations has expired. "It's getting so it seems we want to go back to McCarthyism," the Rev. Cronin said. "We want to go back to lynchings. We want to go back to having cases where everybody in a totalitarian state is supposed to be telling what everybody else is doing." Mr. Walsh's actions, he said, prompted him to speak out in self-defense -- and he said he chose The Standard-Times, in part, because it did not publish the list of names. He is the only priest on the list who has consented to an interview. "For whatever reason, Paul Walsh thinks ... it's all right for him to just throw (the accusations) out as a bait to the public to see if some more people won't come forward, hoping that someone will come forward within the statute of limitations," the Rev. Cronin said. He said that in the charged atmosphere surrounding the abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston, priests in the Fall River Diocese are being punished all over again. "Any system of justice in the civilized world doesn't keep heaping new penalties on same old crimes. You can't say to the guy when five years are up, 'We're going to give you five more.' It's the kind of thing that's been going on. They'll always say it's out of prudence (when) what they mean is, it's public relations purposes." In the Rev. Cronin's case, three accusers were listed by Mr. Walsh, without details. The priest, who retired last year, said one was a woman who in 1991 approached Bishop Daniel Cronin with an accusation that as a late teenager she had had an inappropriate sexual relationship with the Rev. Cronin. "The bishop had me in and I went to Connecticut for evaluation and so forth and was found by a psychologist and psychiatrist to be a threat to no one. There was some truth to what she was saying, not exactly as it was, but there was something there," he said without elaborating. After evaluation in Connecticut -- "day-hopping" back and forth from Massachusetts -- and several visits to an area psychiatrist, the Rev. Cronin said, "They came back with recommendations that there's no kind of problem for any pastoral work. I'm not a pedophile." "I went (to the psychiatrist) three or four times and he said 'There's no point in this,'" the Rev. Cronin said. For the time, he remained at his post at St. Joseph parish in North Dighton. But when the accuser approached new Bishop O'Malley, in the wake of the James Porter scandal, the bishop called the Rev. Cronin to his office. "He told me that he was going to remove me from the parish. We argued back and forth a bit about it, but he was insistent, and so we wound up with my being in charge of the cemeteries and also in charge of sick and retired priests," he said. Bishop Steps In It didn't end there, however. In the mid-1990s, two more people, a man and a woman, accused the Rev. Cronin over events in the late 1950s and '60s when they were minors, he said. "There was sufficient evidence in both complaints to easily show I could not have done it," he said. Bishop O'Malley ordered further restrictions on the Rev. Cronin's activities. He could no longer say Mass -- except when at home, alone. He could not wear his clerical collar, which caused him to avoid attending such things as wakes, where people would ask questions. "I came up with excuses all the time," said the Rev. Cronin. "To a certain extent (Paul Walsh), has taken one burden off our shoulders in trying to dodge people with excuses about why we weren't doing things," he said. "But the real problem with (Bishop O'Malley and diocesan officials) was that even with all that information there to support my case, they wanted no part of that. They were only interested in dealing with the victims. That's been the problem all long. The presumption has always been you're guilty until you're proven guilty, not until you're proven innocent. "That's the only way to describe the methodology that's been used, unfortunately. It's not here alone. It's been in other places as well," the Rev. Cronin said. At the time, the Rev. Cronin said he had a civil attorney, but not a canon lawyer. "If you're talking about taking a priest, a canon lawyer in the diocese of Fall River, and expecting him to adequately represent another priest with the bishop, I think there's a tremendous conflict of interest there, so it's very hard." With pressure from insurance companies to settle claims to avoid costly civil trials, the diocese left priests such as the Rev. Cronin with little recourse, he said. "So that's generally the route most of these cases have taken, and unfortunately, some of these lawyers -- the ones who specialize in it -- know this very well. It's the easiest cases they ever have to deal with," he said. "The likes of (attorney Roderick) MacLeish and (Mitchell) Garabedian, they know that stuff inside-out. They know that they don't have to prove a blessed thing. They will never get to the court with it. They will never have their people interrogated nor the documents that they're trying to present. "You get something like a Geoghan or a Shanley or a few others, where it was a constant going after kid after kid after kid or something, as opposed to somebody falling into something, that's a totally different thing, but that's where the publicity is and somehow the picture is given that all these cases are that way. "There are no distinctions, whatever happened to them, whether the allegations are true or false, and they have no way of knowing whether they're true. There's no effort at all at. The main thing is, they want peace and quiet, and that's what's come back to haunt them." "They should have forced lawyers representing complainants to go to trial," the Rev. Cronin said. A Question of Rights The Rev. Cronin's own experience as a member of a Bristol County Grand Jury in 1996 sharpened his criticism of Mr. Walsh's decision to reveal the names of priests who cannot be tried in a court of law. "We were told by the judge we were not to say a word about anything to anyone. We were to protect the rights of the innocent and to their character by not talking about them. And we were to protect the rights of the indicted to a fair trial by not talking about what we had come to know," he said. The district attorney's hope that more victims will step forward rankled the Rev. Cronin. "The lawyers are going to get the names of some other people that they may be able to go chase and say, 'Hey, would you like to make some money?'" he said. "The most self-serving statements ever made are made by lawyers carrying some of these cases. That was obvious the other day. The ones that supported Paul Walsh were the ones hoping to get more names, more money. It's so obvious it's pathetic." The Rev. Cronin was just as emphatic about the effectiveness of Bishop O'Malley. "No one has been better for the abused persons, whether they were real or imaginary, but especially for those who happened to have really had abuse and a lot of trauma from it. No one has been more compassionate and considerate of them than the bishop has. "The real problem has been more around the justice area, whether or not complaints were valid or not true, and what kind of system of justice was there for those who were accused," he said. The Rev. Cronin became a priest in 1957 and served at St. Patrick's Church and St. Vincent's Home, both in Fall River, St. Bernard Church in Assonet, St. Joseph's Church in Taunton, Our Lady of Fatima Church in Swansea, and St. Joseph's Church in North Dighton. In his career, he worked extensively in the care and treatment of children at risk, about which he is proud and defiant in the face of allegations. The publicity today, he said, "isn't impacting me in the same way it is impacting some of the men who are a bit younger. But it's still impacting me. My reputation has been destroyed by this because where there's smoke there's fire, is what's the impression, naturally. So I figure it's better for people to know the fire a little better than to have them presume it's a conflagration," he said. "So that's why I have done this." From USCCB Report: Wednesday By John Bookser Feister "The crisis exists today because Church leaders dealt with sexual abuse by clergy in a modus operandi that was suggested by a theology of sin and grace, redemption, permanence of the priesthood, but also a great concern about scandal, the bella figura, financial patrimony of the Church. We know now that not enough attention was given to the reporting of crimes, the protection of children and the spiritual and psychological damage done to victims. The Charter and Norms coming out of Dallas seemed very secular to some of us, but I believe they are a corrective to an approach of the past that proved very inadequate. I am happy and grateful that the mixed commission has shown how the Dallas document can be compatible with Canon Law. "We all share the concerns of the Holy See and our priests against vigilantism. But certainly a secular review board is necessary to have a credible way to judge merits of an allegation. If I were falsely accused, I would want to be exonerated by a civil investigation, or by an independent board. Without such an exoneration, a priest's reputation and the credibility of a bishop's decision will remain seriously compromised. The work of the mixed commission has set the stage for us to be able to assure our priests, who are awaiting anxiously, our people and the American public that we indeed have a national policy that removes all priests, bishops and deacons who have ever abused a child -- a policy which is not just a personal commitment of individual bishops of goodwill, but will be Church law that will apply, not only to the secular clergy but also to the priests in religious orders. This strengthens considerably what we achieved in Dallas. It is most unfortunate that we do not seem to be able to communicate this in the secular media. I hope that our Catholic media will do their best to help correct the false impression being given by the secular press." Helping the church heal By Curt Brown [Photo Caption - Bishop-elect George W. Coleman, 64, shared thoughts yesterday about what should be done to help the Catholic Church recover from the scandal that erupted in the Boston archdiocese and prompted Cardinal Bernard F. Law to resign. Peter Pereira/The Standard-Times] Fall River -- The bishop-elect of the Catholic Diocese of Fall River believes it will take a recommitment of everyone in the church, along with an adherence to training and criminal background checks, to repair the damage done by the clergy abuse scandal. Monsignor George W. Coleman, 64, in one of his first interviews since the pope announced his appointment last week, elaborated yesterday on his thoughts about healing the emotional wounds within the Catholic Church caused by allegations of widespread abuse within the Boston archdiocese and in others around the country. The allegations rocked the Boston archdiocese and nearly a year later led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law, who said he hoped his departure would aid the healing process. Last year, two priests from the Fall River diocese, the Rev. Francis McManus, chaplain at St. Luke's Hospital, New Bedford, and the Rev. Robert Kaszynski, pastor of St. Stanislaus Church, Fall River, were removed from their posts after allegations of sexual misconduct 20 years ago surfaced against them. Monsignor Coleman expressed his full support for their removal and vowed to continue sexual abuse policies implemented 11 years ago by former Bishop Sean P. O'Malley. The policies were instituted in the wake of the scandal involving former priest James R. Porter, who pleaded guilty to abusing children while in the Fall River diocese. Bishop O'Malley left the Diocese of Fall River in October to become bishop in Palm Beach, Fla. The bishop-elect said he feels it is important to update policies as the need arises. "Never would I want a situation to occur, so it's preventive," he said of the policies. The policies call for sexual abuse training and criminal history checks of all volunteers and employees in the Fall River diocese. Calling the recommitment "a universal call to holiness," he said he hopes all involved in the church search within themselves and "realize what it is to be a believer in Jesus Christ" and commit themselves to the church's teachings. "All are called to holiness. It's a communion of the faith," he said. He agreed this will require patience and "God's grace. I'm convinced the grace is there." The new bishop said he never knew Mr. Porter, who was a fellow priest who served at a South End parish when Monsignor Coleman was at St. Kilian's in New Bedford, only a few miles away. "I knew he was in St. James parish," Monsignor Coleman said. "I don't ever recall speaking with him." Monsignor Coleman's first assignment as a priest was at St. Kilian's from 1965 to 1967. Mr. Porter, 68, is serving an 18- to 20-year prison sentence, after pleading guilty in 1993 to charges he molested 28 children. Connolly teacher charged By Herald News Staff FALL RIVER -- A Bishop Connolly High School teacher was arrested last week and charged with enticing a child under 16. Sean P. Mullin, 22, of 26 Montgomery St., Lakeville, is also charged with selling/delivering liquor to a person under age 21, attempting to commit a crime and three counts of (showing/distributing) obscene matter to a minor. Mullin was arraigned Friday in Fall River Trial Court. Judge James O’Neill continued the case to Aug. 1 for a pretrial hearing and released Mullin on his own recognizance. A spokesman for the diocese said Mullin, an English teacher, was placed on leave as soon as school officials learned of the charges against him. "When school officials were made aware of some allegations brought by DSS (the state Department of Social Services), he was immediately put on administrative leave where he remains now," said John Kearns of the Diocese of Fall River’s Office of Communication. Kearns, who said he was unsure if Mullin’s leave is paid, said the teacher will remain on administrative leave until the disposition of his cases. "The teacher has not returned to the school," he said. Kearns also reported that the alleged incidents did not occur on the high school’s grounds. Police spokeswoman Detective Lisa Ahaesy said Mullin was arrested Friday after an investigation by Detective Steven Roseberry of the Major Crimes Division’s Sexual Abuse Unit. Under victim protection laws in cases of such a sensitive nature, Ahaesy could only say that the alleged victim is a male under the age of 16. There was an unconfirmed report that the alleged victim is a freshman at the school. Bishop Search: Fall River stint not flawlessly compassionate By Peter Gelzinis The expectation is that Bishop Sean P. O'Malley will bring healing to the self-inflicted wounds of the Boston archdiocese. But that won't be the only remnant of the 10 years he spent trying to repair the damage done to the Fall River diocese by James Porter, a pedophile in a Roman Catholic collar. What O'Malley also will bring back from his time in Fall River is a story that still smolders in the memories of some for its stunning lack of compassion. For almost as long as O'Malley was bishop of Fall River, the strange saga of Sister Michaelinda Plante - a 69-year-old Sister of Mercy removed from her position as associate superintendent of elementary schools in the Fall River diocese - continued to slog its way through a maze of lawsuits and ill-fated depositions. In 1997, Sister Plante formally sued her bishop, charging O'Malley had wrongfully banished her from her post. The firing eventually forced this nun to leave Fall River and seek shelter in a Tiverton, R.I., convent. Contacted yesterday, Sister Plante was somewhat reluctant to say anything, "because the Vatican has yet to make the official announcement." Not long after the pope sent O'Malley to Florida to close the wounds of the Palm Beach diocese, Sister Plante instructed her lawyer to finally close her case. "I was just too tired to keep fighting anymore," she said. Though a modest out-of-court settlement for ineffective counsel finally brought the legal wrangling to an end, Sister Plante insisted her case was never resolved. "Bishop O'Malley may have settled the Porter case," she said. "But he certainly didn't settle mine." Three attempts to have Bishop O'Malley deposed were met with "motions to silence" - a tactic not unfamiliar to his predecessor, Bernard Cardinal Law. Beyond the words "stressed and tired," this nun said her former bishop never explained why the locks on her office doors were changed, why she was cut off from her religious order and sent off to be examined by shrinks . . . whose tests she passed. But then, it's hard to find an easy answer in a byzantine story. This nun's story involves the suicide of a Winchester man who was once a student of Sister Plante's, his mysterious parents, the Fall River chapter of the Samaritans and this nun's well-intentioned but disastrous efforts to serve as a "mediator" between the suicide victim's family and the Samaritans. In a desire to express their appreciation for the time the Samaritans took talking with their suicidal son (who had been a student of Sister Plante's years before), a Winchester family embarked upon a fund-raising effort they called a "praise campaign." Sister Plante claimed she was asked by the man's parents to serve as their bridge to the Samaritans. For their part, the Samaritans allegedly saw this "praise campaign" as a dubious attempt by the nun and the suicide victim's family to buy silence, for whatever may have been said during confidential hot-line confessions. Sister Plante's supporters believe Bishop O'Malley was informed of the potentially scandalous nature of the suicide victim's confessions. "I do believe," Sister Plante said yesterday, "that he (Bishop O'Malley) had information that he didn't want to get out. If not, why would he refuse to answer our questions?" Daniel Gindes, the last lawyer to stand with Sister Plante, conceded that even he is left pondering some of the black holes of this case. But he remains convinced that "Sister got a very raw deal. This was not a woman who was unbalanced, not at all. This was a case that was handled poorly. I'll never understand why this woman was given so little slack, why they were so quick to get rid of her, so harsh in their treatment of her, when they were obviously cutting priests all kinds of slack. Yes, it would be nice to finally get answers to those questions." Fall River Decisions By Stephen Kurkjian and Walter V. Robinson Fall River priest was allowed to continue as a missionary in Bolivia for eight years after Bishop Sean P. O'Malley was told by a woman that she had been sexually molested by the priest for seven years beginning when she was 9, a spokesman for the Fall River Diocese confirmed last night. The priest, the Rev. Donald J. Bowen, was not removed from his ministry with the Society of St. James the Apostle until he was indicted last September for the alleged sexual molestation of the woman. Bowen is awaiting trial. John Kearns, the diocesan spokesman, said that after O'Malley met with the woman in 1994, he sought and received assurances from Bowen's superiors in Latin America that he had no unsupervised access to children. ''Bishop O'Malley demanded that guarantee and received it,'' Kearns said. O'Malley, reached by telephone last night, defended his handling of the Bowen case, saying his actions conformed to ''the letter of the policy'' he had instituted in 1992 to deal with allegations of abuse against priests. At the time, according to Kearns and O'Malley, the diocese's strict sexual abuse policy required that even old allegations be reported to authorities, that offenders be removed from parish ministry, and that they receive psychological evaluation. In Bowen's case, there was reason to believe at the time O'Malley met with the woman, who was then in her 30s, that the charges against the priest were credible. The Fall River Diocese, in January 1992, settled a civil sexual abuse lawsuit brought by the woman. O'Malley became bishop of Fall River in August 1992. O'Malley acknowledged last night that he did not report Bowen to civil authorities - either the Department of Social Services or the Bristol County District Attorney's office - because the woman was no longer a minor when she brought the allegation to his attention. ''The law mandates reporting of any allegation of abuse of a minor. The woman was no longer a minor. That's why we didn't report it,'' O'Malley said. O'Malley said he was assured by the Boston head of the Society of St. James that Bowen would have no access to children and would not perform any other priestly duties like celebrating Mass. Bowen, he was told, was working on a history of the Society and its work in Bolivia. ''To me, that meant he was removed from parish ministry, which is what
my policy required,'' O'Malley said. In addition, he said he was assured
by the Society of St. James superior that Bowen would receive periodic
psychological counseling and evaluation. Earlier yesterday, before the Globe asked Kearns about the Bowen case, the spokesman said that even when an old allegation was brought to O'Malley's attention by a victim or some other means, ''he treated it the same way as he treated new allegations: vigorously pursue them and, if there was any credibility to them, seek removal from service.'' Even though Bowen had been doing missionary work since 1971, he remained a priest of the Fall River Diocese and under the direct control of O'Malley as diocesan bishop, according to two canon lawyers. The handling of Bowen's case appears to be a puzzling aberration for O'Malley. In 1992, he was hailed for his swift, soothing treatment of scores of victims of pedophile priest James R. Porter, for helping facilitate settlement of their claims, and for becoming one of the first American bishops to devise new policies covering reporting of abuse, removal, and treatment of offending priests and training of all diocesan employees. At the time, there was no national policy by US bishops for handling sexual abuse cases. O'Malley drew praise for both formulating the policy and for seeking input from the public and victims. O'Malley's Fall River record is now widely seen as a major reason he has been chosen to head the nation's most troubled archdiocese. But he did, in one recent instance, face criticism on the issue. Just as O'Malley was preparing to leave Fall River to become bishop of Palm Beach last September, Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. accused O'Malley and his aides of impeding Walsh's efforts to obtain information about priests who had molested children. In response, O'Malley issued a statement insisting that the diocese had cooperated fully with the prosecutor's requests for records about abusive priests. But at the time, prosecutors said the diocese had provided little information about some of the abusive priests and nothing at all about some others. In one instance, prosecutors said last October, the diocese did not disclose to Walsh's office that allegations had been made against the Rev. Edward Paquette. When prosecutors confronted diocesan officials, they said Paquette was dead. To prove it, they provided a death certificate. The death certificate was for Paquette's father. Father Paquette, who left the active priesthood long before O'Malley arrived in Fall River, is 74 and living in Westfield. When Walsh cited the alleged recalcitrance of the diocese last year, he also made public the names of 20 priests from the Fall River diocese who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse since the 1950s, but whose cases were too old to prosecute. And he announced the indictment of Bowen, for alleged sexual abuse that did not end until shortly before Bowen became a missionary. The Bowen indictment was made possible because the priest had left the state, and the statute of limitations on the alleged crime was therefore frozen in time. After the indictment, Bowen returned to Bristol County to face the charges. Of the 20 priests, two were removed as pastors by O'Malley last year when allegations against them surfaced. When the district attorney criticized O'Malley last fall and took the unusual step of making public the names of priests who are not being charged, O'Malley reiterated the breadth of his policy. ''When I came to Fall River, I was unaware of old cases of child abuse. I was focused on the Porter case and how to establish policies to ensure the safety of our children,'' O'Malley said in the statement on Sept. 28. ''After the policies were in place, I tried to bring any past cases that came to my attention into conformity with those policies.'' Not until last year were clergy first required under state law to report cases of suspected sexual abuse of minors. But in a separate statement Sept. 26, O'Malley said that during his 10 years in Fall River, the diocese ''committed itself voluntarily to follow the reporting laws'' of the state. Kearns, asked about that yesterday, said: ''The bishop said that any old case that he became aware of he treated under the current policy which was to make all referrals to civil authorities.'' Last September, however, O'Malley said he would have turned over the names of the 20 priests earlier ''if I had any indication that civil authorities were interested in prosecuting these older cases.'' Kearns, in the interview yesterday, said O'Malley did not conduct a full review of diocesan priest personnel files after he arrived in 1992. That was because there was no sense that there was any major problem, Kearns said. Asked why O'Malley would not have ordered a full review of personnel files, Kearns said: ''It was only last year that anyone knew the extent of the problem involving other priests. Before that, the priority was instituting a policy that would deal vigorously with new allegations, which is what Bishop O'Malley concentrated on here in Fall River.'' Kathleen Hennrikus and Matt Carroll of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. O'Malley appointment highlight's Norton case By Staff and Wire Reports NORTON -- Bishop Sean O'Malley's appointment as head of the Archdiocese of Boston has thrust sexual abuse allegations against a former Norton pastor into the spotlight. An organization of alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse is questioning the way O'Malley handled the case of Father Donald Bowen, who had pleaded innocent to sexual abusing a young girl at St. Mary's Parish where he was pastor from 1965 to 1973. The questions are in sharp contrast to portrayals of O'Malley, who has generally been praised for his handling of sexual abuse cases while serving as bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, where he handled the case of former North Attleboro priest James Porter. `` Everybody is so desperate for a hero, they're willing to tout him as a hero before he does anything that warrants that,'' said Ann Hagan Webb of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. While he was bishop of Fall River, O'Malley allowed Bowen to continue working at a Bolivian mission for eight years after the allegations of repeated sexual abuse of the young girl was reported to him, according to a spokesman for diocese. Spokesman John Kearns said O'Malley followed diocesan policy in the case involving the Rev. Donald Bowen, and maintained that the unidentified woman who told O'Malley her story was comfortable with his response. `` He believes the person was satisfied on that count,'' Kearns said. Kearns added that Bowen's superiors in Bolivia guaranteed he would be periodically evaluated, and that he would have no contact with children. But for Webb, the assurance is inadequate because it's impossible to know how closely Bowen was supervised. She says she's troubled by O'Malley's handling of the Bowen case and that his reputation as a savior of troubled dioceses may be `` overblown.'' `` This man has a reputation for being wonderfully well-spoken and coming across as understanding of survivor issues,'' Webb said. `` That's great. Let's see him do something.'' O'Malley's appointment as archbishop of Boston was announced Tuesday by the Vatican. He has returned to his current post in Palm Beach, Fla., and did not immediately return a message left with the diocese spokesman there. Bowen, who has pleaded innocent, is free on bail as he awaits trial on charges including indecent assault and battery. His attorney, Peter Muse, did not return a call for comment. In a case first reported in The Sun Chronicle in April 2002, the victim in the Bowen case, now in her late 40s, said Bowen molested her between 1965 and 1971, starting at age 9. Bowen left the country a few years later to work at the Society of St. James mission in Bolivia, a move that froze the clock on the statute of limitation, enabling prosecutors to file charges last year. The woman settled her lawsuit against the Fall River diocese in January 1992, seven months before O'Malley became bishop there. The woman met with O'Malley in 1994, seeking assurances that Bowen would not be around children. Bowen pleaded innocent last October to charges in connection with the alleged abuse. He is now awaiting trial. The Fall River policy mandated that even old allegations be reported to authorities, something O'Malley didn't do. Kearns said that when an adult reports abuse to the diocese, officials leave it up to the person to go to the police due to privacy concerns. `` If he or she wished to report it, fine,'' he said. The Fall River policy that guided O'Malley in the Bowen case was a sweeping reform he enacted to repair damage caused by former North Attleboro priest James Porter, a convicted molester. Its general success is believed to be a key reason the Vatican assigned O'Malley to Palm Beach to repair damage left by two previous bishops who both admitted to molestating children -- and now to Boston. Despite his reputation as an able crisis manager, O'Malley's past handling of sex abuse cases was not universally acclaimed. Last year, Bristol County District Attorney Paul Walsh criticized O'Malley for what he said were delays in giving him the names of 20 priests accused of child abuse. O'Malley said he was unaware of the old abuse cases because he was focused on Porter. He said after new policies were enacted, he brought past cases to authorities when he learned of them. In a move criticized by some civil rights advocates, Walsh publicly released the priests' names, even though none of the priests could be criminally charged because the statute of limitations had expired. `` To sit there for 10 years and pretend that there are no other cases in Bristol County perpetuates a falsehood, and I'm not going to be a part of that,'' Walsh said at the time. Priest disputes O'Malley's memory of abuse case By Stephen Kurkjian kurkjian@globe.com Soon after Fall River Bishop Sean P. O'Malley learned in 1994 that the Rev. Donald J. Bowen, one of his priests on assignment in Bolivia, had repeatedly molested the under-age daughter of a parishioner, he says he told the priest's new supervisor that Bowen must be removed from parish work. O'Malley, in an interview with the Globe on July 1, the day he was named Boston's archbishop-elect, said the head of the Society of St. James The Apostle, a Boston-based missionary order, assured him that Bowen would be taken out of parish work and kept away from children. ''They gave me their guarantee,'' O'Malley said. ''That was the policy and it had to be followed.'' But the former head of the order says O'Malley never made such a sweeping demand that Bowen be removed from ministry and that no such guarantee was given or carried out. The Rev. Gabriel Troy, who led the St. James Society from 1994 and 2000, says he only assured the bishop that Bowen would not be allowed access to children. ''What was asked was that Father Bowen not be allowed access to children, and that's what we followed,'' Troy, now pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Boston's West End, said in an interview last week. But the limitations on Bowen's access to children may also have been considerably less stringent than Troy described -- and O'Malley expected. Bowen's colleagues in the St. James Society said the priest continued to carry on his full responsibilities as a priest in the mountainous region of Bolivia for eight years after O'Malley said he got the pledge from Troy. A photograph on the St. James Society website shows Bowen at a Mass in a Bolivian village, surrounded by both young people and adults. And a Society promotional film shot in 2001 opens with Bowen saying a Saturday Mass for local Indian youths in his home church in Caracolla, Bolivia, according to a priest who arranged for the film to be made and attended the Mass. ''It was pretty remarkable because it showed Father Bowen at his best, working with the young as well as old people in that region,'' said the Rev. Raymond Cowell, who currently coordinates the acitivies of the seven Society priests who work in Bolivia. O'Malley was unavailable for comment on the apparent contradiction between his and Troy's accounts of the handling of the Bowen matter. However, through the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese, O'Malley reiterated yesterday that he had been guaranteed Bowen would be removed from ministry. ''If it didn't happen, then that's something he regrets,'' Coyne said. Cowell said he had no idea, until Bowen was indicted last September on charges of abusing the young girl, that there were restrictions on Bowen from saying Mass or ministering to children. Bowen, 64, who had worked as a priest in Bolivia since 1973, was unavailable for comment. His lawyer, Peter J. Muse of Boston and Quincy, did not return phone calls. Four other priests from the St. James Society who worked with Bowen in Bolivia confirmed that he continued in full ministry until he returned to Massachusetts in September 2002 to face indictment on charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. The Rev. Joseph Bibby, who served with Bowen in Oruro, Bolivia, between 1995 and 2000, recalled that Bowen was responsible for about 25 villages in ''the most remote region'' of Bolivia, about 120 miles south of La Paz. In addition to his pastoral responsibilites, Bibby said, Bowen instructed adults from some villages on Catholic teachings so they could return to their distant outposts and instruct others. He also set up a medical center in Oruro, the largest city in his region, as well as a cooperative for farmers and another one for women to get them sewing machines to make native shawls for sale. ''He did everything that was expected of him and more both in and out of the church,'' Bibby said. Bibby, like Cowell, says he was unaware of the sexual allegations against Bowen until the indictment. Bowen's good works in Bolivia were of no concern to O'Malley, however, once he learned in 1994 that Bowen had been accused by a woman of fondling and raping her during the late 1960s and early 1970s when she was growing up in Norton. According to the later indictment, Bowen befriended a Norton family while serving at St. Mary's Church as an associate pastor and sexually abused their daughter over a six-year period beginning when the girl was 9. In 1990, after years of emotional distress from the alleged assaults, the woman, then in her 30s, filed a complaint against Bowen with the Fall River Diocese. Two years later, in January 1992, the diocese settled the case by paying her $200,000. In his response to the allegations, Bowen denied having sexual contact with the girl but acknowledged acting inappropriately with her, kissing her on a few occasions, embracing her other times, and writing her letters which led her to believe that he had fallen in love with her and would leave the ministry to marry her. ''That the letters exist and were written is undeniable,'' Bowen wrote to Bishop Daniel A. Cronin, then head of the Fall River Diocese in 1990 who had asked Bowen to explain his conduct. ''In the same instant it must also be admitted that they were childish, senseless, totally irresponsible and to be deeply regretted for the harm they may have caused.'' Two years after gaining her settlement, the woman decided to approach the diocese again. She wanted to make sure that Bowen did not have continued access to children, and she asked for a meeting with O'Malley who had succeeded Cronin as the diocese's bishop. O'Malley had already earned praise for his sympathetic and straightforward dealing with dozens of victims who had been abused by the Rev. James R. Porter while he was assigned to several churches in the area during the 1960s. Beyond settling the cases with the Porter victims, O'Malley instituted a policy for handling other cases of clergy abuse that came to his attention. In his July 1 interview with the Globe, O'Malley said in his 1994 discussion with Troy, then head of the St. James Society, that Bowen had to be handled in accordance with his new policy. Even though Troy remembered the conversation differently, John Kearns, director of communications for the Fall River diocese, corroborated O'Malley's account. He said that when Bowen was indicted last year he spoke with O'Malley about his handling of the priest. ''He told me that he had received the Society's guarantee that Father Bowen would be removed [from ministry] and allowed only to instruct adults on the catechism and work on a history of the Society,'' Kearns said.
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