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  CM Priest Said He Sounded Warning

By Eric Convey
Boston Herald
April 17, 2003

http://www.townonline.com/roslindale/news/local_regional/wrt_newpwpriestbh04172003.htm

A priest who once served at Catholic Memorial High School testified recently that he warned administrators at the West Roxbury school about a prominent colleague's strange behavior nearly 20 years before the colleague was accused of molesting two athletes.

The Rev. Robert Hoatson, who now lives in Newark, N.J., said he never brought specific allegations against Msgr. Frederick Ryan, but alerted supervisors to conduct that included drinking alcohol with jocks and taking them to his room at the chancery in Brighton.

Ryan, who is accused of molesting Garry Garland and David Carney, could not be reached yesterday. His lawyer did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

At the time of the alleged abuse - the mid-1980s - Ryan was the number-three official in the Archdiocese of Boston. The suits by Garland and Carney name Ryan as a defendant as well as Bishop Thomas vs. Daily, his former supervisor and now head of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y.

"I didn't make any formal complaints of having first-hand knowledge of any improprieties ... I voiced my puzzlement at his presence there," Hoatson told the Herald. He said he made similar remarks during yesterday's deposition.

Ryan and Carney, who as plaintiffs were entitled to attend the session, said they were heartened that a priest would break ranks with peers to help them.

 
 

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