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	Former Sacred Hearts Member Charged with Molesting Boys in the '70s By Rob Margetta The Standard-Times [Fairhaven MA] October 26, 2005 A former member of a Fairhaven-based religious order was arrested at his Washington, D.C., home Friday on charges he molested two boys while working at a Boston youth facility in the 1970s. On Sept. 28, a Suffolk County grand jury indicted Edward A. Holmes, 64, on six counts of rape of a child, 19 counts of indecent assault and one count of posing a child in a state of nudity or sexual conduct. District of Columbia police arrested him and charged him as a fugitive from justice. The Suffolk District Attorney's Office is arranging for his transport to Massachusetts, which could be accomplished in days if he cooperates, or require a Governor's Warrant if he does not. The Suffolk District Attorney's Office began its investigation of Mr. Holmes in 2003 after two men came forward alleging that he had sexually abused them as boys. David Procopio, a spokesman for the District Attorney's Office, said the victims were 9 and 10 years old when the abuse began in the mid-1970s. The victims were living at the Nazareth Child Care Center, a now-closed Jamaica Plain facility for children removed from their homes by the state. At the time, Mr. Holmes was assigned to work at the center as a member of the Fairhaven office of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, an international missionary order, according to the District Attorney's office. The victims say Mr. Holmes' assaults continued until their mid-teens, several years after they left the center, according to Mr. Procopio. Mr. Procopio said the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary suspended Mr. Holmes in 2000; he was relieved from his vows in 2002, he said. In a phone interview yesterday, the Rev. David Reid said Mr. Holmes' departure was voluntary; the process began in 2000 and was complete in 2002. The Rev. Reid said Mr. Holmes did not leave the order due to any allegations of sexual abuse. "We knew nothing about this," he said. Mr. Procopio said his office hasn't yet pieced together what Mr. Holmes was doing in Washington or whether he was working with children since he left New England.
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