Posted on 06/07/2002 6:07:04 AM PDT by maryz
JACKSON, Miss. – A day after Bernard Cardinal Law’s admission that he allowed a priest accused of child sexual abuse to remain at a parish here 30 years ago, a second Mississippi priest has been identified as an alleged molester whose activities also went unchecked by Law.
The Rev. Thomas Boyce molested children at St. Peter’s Parish in the early 1970s, lawyers handling cases against the priest and the Catholic Church said yesterday.
Boyce served alongside the Rev. George L. Broussard, another alleged abuser whom Law was warned about but did not immediately remove from St. Peter’s, the Cardinal admitted during a deposition on Wednesday, according to attendees at the sworn interrogation.
The witnesses to the deposition also said Law acknowledged having information about a second Mississippi priest accused of molestation during Law’s tenure s the vicar general, or top lieutenant in the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson.
“He was the vicar general while these things were going on,” said Anthony R. Simon, an attorney representing the family of Billy Phillips, which alleges child sexual abuse of family members at the hands both Boyce and Broussard. “It’s really shocking how (Law) was looking the other way while these two men ruined so many families and so many lives.”
During a deposition conducted by attorney Rockerick MacLeish Jr. in a case against the Archdiocese of Boston and the Rev. Paul Shanley, Law was confronted with the affidavit of Kenneth P. Morrison, a 37-year-old ex-Mississippi man who alleges he and siblings were abused repeatedly by Broussard as a boy in the early 1970s. [sic]
My father (Dr. Francis Morrisson) later indicated to me that he had discussed (the abuse) with Bernard Law,” Morrisson said in his affidavit. “However, Broussard remained at the church for many more months after the church was notified about this abusive behavior and continued to abuse me.”
Law admitted at the session that he recalled both Broussard and the Morrison family’s allegations, the Herald reported yesterday, citing witnesses at the deposition. It is the earliest indication Law looked the other way when brought information on abusers in the clergy.
Records from the Josephinium seminary in Columbus, Ohio, where Law and Broussard were ordained, show they were classmates from the late 1950s until 1961, according to a seminary spokesman. Both sought assignment to the Natchez Diocese after ordination. And according to a classmate of both men, Bill Riley of Newton, the two were “very close friends” at the seminary.
Simon, who is also co-counsel representing the Morrison family, said Law eventually transferred Broussard to a parish in Waveland, Miss., but did not tell either the parishioners there or the state’s church hierarchy of the reason.
“The kids there had no idea what Broussard had done,” Simon said. Law left Mississippi to become Bishop of Springfield-Cape Giradeau, Mo., in December 1973.
Broussard, who left the priesthood soon after his transfer and is now living in Houma, La., declined comment on the accusations.
Boyce remains in ministry at another parish in Mississippi, where the phone went unanswered last night. The Diocese of Jackson also could not be reached for comment, but the Rev. Michael Flannery told the Associated Press last week that one priest had been suspended in Mississippi this year but did not identify him.
Boyce “was very appealing to kids,” Simon said. “They thought he was cool. He’d dress in bell-bottoms and drive a Datsun 280, telling them, ‘I’m one of you.’”
Though Law acknowledged warnings about Broussard and a “second priest” at his deposition Wednesday, Simon conceded he cannot definitively say the second accused cleric recalled by Law was Boyce. But, he said: “He knew or should have known. This is Jackson, Miss. in 1972. This is—[Some sort of printing glitch in the Herald; the story stops here and is not on the Herald website.]
Cardinal Law was supposedly one of the most conservative Cardinals in the USA. I guess it "depends on what the meaning of conservative is..." CYA has no ideology, it appears.
"But, Ma, everyone else is doing it!"
I used to think that Cardinal Law was corrupted by the "pomp and circumstance" of being a Cardinal. Nice surroundings, fancy dinners, a suck-up entourage, etc., etc. But, it appears that Cardinal Law was guilty of the cover-up crime way before he came to Boston.
Fight for the civil rights of one group, and blatantly allow the civil rights of another group to be grossly violated.
Isn't that what civil rights are these days? ;-)
I noticed some time back that none of the predators had ever been assigned to predominantly black or Hispanic parishes. Coincidence?
The same situation [as Bush looks very conservative next to Bill/Hillary/Al] exists to an even greater extent in the Catholic church. Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, he who has occupied so many headlines recently, is often called a "conservative" bishop. I lived in Boston, and I can tell you that, even leaving aside the current scandals, he is nothing of the sort. For example, after a shooting at an abortion clinic (by a delusional psychotic gunman), he prohibited public pro-life displays in the diocese. He doesn’t want to be "confrontational," any more than he wants to be confrontational with the Kennedys when it’s photo-op time at a funeral.The same Cardinal Law who last month led all the American cardinals to Rome for a face-saving PR opportunity had previously led the same group over to Rome a few years back in an (unsuccessful) attempt to pressure Rome into approving the "inclusive-language" Bible readings that he was responsible for producing. Cardinal Law is considered a conservative only because liberals like Archbishop Weakland are even worse. Without the cover provided by bishops like Weakland in Milwaukee and Mahoney in Los Angeles, Law would have been exposed as a modernist years ago.
Sorry - I should have specified that I meant in Boston.
Good question!
Your guess is as good as mine. The article, however, seems to be inserting a little innuendo, whether it has any basis in truth or not:
Records from the Josephinium seminary in Columbus, Ohio, where Law and Broussard were ordained, show they were classmates from the late 1950s until 1961, according to a seminary spokesman. Both sought assignment to the Natchez Diocese after ordination. And according to a classmate of both men, Bill Riley of Newton, the two were “very close friends” at the seminary.
There is also a link to a letter from an anonymous sex abuser(one-time)priest that every single person who is angrily demanding "one time and you're out" should read.It explains a whole lot,not only about what the circumstances of the "abuse" were but especially about why some bishops may appear to cover for them.
From the beginning of this whole mess,I have tried to convey my thought that we who love the Church and see the teachings of Christ as the only hope for mankind,must be especially careful not to step into a nice big grave that the "enemy",temporal and spiritual, have dug out for just this purpose;that is,to bury us.
Sometimes,it seems to me,that only when I pray to the Holy Spirit for the grace to think with the mind of the Church,do I see things clearly and understand.
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