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1 800 686 9921Order: SJ
Ordained: 1983
Status: Sued
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Richard Lavigne served in the Springfield Diocese for more than twenty-five years, working in parishes and with youth in his communities. He was arrested and charged with child sexual abuse in 1991 after several survivors came forward. The following year, he was convicted of sexually abusing two boys and sentenced to ten years of probation. In 1993, eleven more survivors reported abuse, and in 1994, the diocese settled seventeen claims for $1.4 million.
Ordained: 1941
Status: Accused
Died: 4/19/2002
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Charles E. Aubut was ordained on May 1, 1941, and served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, where he held assignments across multiple parishes over more than four decades of ministry. He retired in 1984.
Father Aubut was later named in allegations of sexual abuse. According to documents released by the Archdiocese, he was accused of sexual assault, though the records do not specify a date or location for the alleged conduct. He died on April 19, 2002, before any criminal or canonical proceedings against him could be completed.
Ordained: 1942
Status: Sued
Died: 5/5/1993
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Joseph Angeli was born in Italy and ordained in 1942 as a priest of the Diocese of Tacna, Peru. After 27 years in South America, he was assigned to Boston, Massachusetts in 1959. He was transferred to the Archdiocese of San Antonio in 1960, was in the Diocese of El Paso by 1965, and moved to the Diocese of Las Cruces when it was created in 1982. He died on May 4, 1993. Angeli has been named as credibly accused across multiple dioceses. On January 19, 2011, he was included on a publicly posted list of accused priests and religious, and according to a representative for the victims, at least one claim connected to the Archdiocese of Boston has already been settled.
Ordained: 1963
Status: Accused
Died: 11/7/2006
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John T. Atwater was ordained in 1963 and served in the Archdiocese of Boston for nearly four decades. He began his ministry as an assistant at the Catholic Boys Guidance Center in Boston from 1963 to 1971, then served as Executive Director of Cushing Hall in Scituate from 1971 to 1985. He went on to serve as parochial vicar at St. John the Baptist Parish in Peabody from 1985 to 1990, and as pastor of Sacred Heart – St. James Parish in Groton from 1990 until his retirement in 2000. He died on November 7, 2006. In August 2011, the Archdiocese of Boston included Atwater’s name on its official list of clergy accused of child sexual abuse.
Order: OFM
Ordained: 1930
Status: Accused
Died: 10/10/1994
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Leonard Bacigalupo, O.F.M., was a member of a Franciscan religious order who served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. He was assigned to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in East Boston. Allegations of unspecified sexual abuse at that parish, occurring in approximately 1969 or 1970, were reported in January 2003.
Ordained: 1937
Status: Sued
Died: 7/23/1983
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Eugene Bailot, also recorded as Baillot, served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. He retired from active ministry in 1975 and died in 1983. His name came to public attention in January 2003, when a woman publicly identified him at a community meeting and he was subsequently named in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed in Boston. She alleged that Father Bailot had sexually abused both her and her brother when they were children, approximately 50 years before she came forward publicly in 2003.
Ordained: 1972
Status: Accused
Died: 10/18/2002
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Gary E. Balcom served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. A 1993 lawsuit accused him of sexually abusing an altar boy during the 1970s, with allegations including showering with the child, fondling him, providing him with alcohol, and threatening him. In the course of subsequent proceedings, Father Gary E. Balcom admitted to sexually abusing eight or nine children. He was placed on sick leave in 1985 and had his priestly privileges removed in 1992. He voluntarily sought laicization, which was granted in April 1998. He died in October 2002.
Ordained: 1963
Status: Settled
Died: 3/28/2008
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Robert E. Barrett was ordained in 1963 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston during the 1960s and beyond. Allegations against him first came to light in 1993, when he was accused of molesting a minor during a camping trip in the 1960s.
Order: OMI
Ordained: 1978
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Richard J. Barry was ordained in 1978 as a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) and served in several parishes across multiple dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Boston. He was later accused of sexually abusing minors while acting in positions of trust during his ministry. According to records, allegations against Father Richard J. Barry were reported to church authorities, and his name has appeared in public disclosures concerning clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse.
Order: CS
Ordained: 1941
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Settimo Basso was a Scalabrinian priest ordained in 1941 who served in the Archdiocese of Boston for more than two decades after arriving from Italy in 1947. During his long ministry in Boston, he was assigned to parishes including St. Lazarus in East Boston, where he later faced allegations of sexual abuse.
Ordained: 1937
Status: Accused
Died: 3/23/1979
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Sydney H. Bayers was ordained in 1937 and served for decades as a priest within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, before his death in March 1979. Decades after his ministry, multiple survivors came forward with allegations of sexual abuse of minors.
Ordained: 1970
Status: Accused
Died: 5/7/2019
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Beale was ordained in 1970 and served in several assignments within the Archdiocese of Boston, including parishes in West Bridgewater, Cambridge, and Belmont. From 1982 to 2002, he served as director of Our Lady’s Hall in Milton — a facility used by the Archdiocese to house priests with alcohol and depression issues, as well as priests accused of sexually abusing children.
Ordained: 1961
Status: Sued
Died: 3/23/1997
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In January 2003, Father Beauvais was one of 16 priests newly identified in civil litigation alleging the sexual abuse of minors. Because he had died before investigations could be initiated, no formal canonical or criminal determination of guilt was ever made.
Ordained: 1963
Status: Sued
Died: 3/10/2020
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
A 2000 lawsuit accused Berthold of sexually abusing a boy in 1972 while he was assigned to St. Joseph’s Parish in Woburn, Massachusetts. The Archdiocese acknowledged it had learned of those allegations as early as 1999.
Ordained: 1960
Status: Settled
Died: 4/19/1989
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Joseph E. Birmingham was ordained on February 2, 1960, and served in the Archdiocese of Boston until his death in April 1989. He has been accused of sexually abusing more than 50 individuals throughout his nearly three decades of ministry. According to archdiocesan records, church officials were made aware of abuse allegations as early as 1964, yet responded by transferring him to another parish rather than removing him from ministry — a pattern that repeated across multiple assignments over the following two decades.
Order: CS
Ordained: 1945
Status: Accused
Died: 4/19/1998
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John Bocciarelli was a member of the Missionaries of St. Charles (CS) religious order and was ordained in 1945. He served in the Archdiocese of Boston for many years before returning to Italy in the mid-1990s. In 1997, the Archdiocese received a report alleging that Bocciarelli had sexually abused a young boy in the late 1960s.
Ordained: 1960
Status: Accused
Died: 12/29/2009
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Paul J. Bolduc was ordained in 1960 and served in the Archdiocese of Boston for decades. He had been on sick leave since 1998 when, on August 21, 2002, an allegation surfaced accusing him of sexually abusing a minor in approximately 1961. The Archbishop of Boston responded by placing Bolduc on administrative leave effective August 26, 2002, removing him from active ministry while the allegation was investigated. According to his family’s statement in his obituary, the Archdiocese’s Review Board cleared Bolduc of the allegations in July 2003 and allowed him to return to public ministry without restrictions. He died on December 29, 2009.
Order: SAC
Ordained: 1981
Status: Convicted
Died: 5/20/2007
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Barry F. Bossa was a member of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (SAC) religious order and was ordained in 1981. His history of abuse began years before ordination. In 1974, Bossa pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy. Despite this criminal conviction, he received no jail time. More troubling, his religious order knew about the conviction but still allowed him to proceed to ordination seven years later.
Ordained: 1940
Status: Accused
Died: 10/18/2001
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Clarence R. Boucher was ordained in 1940 and served in the Archdiocese of Boston for over four decades before retiring in 1982. He died on October 18, 2001. In February 2007, a woman came forward with public testimony alleging that Boucher had touched her inappropriately when she was 13 years old at St. Jean the Baptiste parish in Lynn, Massachusetts. She alleged that his behavior with young girls was well-known within the parish community, suggesting that parishioners — and possibly church officials — were aware of his conduct but did not act to protect children.
Order: SM
Ordained: 1951
Status: Accused
Died: 2/12/2010
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In December 2002, plaintiff attorneys released numerous clergy personnel files to the public as part of ongoing legal proceedings against the Archdiocese of Boston — files that the Archdiocese had turned over under court order. Boulanger’s file was among those released because it contained allegations of sexual abuse.
Order: FMS
Status: Settled
Died: 8/26/1987
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Xavier Leonard Boulanger was a Marist Brother who taught at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts. According to a 2007 civil lawsuit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, a survivor alleged that Brother Xavier Leonard sexually abused him as a minor at Central Catholic during the 1967–1968 school year. The lawsuit named multiple defendants, including the Marist Brothers of Massachusetts and Central Catholic High School, Inc. Brother Xavier Leonard died on August 26, 1987.
Order: OMI
Ordained: 1954
Status: Accused
Died: 7/22/2014
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Real B. Bourque was a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) religious order and was ordained in 1954. Throughout his lengthy ministry, he was assigned to multiple locations including Boston, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, Birmingham, Alabama, Portland, Maine, Washington, D.C., and Belleville, Illinois. Bourque first faced accusations in 1979 of sexually abusing male minors during the late 1970s while serving as Director of the Oblates’ center in Natick, Massachusetts. He was sent for treatment in 1979. Despite this, the Oblates transferred him in 1981 following notification of Cardinal Medeiros and the Oblate provincial, and he continued in active ministry.
Order: FMS
Status: Sued
Died: 10/19/2020
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Brendan Brennan was a member of the Marist Brothers of the Schools (FMS) religious order. He became a postulant in 1955 and professed his final vows in 1962. Throughout his lengthy career in education, Brother Brennan taught at numerous Marist schools across the country, including locations in the Bronx, Poughkeepsie, and Lincolnville, New York; Lawrence, Massachusetts; Eugene, Oregon; and Chicago, Illinois. In 2023, a civil claim was filed alleging that Brother Brennan sexually abused a then-16-year-old student in 1980.
Ordained: 1936
Status: Settled
Died: 4/13/1984
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
When his personnel files were released to the public in December 2002, they revealed accusations that Father Breton had sexually abused minors in both the Archdiocese of Boston and the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire. Four claims involving Father Breton were included in a lawsuit settled with the Diocese of Manchester in October 2002. The abuse alleged in those claims dated to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when survivors contend Father Breton targeted altar boys at Assumption Parish in Tilton, New Hampshire.
Ordained: 1957
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Anthony L. Buchette served within the Archdiocese of Boston and retired in 1997. Civil lawsuits filed against him in 2002 and 2003 alleged that he had sexually abused at least nine boys, all between the ages of 12 and 15, during a period spanning the late 1960s through the early 1980s. According to survivors, Buchette typically lured his victims with offers of trophies and collectibles, using those items to establish proximity and trust before the abuse occurred.
Order: CSsR
Ordained: 1949
Status: Settled
Died: 10/11/2008
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Lawrence Buckley was a Redemptorist priest who served for more than 30 years in the Archdiocese of Boston, following earlier assignments in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. He was assigned to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he is alleged to have sexually abused a seven-year-old altar boy beginning in 1987.
Ordained: 1953
Status: Settled
Died: 4/17/2007
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Myron F. Bullock served within the Archdiocese of Boston and also had assignments in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. His name was included on a list of accused priests and religious institutions, following the settlement of at least one civil claim against the Boston Archdiocese in connection with allegations against him. Father Bullock died on April 17, 2007.
Ordained: 1971
Status: Settled
Died: 11/1/2022
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Richard A. Buntel served within the Archdiocese of Boston. In 1994, he was accused of sexually abusing a boy between 1979 and 1985, beginning when the victim was 14 years old. The sexual abuse allegedly involved the provision of cocaine and violent pornography, with the sexual abuse occurring frequently over a six-year period. Father Buntel admitted to drug use but claimed the sexual activity occurred only during 1984 and 1985. The case was settled in May 1996, for $55,000.
Order: SDB
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Robert Burgess made his profession as a Salesian brother in 1967 and withdrew from the order in 1976. In March 2002, the Boston District Attorney was notified that someone had been sexually abused in 1970 by Burgess and another Salesian brother. According to the allegations, the sexual abuse by Burgess occurred on a trip back from a camp in New Hampshire and also in Burgess’ room at a rectory in Boston.
Ordained: 1962
Status: Settled
Died: 9/30/2012
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
An allegation of sexual abuse of a child in Cambridge was asserted against Father Butler in a civil claim that resulted in a settlement. A publicly posted list from 2016 identified Butler as an accused cleric whose civil case had been resolved through settlement or arbitration.
Ordained: 1961
Status: Accused
Died: 12/17/2017
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father William L. Butler was a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston, MA, who served in ministry for several decades. In August 2002, he was accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in 1966. According to the allegation, the sexual abuse occurred while Father William L. Butler was in Canada during a trip to his family’s property. The report stated that the minor had traveled with him at the time of the alleged misconduct.
Ordained: 1969
Status: Settled
Died: 6/18/2014
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In May 2012, Father Byrne was removed from ministry after an allegation of sexually abusing a child in the early 1970s. The Archdiocese’s Review Board later deemed that allegation unsubstantiated, and he was reinstated on May 23, 2013. Criminal charges were not filed due to the statute of limitations.
Order: OSA
Ordained: 1956
Status: Settled
Died: 12/24/2008
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father George J. Callaghan served in ministry within the Archdiocese of Boston and later became the subject of sexual misconduct allegations. Personnel files released in December 2002 detailed accusations that Callaghan made sexual advances toward a 17-year-old boy in 1983. The alleged incident occurred in a rectory bedroom at a parish in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The matter was ultimately settled.
Order: OFM
Ordained: 1965
Status: Settled
Died: 3/31/1991
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Alan E. Caparella was a priest who served in the Archdiocese of Boston, MA, including an assignment at St. Leonard’s Parish in Boston, MA. In September 2013, an attorney representing the victim announced that a civil settlement had been reached on behalf of an individual who alleged sexual abuse by Caparella. The alleged abuse reportedly occurred between 1979 and 1983 while Caparella was serving at St. Leonard’s.
Order: SVD
Ordained: 1946
Status: Accused
Died: 8/6/2015
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 2002, Carew was accused of sexually abusing two girls during the early 1960s while he was serving in parish assignments. Reports indicated there may have been a third female victim as well. During the period in question, Carew was assigned to Immaculate Conception Parish in Newburyport from April 1960 through February 1963.
Ordained: 1953
Status: Unsubstantiated
Died: 7/8/2021
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John P. Carroll was ordained for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1953 and served in parish assignments in Massachusetts before being reassigned to the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. According to internal Church records, he was transferred to Pittsburgh following what those records described as a credible allegation of sexual misconduct involving an adult woman. He served in multiple Pittsburgh-area parishes from 1963 to 1972, including St. Michael Parish in Elizabeth, St. Isaac Jogues in Elrama, St. Margaret in Green Tree, St. Susanna in Penn Hills, St. Alphonsus in Springdale, and St. Denis in Versailles. He returned to Massachusetts in 1972 and continued serving in Boston-area parishes.
Ordained: 1963
Status: Accused
Died: 3/12/2020
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Frederick J. Cartier Jr. served in the Archdiocese of Boston and was later accused of sexually abusing a minor during his time in parish ministry. Personnel records released in January 2003 brought renewed attention to allegations involving Father Frederick J. Cartier Jr.
Ordained: 1948
Status: Accused
Died: 2/21/2008
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Walter E. Casey was a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston whose ministry spanned nearly five decades and included both parish assignments and military service. He served in assistant roles at parishes in the Massachusetts towns of Marshfield, Brockton, Lexington, Abington, and Medford before becoming a United States Army chaplain from 1955 to 1975, with postings in Germany, Japan, Vietnam, and Alaska.
Order: CS
Ordained: 1950
Status: Sued
Died: 9/28/1994
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Guido Caverzan was a Scalabrinian order priest who served in multiple locations, including parishes in New York, Massachusetts, and Florida. In a letter dated July 18, 1977, complaints were made to Caverzan’s order, the Scalabrinian Fathers, alleging that he had sexually abused three boys who were altar boys at St. Lazarus Parish in East Boston. Later internal church records, including a 1994 memorandum, referenced two additional allegations of abuse against him.
Ordained: 1966
Status: Unsubstantiated
Died: 12/27/2019
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John C. Chaisson was a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston whose history with allegations spans decades and reflects how the Church’s response to abuse claims has evolved over time. Although allegations surfaced as early as 1974 — when, according to archdiocesan personnel files, a Danvers police chief reported that Chaisson admitted to sexually assaulting a child — he was permitted to remain in active ministry and was subsequently cleared by an internal church investigation, a finding that was later revisited.
Ordained: 1960
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
By May 2008, Charest was living in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, just steps from a private elementary school — still a priest in the canonical sense, though removed from active ministry since 2003. He was included on the Archdiocese of Boston’s public list of clergy accused of the sexual abuse of a child, released in August 2011. Charest was canonically dismissed from the priesthood in 2015.
Ordained: 1981
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Joseph K. Coleman was a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston who admitted to sexually abusing two boys while assigned to St. Angela’s Parish in Mattapan during the early 1980s. A 1987 internal church memorandum authored by Rev. John B. McCormack — who later became Bishop of Manchester, New Hampshire — documented Coleman’s admissions and described the allegations as serious.
Ordained: 1939
Status: Sued
Died: 1/2/1982
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Jeremiah J. Collins was a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston who died on January 2, 1982. In 2002, a lawsuit was filed naming Collins as an abuser. The suit alleged that Collins molested a boy who was approximately 13 years old in 1968 at St. Jude Parish in Waltham, Massachusetts, and at a cottage in New Hampshire. The alleged abuse occurred while Collins was serving in ministry and had access to the child through his parish assignment.
Ordained: 1965
Status: Settled
Died: 11/23/2007
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John Kevin Connell was a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston who faced multiple allegations of sexual abuse alleged to have occurred over a period spanning more than a decade. In 2002, a lawsuit was filed accusing Connell of sexually abusing a twelve-year-old boy during a trip to Florida in 1975 or 1976, and on additional occasions in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Ordained: 1943
Status: Settled
Died: 10/8/1985
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James E. Connelly served in the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, during his years in ministry, prior to his death on October 8, 1985. Decades later, he was publicly identified in connection with clergy sexual abuse allegations through civil litigation and public disclosures by accountability organizations.
Ordained: 1975
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Denis A. Conte served in multiple parishes within the Archdiocese of Boston, MA, and was later accused of sexually abusing minors. In 1994, the Archdiocese received a demand letter from the attorney representing a survivor who alleged that Conte had sexually abused him when he was between 11 and 12 years old.
Order: SJ
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Robert Cornigans was publicly identified by the Jesuits’ Northeast Province as credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor on January 15, 2019. According to the Province, a report made in 2003 documented alleged abuse occurring in 1976, at the time Cornigans was serving as a teacher at Boston College High School in Massachusetts.
Ordained: 1960
Status: Settled
Died: 2/23/1989
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John M. Cotter was a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston who first faced public accusation in a 1993 lawsuit alleging he repeatedly molested a boy from 1968 to 1975, beginning when the child was just seven years old. The abuse allegedly included oral, digital, and anal rape. Boy Scout leader William Reynolds was also accused of abusing the same child. The lawsuit revealed that abuse allegedly occurred through the priest’s involvement with the CYO, the Boy Scouts, and the confessional.
Ordained: 1953
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Richard T. Coughlin served as an associate pastor at parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston — including St. Patrick’s Church in Stoneham and St. Mary’s Church in Lynn — from approximately 1958 until 1965, when he relocated to California. He later ministered in the Diocese of Orange, California, where he is alleged to have founded the All-American Boys Chorus. In early 1993, Father Coughlin was suspended by the Diocese of Orange after multiple individuals came forward alleging he had sexually abused boys associated with that group. Additional allegations from Massachusetts, dating to the late 1950s and early 1960s, also emerged during this period.
Ordained: 1951
Status: Settled
Died: 12/29/2004
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Gerard E. Creighton was publicly named in 2011 on the Archdiocese of Boston’s list of clergy accused of the sexual abuse of a child. The Archdiocese noted that no formal determination of guilt was made in his case, as he died before any proceedings were completed.
Ordained: 1928
Status: Sued
Died: 4/21/1971
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In August 2011, the Archdiocese of Boston included Croke’s name on its publicly released list of clergy against whom allegations of sexual misconduct had been raised, noting that no formal determination of guilt was made — either because he died before a canonical investigation could be conducted or because any such investigation was not completed at the time of his death.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1965
Status: Accused
Died: 5/25/2010
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father William J. Cullen was a Jesuit priest ordained in 1965. On January 15, 2019, the Jesuits’ USA Northeast Province publicly named him on its list of members with credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. The allegation concerns abuse occurring in 1995–1996 while Cullen was assigned to Nativity Prep, a school for disadvantaged youth in Boston, Massachusetts.
Order: CFX
Status: Settled
Died: 12/4/1989
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
At least one civil lawsuit naming Cumerlato as a perpetrator of sexual abuse was settled. His name also appears on a list of clergy with settled claims maintained by attorney Mitchell Garabedian. He died in Parma, Italy on December 4, 1989.
Ordained: 1968
Status: Settled
Died: 5/21/1994
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father William J. Cummings was ordained in 1968 and founded the Singing Priests, a charitable ensemble, in the 1970s. He died on May 21, 1994. In June and August 2002, civil lawsuits were filed alleging that Cummings had sexually abused children during his ministry in the Archdiocese of Boston.
Ordained: 1966
Status: Settled
Died: 11/1/1999
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Curley has been identified in a 2001 internal archdiocese report that summarized abuse allegations and associated settlement costs. A survivor identified only as David has alleged that Curley sexually assaulted him in 1981, when he was 12 years old and residing at the Pilgrim Center.
Order: CFX
Status: Accused
Died: 11/18/1961
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Decades after his death, allegations concerning his conduct came to light. The Xaverian Brothers publicly named him on their list of accused members released on July 12, 2019. The disclosure noted that an allegation had been reported in 1999 of sexual abuse occurring between 1951 and 1955 in Danvers, Massachusetts
Ordained: 1967
Status: Sued
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Robert F. Daly was assigned to multiple parishes within the Archdiocese of Boston, including St. Anne’s in Readville, St. Jerome’s in North Weymouth, and St. Patrick’s in Brockton, among others. Allegations emerged that Daly had sexually abused minors during the 1970s and early 1980s, spanning several of the locations where he served.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1969
Status: Accused
Died: 4/29/2010
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Stephen F. Dawber was a Jesuit priest who served in multiple educational institutions in Massachusetts and Maine. Along with two other Jesuits at Boston College High School, Dawber was accused of molesting several students during the 1970s and early 1980s. He is also alleged to have arranged to have one of the other accused Jesuits, James Talbot, transferred to Cheverus High School in Maine — where Dawber was serving as principal at the time — and where Talbot went on to abuse again. Dawber himself is not known to have sexually abused at Cheverus before returning to Boston College High School.
Status: Settled
Died: 3/4/2018
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Deacon William R. Emerson was ordained as a permanent deacon by the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska in 1973 and was granted faculties in the Archdiocese of Boston in 1982, where he was assigned to St. William’s Church in Tewksbury. He has been accused of sexually abusing a boy between the ages of 8 and 13 on over 100 occasions during the period from approximately 1973 to 1978 in the church basement. Prior to his service in the Boston Archdiocese, Emerson held positions in St. Louis, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska, including service at Boys Town U.S.A.
Order: OFM
Status: Convicted
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Fidelis DeBerardinis served in multiple locations throughout his ministry, including Boston, Honduras, Guatemala, Trinidad, Israel, and New York. Between 1968 and 1973, while assigned to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in East Boston, he was accused of sexually assaulting as many as seven altar boys.
Order: CSV
Ordained: 1963
Status: Guilty plea
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Desilets was extradited from Canada to the United States in 2005 to face charges. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to up to eighteen months in prison followed by ten years of probation. Prior to his release in October 2006, he sought to be excused from court-ordered sex offender treatment due to his advanced age and deteriorating health. He was permitted to return to Canada to serve his probation under the custodianship of his religious order.
Ordained: 1971
Status: Accused
Died: 12/4/1997
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Gerard V. Dever was accused of repeatedly engaging in sexual misconduct with young girls while assigned to St. Ann’s Elementary School in Wollaston. Between 1993 and 1996, at least eight girls reported that Dever touched their breasts and played with their clothing.
Ordained: 1939
Status: Settled
Died: 9/15/1996
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
According to public records, Dewey was named in a 2005 civil lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of minors at St. Mary’s Parish in Dedham between 1971 and 1975. The suit involved multiple plaintiffs and named multiple priests as defendants. Attorney Carmen Durso, who brought the claims, reported that almost all claims associated with the case were settled.
Ordained: 1946
Status: Settled
Died: 10/28/1994
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John J. Dewire was a Catholic priest ordained in 1946 who served in the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, across multiple parish assignments spanning decades. According to public records, Dewire was named in a 2003 civil lawsuit in which a victim alleged he had raped a 10-year-old boy in 1967. The lawsuit was one of 70 filed against approximately 40 priests affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston.
Ordained: 1968
Status: Settled
Died: 9/9/2020
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Allegations of sexual abuse of a minor dating back to 1976 were brought forward against Donahue, and his name was subsequently added to the Archdiocese of Boston’s public list of priests whose allegations were reviewed by the diocese. One such claim involved a boy who alleged he was molested at age 12; that matter was resolved through a 2019 settlement with the Archdiocese. Donahue denied the accusations and died on September 9, 2020.
Order: OFM
Ordained: 1967
Status: Convicted
Died: 8/31/2019
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Allegations of sexual abuse against Dority span decades. In a 2010 civil lawsuit, he was accused of sexually abusing two boys connected to Holy Name Parish between approximately 1966 and 1972, beginning when they were about 10 and 13 years old. Dority admitted to the abuse. In October 2011, a Suffolk Superior Court judge awarded the two plaintiffs a combined $3 million judgment after Dority failed to appear or respond to the lawsuit.
Order: CSS
Ordained: 1956
Status: Sued
Died: 7/19/2008
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 2004, a civil lawsuit accused Father Ronald Dorsey of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy in approximately 1955 at Camp Wyoma in Hinsdale, Massachusetts, while he was a seminarian at the Stigmatine Fathers Seminary in Waltham.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1931
Status: Settled
Died: 7/23/1998
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father William J. Duffy was a Jesuit priest ordained in 1931 who served in a range of ministries, including teaching roles and as a U.S. Army chaplain during World War II. Although he died in 1998 at the age of 96, allegations of sexual abuse — with reported incidents dating to 1957–1958 — were later brought forward and investigated by the Jesuit order.
Ordained: 1960
Status: Sued
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 1993, the Archdiocese of Boston received a complaint alleging that Dunn repeatedly sexually abused a boy, then between 12 and 13 years old, who lived near the rectory and delivered newspapers to St. Mary of the Assumption in Hull, during 1967 and 1968. According to that complaint, Dunn allegedly participated in the abuse alongside the parish pastor and another priest assigned to St. Mary’s.
Ordained: 1932
Status: Settled
Died: 12/10/1989
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Leo V. Dwyer was ordained as a priest on May 27, 1932, and served in the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, before retiring in 1979. He died in 1989. Personnel files released publicly in 2002 and 2003 revealed that a 1993 allegation had been received claiming that Father Dwyer sexually abused a youth in 1967 and 1968 at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Hull.
Ordained: 1969
Status: Sued
Died: 9/13/2000
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Frank E. Fairbairn’s name appears on the Archdiocese of Boston’s publicly released list of clergy accused of sexually abusing minors. In a 2003 civil lawsuit, a claimant alleged that Father Fairbairn sexually abused a 14-year-old boy in 1970 while he was assigned to Sacred Heart parish in Quincy. Father Fairbairn died in September 2000 — before that lawsuit was filed — and as a result, neither criminal nor canonical proceedings against him were completed.
Ordained: 1967
Status: Settled
Died: 2/15/2009
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Robert D. Fay was a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston who took “health leave for a heart condition” in 1988 and subsequently worked as a real estate agent. In December 2002, a woman filed suit alleging that Father Fay had sexually abused her as a teenager during the 1970s and that he had provided her and others with alcohol and marijuana. That lawsuit was settled in 2003.
Ordained: 1945
Status: Settled
Died: 8/4/2004
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James H. Coffey served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, including an assignment at Sacred Heart Parish in Lynn, Massachusetts from 1946 to 1949. A civil lawsuit was filed against the Archdiocese alleging that Coffey sexually abused a young boy in 1949. According to the complaint, the victim was approximately 10 years old at the time and was a parishioner at Sacred Heart in Lynn, where Coffey was assigned. The abuse allegedly took place inside Coffey’s jeep in or around the Lynn Woods Reservation in Lynn, Massachusetts.
Ordained: 1955
Status: Sued
Died: 6/7/2013
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 2003, Father Fichtner was placed on administrative leave after allegations surfaced that he had sexually abused a child at St. Joseph’s School. A civil lawsuit filed in 2005 described sexual abuse beginning when the survivor was nine years old. Although Archdiocesan review processes at the time found the allegation unsubstantiated and lifted all restrictions, additional claims emerged years later. A 2022 lawsuit alleged repeated sexual abuse of a boy between the ages of 6 and 12, occurring between 1982 and 1989 at St. Joseph’s School — including in confessionals and other locations on the property. As of the most recent public reporting, Father Fichtner’s status on the Archdiocese’s list remains classified as unsubstantiated.
Ordained: 1970
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Sexual abuse allegations regarding Father Finegan first surfaced in 1980, when he was accused of sexually abusing two girls. A renewed complaint was raised in 1989 regarding the same individuals, with additional details describing skin-to-skin sexual contact and identifying three other possible victims. Records indicate that he received treatment at Southdown Institute before being returned to ministry. In 2002, he was removed from active service after a nun reported to Cardinal Law that a credible young man had disclosed that he had been sexually abused as a minor.
Order: CSS
Ordained: 1949
Status: Accused
Died: 10/31/1996
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In August 2002, six years after Flood’s death in October 1996, allegations emerged of sexual abuse connected to his ministry. According to a 2002 Boston Globe investigation, six men alleged that they had been abused as boys by either Flood or fellow Stigmatine priest Richard J. Ahern; the alleged abuse was said to have occurred in Springfield, Agawam, and New Hampshire. The Diocese of Springfield reviewed these allegations and determined them to be credible, with a reported timeframe of 1971 to 1984. Flood was added to the Diocese’s official list of credibly accused clergy in June 2021.
Ordained: 1955
Status: Settled
Died: 1/30/2011
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In January 2003, a civil lawsuit alleged that Father Flynn sexually abused a six-year-old girl in 1978 while he was assigned to St. Paul Church in Wellesley. Flynn denied the allegation. The claim was subsequently resolved through the civil justice system as part of a broader settlement with the Archdiocese of Boston in 2003. In October 2005, the Archdiocese reinstated Flynn after its internal review board determined that the allegation could not be substantiated. No criminal charges against Flynn appear in the public record.
Ordained: 1978
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 2011, a second man came forward alleging that Foley had abused him beginning at Holy Name Parish around 1984 or 1985, with the sexual abuse continuing for more than a decade. These allegations were made public in September 2012. The Archdiocese of Boston’s published list from August 2011 reflected that Foley remained on administrative leave with a canonical case still in progress at that time.
Ordained: 1966
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Thomas P. Forry served in the Archdiocese of Boston and has been publicly named as credibly accused of sexually abusing a preteen boy. In 1984, therapists recommended that Forry receive long-term hospitalization and treatment, but he refused. His personnel file documents that the Archdiocese was aware of allegations of both sexual abuse and physical abuse against a minor, as well as inappropriate relationships with women. Despite this knowledge, Forry was permitted to serve as an Army chaplain from 1988 to 1992.
Order: CSS
Status: Accused
Died: 10/8/2000
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 2002, his name was turned over to authorities for investigation of possible sexual abuse charges. A July 2004 news report documented that a man had filed a civil lawsuit against both the Boston Archdiocese and the Albany Diocese, alleging that Fowler had sexually abused him while he attended Elm Bank Minor Seminary in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. The same lawsuit alleged additional abuse by a priest in the Albany Diocese when the survivor was an adult.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1937
Status: Accused
Died: 8/10/1988
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Joseph P. Fox was a Jesuit priest assigned to Bobola House in Boston from 1948 to 1957. In 2012, a sexual abuse allegation was reported to the Jesuits Northeast Province stating that Fox had sexually abused a minor between 1956 and 1957 while serving at that assignment. Following review, the Jesuits Northeast Province publicly named Father Fox on January 15, 2019 as a credibly accused member of the clergy — a determination reflecting a formal finding that the allegation was more likely true than not based on the available evidence.
Ordained: 1936
Status: Settled
Died: 4/6/1959
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Francis G. McInerney was ordained in 1936 and served in the Archdiocese of Boston until his death on April 6, 1959. During his ministry, he held an assignment at St. Thomas of Villanova Parish in Wilmington, Massachusetts. Civil claims were filed alleging that McInerney sexually abused two young girls in approximately 1948 while assigned to that parish. According to the complaints, one victim was approximately 14 years old at the time of the alleged abuse, and the other was approximately 9 years old.
Ordained: 1950
Status: Settled
Died: 8/4/2010
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In May 2019, attorney Mitchell Garabedian publicly named Barry as one of seven priests whose sexual abuse survivors had been compensated through arbitration with the Archdiocese of Boston. Despite that settlement history, Barry had not been included on the Archdiocese’s publicly published list of accused clergy as of January 2025, apparently due to a protocol that excludes priests who were deceased when their survivors came forward. Barry died on September 4, 2010. Aspects of his assignment history suggest the Archdiocese may have been aware of concerns about his conduct with children as early as the mid-1960s or early 1970s.
Order: BSO
Ordained: 1974
Status: Settled
Died: 6/20/2014
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Ross S. Frey was a Melkite priest affiliated with the Basilian Salvatorian Order who served in Massachusetts from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s. During this time, he was accused of sexually abusing numerous adolescent boys, including alleged incidents occurring between 1973 and 1984 during weekend retreats at St. Basil Salvatorian Center in Methuen. Following these allegations, Frey received treatment and was transferred to Lebanon in 1995, reportedly after a police officer warned the order of impending bad publicity. He was later placed on administrative leave, though records indicate he remained in active ministry as of December 2002 at Notre Dame University in Lebanon.
Ordained: 1970
Status: Sued
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Peter J. Frost was ordained in 1970 and became a military chaplain in 1971. By 1974, he had been placed on sick leave, though he returned to parish assignments three years later. Allegations of sexual abuse against Frost ultimately surfaced dating back as far as 1969, when he was still a deacon — years before he was removed from active ministry. Father Frost himself admitted to misconduct, describing himself in a 1994 letter to Cardinal Law as a “sex addict” and acknowledging the pain he had caused his victims. He also disclosed in that letter that one of his victims had died by suicide, underscoring the devastating and lasting harm that clergy sexual abuse can cause.
Order: OSA
Ordained: 1945
Status: Accused
Died: 12/12/2006
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John J. Gallagher was an Augustinian priest who served in multiple states, including Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida. While assigned to St. Mary’s Parish in Lawrence, Massachusetts, he coached youth basketball and swim teams associated with the parish and school — roles that gave him direct, unsupervised access to children. In a 2005 civil lawsuit, a woman alleged that Gallagher sexually abused her over several years between 1972 and 1978 while she was a child. The case involved multiple plaintiffs and named several priests as defendants.
Ordained: 1969
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James E. Gaudreau was removed from his assignment at St. Joseph’s Parish in Lynn on September 23, 2012, following an allegation that he had sexually abused a child in 2006. He was placed on paid administrative leave with no public ministry pending the archdiocesan investigation, and law enforcement was notified of the allegations. Gaudreau had been serving at St. Joseph’s since 1984 and had served as its pastor since 1993.
Ordained: 1962
Status: Convicted
Died: 8/23/2003
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James E. Gaudreau was removed from his assignment at St. Joseph’s Parish in Lynn on September 23, 2012, following an allegation that he had sexually abused a child in 2006. He was placed on paid administrative leave with no public ministry pending the archdiocesan investigation, and law enforcement was notified of the allegations. Gaudreau had been serving at St. Joseph’s since 1984 and had served as its pastor since 1993.
Order: OFM
Status: Settled
Died: 10/2/2013
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Kenneth Ghastin was a member of the Franciscan Order who served in parishes and schools within the Archdiocese of Boston, including an assignment at Christopher Columbus High School in Boston’s North End. Allegations of sexual abuse became public in December 2002 through the release of his personnel file. The records documented claims that Ghastin molested two brothers during the early 1970s while they were students at the school.
Ordained: 1952
Status: Settled
Died: 8/21/2009
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James M. Gibbons was a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston who served at St. James Parish in Medford from the late 1950s through the early 1960s. In November 2022, a civil claim against Father Gibbons was settled. The claim alleged that he sexually abused a 12-year-old girl in approximately 1961 while she was a student at the parish school. According to the allegations, Gibbons fondled the girl’s breasts over her clothing.
Order: CP
Ordained: 1971
Status: Guilty plea
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James Randal Gillette was a priest who worked in multiple dioceses across the United States and internationally, including the Archdioceses of Boston, Newark, and New York, as well as the Diocese of Pittsburgh. He also served at St. Patrick’s Parish in Mexico City from 1978 to 1987 and worked in Honduras during his ministry. Gillette’s personnel file accused him of sexually assaulting a boy at St. Gabriel’s Parish in Brighton in 1972.
Status: Convicted
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
On March 11, 2015, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three children between the ages of 12 and 14. The abuse occurred during the 1990s at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and Our Lady of Assumption Parish in East Boston. The charges to which he pleaded guilty included rape, indecent assault and battery of a child under 14, and unlawful dissemination of material harmful to minors.
Ordained: 1972
Status: Sued
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Louis J. Govoni faced allegations of sexually abusing a male student from Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree between 1972 and 1974, as documented in files released in January 2003. Those records also show that Cardinal Medeiros was warned in 1977 that teenage boys frequently stayed in Govoni’s room and that one boy had been seen partially undressed in a hallway at 2:00 a.m. Govoni was absent without permission from the ministry beginning in 1978.
Ordained: 1970
Status: Settled
Died: 10/8/2023
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Daniel M. Graham was first accused in 1988 of repeatedly molesting a 14-year-old boy. Graham admitted the sexual abuse allegations were true but received a positive assessment and was allowed to return to ministry. A second allegation emerged in 1992 regarding abuse that had occurred in the 1980s, resulting in restrictions on his ministry that were later removed in 1996.
Ordained: 1947
Status: Settled
Died: 6/2/1998
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John E. Guiney, often referred to as “Father Jack”, served in the Archdiocese of Boston in parish and ministry roles, including assignments at multiple parishes and the Catholic Boys Guidance Center in Boston. Allegations of sexual abuse involving minors were publicly documented when attorney Mitchell Garabedian released a list of accused clergy on January 19, 2011. At least one claim involving allegations of sexual abuse against Guiney was settled with the Archdiocese. Father Guiney passed away on June 2, 1998.
Ordained: 1958
Status: Settled
Died: 8/9/2007
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Monsignor James J. Haddad served in the Archdiocese of Boston and held a series of pastoral and institutional assignments over the course of his priesthood. Allegations against Haddad relate to the sexual abuse of a male minor, ages 13 to 14, on multiple occasions between 1976 and 1977, while he was assigned to St. Eulalia’s Church in Winchester. The sexual abuse is reported to have occurred repeatedly over this period.
Ordained: 1933
Status: Settled
Died: 3/22/1963
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Arthur J. Hagan was a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston. On January 19, 2011, attorney Mitchell Garabedian publicly released a list of clergy accused in cases his firm had settled or resolved through arbitration; Father Hagan was among those named. At least one civil claim involving Hagan was resolved through a settlement with the Archdiocese. Hagan died on March 22, 1963.
Ordained: 1955
Status: Convicted
Died: 10/20/2016
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John R. Hanlon was accused of sexually abusing at least 10 boys during a 14-year period of ministry. He was convicted of raping one youth and sentenced to three concurrent life sentences in March 1994. Hanlon also abused his victim’s brother and was known to take boys to nude beaches as part of a deliberate pattern of desensitizing them to sexual contact. A civil suit filed by two of his victims settled in 1996 for an undisclosed sum.
Order: CFX
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
The sexual abuse allegation against Harrison underscores a pattern seen across clergy sexual abuse cases: survivors often do not come forward for decades, delayed by fear, shame, the power dynamics of religious institutions, or the suppression of memory. This delay does not diminish the validity of a survivor’s experience or necessarily foreclose their legal options.
Order: CFC
Status: Settled
Died: 9/22/1978
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother William A. Hennessy was accused in a 2011 letter of repeatedly sexually abusing a girl between 1962 and 1964, beginning when the child was just eight years old. The girl’s family had befriended Hennessy, who served as a senior administrator at Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. According to the accusation, Hennessy frequently visited the girl’s mother and grandmother, giving him repeated access to the child.
Ordained: 1963
Status: Sued
Died: 10/17/2018
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In early 2002, two of Father Hickey’s nephews publicly alleged that he had sexually abused them. One nephew had previously reported the allegations to the Archdiocese by letter in August 1992, and the Archdiocese agreed to fund two years of therapy for him at that time. A civil lawsuit was later filed but was ultimately dropped. Father Hickey was placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese in February 2002. Records from the 2011 Boston Archdiocese list indicate that the Review Board subsequently found the allegations unsubstantiated, or that a canonical process resulted in acquittal. Father Hickey remained retired with privileges restricted as of October 2015 and passed away in October 2018.
Status: Settled
Died: 3/25/1994
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Paul Hightower was accused of repeatedly sexually abusing at least two minors during his time at Nazareth Child Care Center, a children’s home in Jamaica Plain. According to personnel files released in January 2003, allegations of abuse at Nazareth have been connected to the period in which Hightower was associated with the facility, though sources differ on the precise timeline of his role there. Hightower attended Cardinal O’Connell Seminary from 1965 to 1968 but was never ordained. After leaving the seminary, he became a Boy Scout leader but was reportedly dismissed following an allegation that he assaulted a Scout. He married, raised a family, and died in 1994 at age 47.
Order: SVD
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
The sexual abuse allegations against Brother Hogan were formally recognized when he was named on the Divine Word Missionaries’ Chicago Province list of those credibly accused of the sexual abuse of a minor — a publicly available record maintained by the Order itself. His inclusion on this list reflects the seriousness with which the institution has treated these allegations and provides important historical context for those who may have been affected by his conduct during his years of service.
Order: CFX
Status: Accused
Died: 3/17/1991
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Thomas F. Holihan, also known as Brother Rudolph, was a member of the Xaverian Brothers, joining the Order in 1931. An allegation of sexual abuse against a minor was reported in 2004, concerning conduct alleged to have occurred in the early 1960s in Danvers, Massachusetts. Brother Holihan passed away in 1991 — more than a decade before the allegation was reported and nearly three decades before the Order publicly identified him on its list of accused members in July 2019.
Order: SSCC
Status: Guilty plea
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
The reported sexual abuse occurred during periods when Holmes was entrusted with supervising and providing spiritual guidance to children at the facility. According to court records and survivor accounts, Holmes used his authority over the children’s placement outcomes — threatening to block their transfer to foster homes or relatives — to coerce compliance. Survivors have described the profound confusion, fear, and shame that can arise when sexual abuse is perpetrated by someone in a position of institutional authority, and how those dynamics can delay or prevent disclosure for years or even decades.
Order: FMS
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Allegations of sexual abuse surfaced decades after his service. Complaints filed in 2002 alleged that Brother Holsenbach had sexually abused minors during his time at Central Catholic High School, with reported incidents dating to 1958 and 1960. He had served at the school from 1958 until 1961, when his membership in the Marist Brothers was terminated — a termination that school officials later inferred may have been the result of a disciplinary action involving sexual misconduct.
Ordained: 1970
Status: Convicted
Died: 1/11/2016
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Paul William Hurley served in the Archdiocese of Boston, MA, before criminal allegations brought his ministry to an end. He was accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy between 1987 and 1988. According to prosecutors, the abuse allegedly involved repeated incidents during which the minor was paid between $80 and $100 per encounter.
Ordained: 1958
Status: Accused
Died: 3/8/1979
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James M. Hutchinson served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, and was assigned to St. Thomas More Parish in Braintree for the first decade of his priesthood. He died in 1979 at the age of 48. Decades later, in 2002, allegations surfaced that he had sexually abused at least one 9-year-old boy in 1960 while serving at that parish. Reports from that time also indicate that Father Hutchinson had a reputation for asking parishioners deeply personal questions during confession and for using the confessional as a means of learning about their vulnerabilities.
Ordained: 1929
Status: Sued
Died: 9/29/1975
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Monsignor Raymond L. Hyder served in the Archdiocese of Boston for most of his 46-year career. He was primarily assigned to St. Margaret’s Parish in Lowell, Massachusetts — with the exception of a period from 1951 to 1958 — and served there from his ordination in 1929 until his death on September 29, 1975. In May 2003, a civil lawsuit was filed alleging that Monsignor Hyder molested a teenage boy while assigned to St. Margaret’s Parish. Hyder died in 1975, decades before these allegations were publicly reported, which limited opportunities for formal criminal proceedings or canonical investigation.
Ordained: 1999
Status: Convicted
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Kelvin E. Iguabita-Rodriguez was a native of Colombia who was trained and ordained by the Archdiocese of Boston, graduating from St. John’s Seminary in Brighton as part of a special program for Spanish-speaking priests. He was ordained in May 1999 and served as a Parochial Vicar at All Saints Parish in Haverhill, Massachusetts. In July 2001, he was placed on medical leave. Prior to this action, the Archdiocese had identified three other known accusations of sexual abuse against him, one of which involved rape.
Ordained: 1945
Status: Settled
Died: 5/13/2000
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Jansonis took health leave in 1977 and subsequently moved to Cape Cod, where he assisted on weekends at a parish in Pocasset from 1977 until 2000. He passed away on May 13, 2000. He was later included on the Archdiocese of Boston’s August 2011 public list of clergy accused of sexual abuse of a minor, published under Cardinal Seán O’Malley’s transparency initiative. The Archdiocese noted that no formal determination of guilt was possible, as Jansonis died before a canonical investigation could be initiated or concluded.
Ordained: 1949
Status: Settled
Died: 12/22/2009
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Harold Joseph Johnson was ordained in 1949 and served in the Archdiocese of Boston for most of his career. He is named on the Archdiocese of Boston’s official list of clergy credibly accused of sexually abusing a child. According to a letter received by the Archdiocese in 1992, a survivor alleged that Father Johnson had sexually abused him during Father Johnson’s assignment at Sacred Heart Parish in Weymouth, where he served from 1949 to 1957. The survivor alleged that Father Johnson, who served as his confessor, exploited information shared in confession to commit the abuse.
Ordained: 1947
Status: Accused
Died: 3/2/2017
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Richard G. Johnson retired from active ministry in the Archdiocese of Boston in 1997. At age eighty, he was working part-time for the Diocese of Palm Beach, Florida, in 2003 when he was suspended from priestly ministry after that diocese learned he had been accused of sexually abusing teenage girls dating back to the 1950s. Despite these allegations, Cardinal Law had certified in 1998 that Johnson was in good standing — despite a written allegation from 1994 claiming that in 1963, Johnson had entered into an eighteen-month relationship with a fifteen-year-old girl.
Ordained: 1968
Status: Convicted
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Peter S. Kanchong was an extern priest from the Diocese of Ratchaburi, Thailand, who began working in the Archdiocese of Boston in 1977. Sexual abuse allegations against him include the prolonged sexual abuse of a young girl beginning when she was approximately 3 years old, continuing through age 9, as well as the abuse of her two brothers over a period of years. The abuse came to light in 1983 when the girl’s father discovered an assault in progress and the family filed a criminal complaint in Dorchester District Court. Kanchong was subsequently convicted and sentenced to probation.
Ordained: 1953
Status: Settled
Died: 5/19/1986
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Charles R. Kane served in the Archdiocese of Boston until his death on May 19, 1986. After his death, allegations emerged that he had sexually abused his sister’s son. His sister further alleged that something may have been occurring between Kane and another young man who lived with him in his family home. Reports indicate that abuse may have occurred during his assignments in the 1970s, including while he was at St. Mary’s Parish in Billerica, where he allegedly abused an altar boy, age 11 to 12, around 1973 or 1974.
Order: OP
Status: Settled
Died: 3/18/2011
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
His name was omitted from the 2011 Boston Archdiocese database but was later included on the Dominicans’ St. Joseph Province list in late 2018. Records indicate he professed in 1962. These details reflect the alleged systemic failures that may have allowed him to remain in positions of authority despite reported sexual abuse allegations — and underscore the long-lasting impact of institutional inaction on survivors.
Ordained: 1969
Status: Convicted
Died: 5/17/2021
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John F. Keane was affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston, where he held positions at St. Elizabeth Parish in Milton and Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Stoughton. In January 2008, he entered a guilty plea in Norfolk Superior Court to one count of indecent sexual assault and battery on a child under the age of 14, as well as three counts of sexual assault and battery. The charges related to the sexual abuse of a girl between 1981 and 1983, occurring during his assignment at St. Elizabeth Parish in Milton and/or Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Stoughton. According to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, Keane knew the victim through her family, not through his priestly duties.
Ordained: 1989
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Dennis A. Keefe was accused in 1995 of a sexual attack on a 15-year-old altar boy. He maintained his innocence and refused for three years to undergo a psychological assessment required by archdiocesan policy. Archdiocesan officials removed him from his parish assignment in 1995, telling parishioners it was for “health reasons.” Despite the pending allegation, several efforts were made by archdiocesan staff to return Keefe to active ministry. He left the priesthood in 1999. His voluntary laicization was completed in 2009 and publicly announced by the Archdiocese on August 20, 2010.
Ordained: 1948
Status: Accused
Died: 6/18/1966
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Bernard J. Keenan, who died in 1966 at the age of 43, was posthumously accused in 2002 of the alleged digital sexual abuse of an 8-year-old altar boy in 1961 at St. John’s Parish in Wellesley. According to reports, another child stated that “all the altar boys were molested” by Keenan during his time at the parish. Because Father Keenan had already passed away, the Archdiocese of Boston’s 2011 review placed him in a category of deceased clergy for whom no formal canonical determination of guilt could be made — either because he died prior to a canonical investigation, or because any such investigation was incomplete at the time of his death.
Order: CP
Ordained: 1943
Status: Accused
Died: 8/23/1995
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Donald J. Keenan was a Passionist priest (C.P.) who served in the Archdiocese of Boston. In 1998, an accuser reported to the Boston Chancery that Keenan had sexually abused two boys in 1977 — one age thirteen and the other described as mentally challenged — at Keenan’s family home in Malden, Massachusetts. According to that report, Keenan masturbated both boys and allegedly insisted that they do the same to him. Keenan died on August 23, 1995, approximately three years before this accusation was reported
Ordained: 1956
Status: Reinstated
Died: 3/17/2020
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Arnold E. Kelley served in the Archdiocese of Boston for decades, with the first known allegation of sexual abuse reported to the Archdiocese in November 1997 in connection with his time at St. Rita’s Parish in Lowell. The Diocesan Review Board found no credible evidence at that time and took no disciplinary action; Kelley voluntarily agreed to transfer to another parish. A second allegation came to light in April 2002, when a mother reported that she had previously informed a church official — Sister Rita McCarthy — of alleged misconduct, and that McCarthy had told her no other complaints had been made against Kelley.
Ordained: 1968
Status: Settled
Died: 8/10/2011
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Edward T. Kelley served as a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston from 1968 until his removal from ministry, and his record includes multiple credible allegations of child sexual abuse spanning decades. In 1992, one survivor reported to the Archdiocese that Kelley had sexually abused him as a child in 1968 and 1969 while he was an altar boy at St. Mary’s Parish in Lynn. That case reached a civil settlement of $10,000 in approximately 1995.
Ordained: 1931
Status: Sued
Died: 1/11/1992
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Joseph W. Kenney was named among twelve priests in a 2002 lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Boston, Cardinal Law, and other church officials. The lawsuit alleged that church authorities failed to respond to complaints of sexual abuse, protected perpetrators, and sought to cover up evidence of that abuse. Father Kenney died in January 1992, before the allegations against him became public. Because he died prior to or during any canonical process, the Archdiocese’s 2011 list of accused priests records no formal determination of guilt — though his name and the associated allegations remain part of the documented historical record.
Ordained: 1959
Status: Settled
Died: 9/12/2015
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Edward M. Keohan spent approximately five years as a missionary, primarily in Peru, before returning to ministry in the Archdiocese of Boston. He was one of sixteen priests named for the first time in lawsuits filed in January 2003 by seventy plaintiffs. The sexual abuse allegation against Keohan involved the alleged fondling of a teenage boy at St. Rose of Lima Parish in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
Order: CFX
Status: Sued
Died: 9/19/1997
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Albert F. Kerressey, also known as Brother Ricardo or Brother Richard, was a member of the Xaverian Brothers who joined the order in 1932. On September 22, 1994, a demand letter accused him of sexually abusing a student at St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers, Massachusetts. The student had suffered physical injuries during a hazing incident at the school. At the time of the alleged abuse, Brother Ricardo held the position of Headmaster. The allegation states that he orally sodomized the student in the school infirmary.
Ordained: 1952
Status: Accused
Died: 2/26/2008
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Robert W. Kirchmeyer was a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston, ordained in 1952. His personnel file was released in January 2004. At the time, a church spokesman stated that Kirchmeyer and two other priests were permitted to remain in ministry because the sexual abuse allegations against them were either anonymous or withdrawn. Shortly thereafter, Father Kirchmeyer retired and was granted senior priest/retired status as of February 27, 2004.
Ordained: 1965
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Robert J. Knapp was ordained in 1965 and served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. His personnel file, released in 2004, revealed sexual abuse allegations of a “father-son” relationship with a minor, sexual misconduct involving three women, and hundreds of incidents with a victim spanning from approximately 1979 to 1984. Knapp was first publicly accused of child sexual abuse in 1985 and subsequently left the Archdiocese without permission 1988.
Order: CSS
Ordained: 1958
Status: Guilty plea
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Leo P. Landry was a Catholic priest ordained in 1958 and affiliated with the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata, commonly known as the Stigmatine Fathers. He pleaded guilty in August 2004 to sexual abuse charges in Massachusetts and was subsequently sentenced to lifetime probation. Allegations against Landry span multiple decades, with reported victims in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Ordained: 1960
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Bernard J. Lane was a Catholic priest ordained in 1960 who served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. He faced accusations from dozens of boys who reported sexual abuse at Alpha Omega facilities in Littleton, Massachusetts, and at a private cottage Lane maintained in Barnstead, New Hampshire. The allegations included serious offenses such as oral and anal rape.
Ordained: 1962
Status: Settled
Died: 7/28/2007
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Despite this reputation, he was later accused of sexually abusing an altar boy at St. Paul’s Parish in Dorchester, Massachusetts, with alleged abuse beginning in 1966 and 1967. Father Lane died on July 28, 2007, before the allegations against him could be formally investigated. A settlement of the abuse claim was announced by the Archdiocese of Boston in April 2012, several years after his death, though the settlement did not include an admission of guilt. He was subsequently included on the Archdiocese of Boston’s official list of accused clergy in 2018.
Ordained: 1925
Status: Accused
Died: 6/2/1971
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John J. Lane was a Catholic priest ordained in 1925 who served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. He held the title of Monsignor and served as pastor at St. Theresa’s Parish in North Reading, Massachusetts. In 2002, two complainants came forward with allegations of sexual abuse, both identifying St. Theresa’s as the location where the abuse occurred.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1957
Status: Accused
Died: 5/27/2013
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Joseph R. Laughlin was a Jesuit priest (Society of Jesus) ordained in 1957 who served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. In January 2019, the Jesuit Northeast Province publicly named Father Laughlin on its list of credibly accused clergy, identifying sexual abuse allegations received in 1990 and 1996 that described abuse occurring between 1975 and 1976. That public disclosure — made years after his death — reflects the Jesuit Province’s acknowledgment that the allegations against him were credible.
Ordained: 1950
Status: Indicted
Died: 5/27/2007
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Anthony J. Laurano was an ordained priest of the Archdiocese of Boston who served in active ministry from his ordination in 1950 until his retirement in 1995. Despite his retirement, allegations of serious sexual abuse surfaced involving multiple individuals across different periods of his ministry. He was accused of abusing an 8-year-old boy in 1991, abusing a mentally disabled man, and separately, abusing a 25-year-old deacon preparing for ordination in 1970. The breadth of these accusations reflects allegations spanning multiple decades and involving individuals in varying states of vulnerability.
Order: FMS
Status: Accused
Died: 4/19/1992
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 1986, Lavigne was removed from Central Catholic following a student complaint of sexual abuse. Despite this documented removal, a review of files at the school and Marist headquarters revealed no complaints on record, though Marist officials later acknowledged that complaints made during those years may not have been recorded. He was accused in 2001 of sexually abusing a student in 1967 while teaching at the school. In May 2017, a man in his sixties alleged that Lavigne and three other Marist Brothers abused him between the ages of 14 and 15 at Central Catholic. That survivor later reported that he had disclosed the abuse to the school principal at the time, who responded only by transferring him out of Lavigne’s algebra class, with no further action taken. Brother Lavigne died on April 19, 1992.
Ordained: 1971
Status: Settled
Died: 6/26/2014
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Victor C. LaVoie served within the Archdiocese of Boston, MA, including assignments at St. Thomas of Villanova Church in Wilmington and St. John Chrysostom Church in West Roxbury. In July 2002, he was placed on administrative leave following a recent allegation that he had sexually abused a 15-year-old boy approximately 20 years earlier while serving in Wilmington. A second allegation involving abuse during the same time period surfaced in 2003. Father LaVoie denied the allegations.
Ordained: 1976
Status: Accused
Died: 1/20/2010
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Kenneth A. LeBlanc was ordained in 1976 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston, including an assignment at Most Blessed Sacrament Church in Wakefield. In February 2009, he was placed on administrative leave while the Archdiocese investigated allegations that he had sexually abused a 10-year-old girl approximately 25 to 30 years earlier. The alleged abuse reportedly occurred during the time he was assigned to Most Blessed Sacrament Church.
Ordained: 1972
Status: Settled
Died: 8/19/1978
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Roger R. Leblanc was ordained in 1972 and subsequently assigned to St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Shirley, Massachusetts, within the Archdiocese of Boston, where he served from 1973 until his death on August 19, 1978. A claim alleging that he sexually abused a boy between approximately the ages of 11 and 12, during approximately 1972 to 1973, was settled in June 2023 in the high five figures. According to the allegation, the abuse occurred at the boy’s home rather than on church property. Father Leblanc died on August 19, 1978.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1941
Status: Sued
Died: 7/2/1992
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In January 2003, Father Loeffler was among a group of priests newly named in civil lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese of Boston. A woman then reported to be approximately 70 or 71 years old alleged that Father Loeffler had sexually abused her and her sister beginning in 1941, when she was nine years old. She stated publicly that she wanted people to understand that abuse within the Archdiocese did not begin in the 1950s — it had occurred even earlier. Father Loeffler died in July 1992 at the age of 80.
Ordained: 1946
Status: Sued
Died: 7/11/1998
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Samuel J. Lombard was ordained in 1946 and served in the Archdiocese of Boston. He retired in 1997 and died in July 1998. In 2001, a pro se civil lawsuit was filed alleging that Father Lombard had sodomized a 9-year-old altar boy in a sacristy in 1968. That lawsuit was dismissed due to the statute of limitations then in effect. When the Archdiocese released Father Lombard’s personnel records in December 2002, those records were reported to contain no evidence substantiating the allegations against him.
Ordained: 1955
Status: Acquitted
Died: 11/8/2020
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John P. Lyons was ordained in 1955 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston. In May 2002, he was removed from ministry and placed on administrative leave after two men filed civil lawsuits alleging that he sexually abused them while they were altar boys during the late 1970s and early 1980s. According to public reporting, one man’s mother stated that she complained at the time to a priest, who said he informed Bishop D’Arcy.
Ordained: 1910
Status: Settled
Died: 4/14/1955
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
On March 28, 2016, Father MacGuinness was included on a published list of accused clerics identified in civil claims that resulted in settlements or arbitration awards. According to reporting associated with those claims, a 90-year-old man alleged that Father MacGuinness sexually abused him in the rectory of St. John’s Church in Roxbury between 1938 and 1940.
Ordained: 1976
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Since 2001, Father Maguire had served as pastor of Saint Helen Mother of the Emperor Constantine Parish in Norwell. Following public disclosure of the 2012 allegation, additional individuals reportedly came forward with accusations of sexual abuse alleged to have occurred during and prior to the mid-1990s. According to survivor accounts reported to law enforcement and subsequently investigated by the Archdiocese, Father Maguire is alleged to have consumed alcohol with minors while assigned as parochial vicar at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Canton. One survivor, whose account was reported to Norwell police, further alleged that on at least one occasion Father Maguire touched himself sexually and offered money to the first youth who completed a sexual act.
Ordained: 1968
Status: Sued
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Paul J. Mahan was ordained in 1968 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston. Civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse were first filed in 1999. One lawsuit alleged that Mahan had sexually abused a young relative who was approximately 11 years old when the abuse began; additional lawsuits followed in 2000 and subsequent years. By early 2002, at least 12 lawsuits had been filed against him, with additional filings reported through January 2003.
Ordained: 1959
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father William F. Maloney was ordained in 1959 and served in the Archdiocese of Boston. In 2002, he was accused of sexually abusing an individual in the late 1960s while assigned to St. Theresa’s Parish in North Reading. According to available records, the same complainant also accused the pastor at the time, Father John J. Lane, in connection with the same parish.
Ordained: 1967
Status: Acquitted
Died: 2/26/2020
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Paul Francis Manning was ordained in 1967 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston. In 1993, he was criminally charged with the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old altar boy. According to public reporting, another priest testified that he witnessed what he believed to be a sexual assault on the boy in Father Manning’s study at the rectory of St. Charles Parish in Woburn. A jury acquitted Father Manning in 1994.
Order: CFX
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother William Marinan, also known as Brother LaSalle, joined the Xaverian Brothers in 1947. Although his documented assignments were primarily in New York and Maryland, the allegation against him is reported to have occurred in Massachusetts in the early 1970s. The Xaverian Brothers publicly named him on their list of accused members in 2019. According to the order’s listing, a report was received in 2011 alleging abuse that occurred in the early 1970s in Massachusetts.
Ordained: 1964
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Richard O. Matte was ordained in 1964 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston. In 1992, the Archdiocese began investigating him after receiving a letter from a parish member raising concerns about his behavior. His personnel file documented two complaints in 1992 and at least one additional complaint by November 1993. Following a review board recommendation, he was removed from active ministry in 1993.
Order: OP
Status: Settled
Died: 5/25/1981
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Julius Martin Mattingly was a member of the Dominican Order connected with St. Stephen Priory in Dover, Massachusetts. In 2013, he was accused in a letter of repeatedly molesting a girl between 1969 and 1975, beginning when she was 13 years old, during the period of his association with the Priory.
Ordained: 1949
Status: Sued
Died: 8/5/1986
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John Kevin McAndrews was ordained in 1949 and served in the Archdiocese of Boston. In 2002, he was named in a civil lawsuit alleging the sexual abuse of a boy, reported to have been between 11 and 12 years old, during the late 1960s at St. Athanasius Church in Reading, Massachusetts. Court records and published reports indicate that the alleged abuse occurred on multiple occasions over an extended period of time.
Order: CSJ
Status: Sued
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Mary McAvoy was accused in a civil lawsuit filed on May 11, 2004, of sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl at the Boston School for the Deaf in approximately 1972. The allegations included digital rape and physical abuse. The initial complaint named nine plaintiffs and fourteen defendants. Following the filing of the lawsuit, two of the defendants — both nuns named in the initial complaint — reportedly stepped back from roles working with children, according to a Sisters of St. Joseph spokeswoman.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1940
Status: Sued
Died: 2/13/1998
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In a civil lawsuit filed in 2002, three men alleged that Father McCabe had sexually abused them during his ministry in the early 1970s. According to personnel records made public in 2003, five men reported that McCabe had fondled them as minors during the 1970s. The 2002 lawsuit also named former Jesuit provincials as defendants, alleging they had failed to adequately supervise McCabe during his assignments.
Ordained: 1980
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Paul R. McCarthy was ordained in 1980 and served in the Archdiocese of Boston. He was later accused in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy between the ages of 11 and 12 during 1989 and 1990 while assigned to St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Norwood. The lawsuit was settled in July 2021 for an amount reported to be in the high five figures.
Ordained: 1953
Status: Settled
Died: 3/8/1999
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James T. McDonald was ordained in 1953 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston for decades. In 1993, a woman reported that he had sexually abused her when she was 14 years old. In 1994, another woman stated that he had abused her at age 10. Following these reports, he was removed from active ministry in 1994.
Ordained: 1964
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Paul E. McDonald was ordained in 1964 and served at St. Joseph’s Church in Hyde Park within the Archdiocese of Boston. In December 2002, his personnel file was released and contained allegations from several men who reported that they were sexually abused as children by Father McDonald during the mid-1960s.
Ordained: 1959
Status: Accused
Died: 9/9/2004
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Charles R. McGahey was ordained in 1959 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston. Although Father McGahey died on September 9, 2004, his name was publicly disclosed as an accused sexually abusive priest on May 7, 2019, when Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian announced a list of clergy members accused of sexual abuse — several of whom had not been previously named publicly. Father McGahey was not listed on the Archdiocese of Boston’s own website at the time of this disclosure.
Order: OMI
Ordained: 1944
Status: Settled
Died: 7/29/1993
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In a 2002 civil lawsuit, two women alleged that Father McGurrin sexually abused them when they were minors between 1978 and 1980 at Sacred Heart Parish in Lowell, Massachusetts, within the Archdiocese of Boston. The suit involved multiple plaintiffs and named several priests as defendants. According to plaintiff’s attorney Carmen Durso, all claims in that suit were settled.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1941
Status: Settled
Died: 6/2/1986
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Joseph E. McInnis was ordained in 1941 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston. In 2003, a lawsuit was reportedly filed on behalf of a woman who alleged that she endured up to 200 incidents of sexual abuse by Father McInnis between the ages of 6 and 11. At the time of the alleged abuse, he was assigned to St. Monica’s Parish in Boston.
Ordained: 1928
Status: Accused
Died: 8/3/1965
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James T. McKeon was ordained in 1928 and served as a priest within the Archdiocese of Boston during a period when allegations of clergy sexual abuse were rarely brought into public view. In 2002, a woman reported that he had sexually abused her as a child in the 1940s. She further alleged that several of her female cousins were also abused.
Ordained: 1952
Status: Accused
Died: 10/12/2013
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father McLaughlin was not listed on the Archdiocese of Boston’s website as an accused priest. On May 7, 2019, attorney Mitchell Garabedian — who has represented hundreds of survivors of clergy sexual abuse in the Boston area — publicly named Father McLaughlin as accused, alongside six other Boston Archdiocesan priests who had not previously been publicly identified. Father McLaughlin died on October 12, 2013.
Ordained: 1955
Status: Settled
Died: 11/10/2021
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Paul J. McLaughlin was ordained in 1955 in Yakima, Washington. He later served in the Archdiocese of Boston and retired from ministry there in 2001. After retiring, he relocated to California, where he served part time at a parish in the Diocese of San Bernardino. The Boston Archdiocese placed him on administrative leave following sexual abuse allegations, and the Diocese of San Bernardino subsequently barred him from any further ministry in that diocese in early 2003.
Ordained: 1968
Status: Accused
Died: 2/12/2021
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Benjamin J. McMahon, Jr. was ordained in 1968 and served in the Archdiocese of Boston, including as associate pastor at Immaculate Conception Parish in Marlboro. In 1985, he was arrested on Cape Cod for a sex act involving another man. Church records and contemporaneous reporting indicate that both the Archdiocese and the court worked to keep the arrest and subsequent proceedings out of public view. He was granted a leave of absence in 1986, at which point he no longer held faculties for public ministry.
Ordained: 1961
Status: Convicted
Died: 5/21/2013
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
The Archdiocese of Boston’s August 2011 published list of clergy accused of sexual abuse included Father McMahon under the category of cases concluded criminally by plea or conviction, with laicization noted as pending at that time. He was also included on a list of visiting and religious order priests published by the Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama on December 6, 2018, which referenced an assignment at St. Benedict School in Elberta, Alabama. His first name was misspelled as “Gerald” on that list. Father McMahon died on May 21, 2013.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1973
Status: Settled
Died: 1/5/2015
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Francis J. McManus was ordained in 1973 as a member of the Society of Jesus and served in multiple dioceses during his ministry. In March 2002, a man alleged that McManus had sexually abused him while McManus was teaching at Boston College High School in the early 1980s. Following that allegation, McManus was removed from his position as a hospital chaplain at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford and placed under restrictions at the Campion Center in Weston, Massachusetts.
Ordained: 1957
Status: Accused
Died: 9/26/2024
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
The young man died in an automobile accident in the early 1990s while reportedly on his way to Father McQuade’s home. Father McQuade denied that any sexual relationship had occurred. Following a review, the Archdiocese’s Review Board determined that it could not establish a reasonable probability that sexual misconduct had occurred. Despite the allegation, Father McQuade was permitted to continue serving on the Archdiocese’s Emergency Response Team, and psychotherapy was recommended.
Ordained: 1946
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 2002, a man publicly alleged that Archbishop Medeiros touched him in the groin while giving him what the accuser described as a “bear hug” at the archdiocesan chancery. According to the allegation, the accuser was 14 years old at the time, and the incident reportedly occurred the same evening he was allegedly sexually assaulted by then-Vice Chancellor Father Frederick J. Ryan.
Ordained: 1953
Status: Accused
Died: 8/14/2023
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
According to church records made public in 2002, at least three women alleged that Father Meffan sexually abused them under the guise of spiritual counseling, with conduct dating to the 1960s and 1970s. The women alleged that he invited them to undress, encouraged them to link spiritual stages with sexual acts, and described himself as the second coming of Christ. Despite these allegations — and a senior church official’s assessment that Father Meffan was unbalanced — he was reassigned to St. Thecla Parish in December 1985. When confronted with a formal complaint in 1986, he denied the accusation. He was placed on leave in July 1993 following additional allegations, and in a 2002 interview acknowledged sexual contact with the girls.
Ordained: 1967
Status: Unsubstantiated
Died: 5/2/2019
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John M. Mendicoa, originally from Spain, served in the Archdiocese of Boston, MA, including an assignment at Sacred Heart Parish in Roslindale. On August 14, 2011, the Archdiocese announced that he had been placed on administrative leave following an allegation that he sexually abused a child in the 1980s. Law enforcement authorities were notified at that time.
Ordained: 1958
Status: Settled
Died: 4/3/2025
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In June 2010, the Archdiocese of Boston placed Father Menna on administrative leave following allegations that he had sexually abused children approximately 50 years earlier. According to published reports, more than one person had come forward with claims of abuse. One civil complaint was filed on behalf of a man alleging he was abused as an altar boy at St. Mary’s between 1963 and 1968. A separate claim alleged that Father Menna sexually abused a boy who was approximately six to seven years old during 1968 and 1969, also during his time at St. Mary’s. The Archdiocese immediately notified law enforcement upon receiving the allegations. The Norfolk County District Attorney subsequently declined to pursue criminal charges, determining that the applicable statute of limitations had expired.
Order: SM
Ordained: 1936
Status: Accused
Died: 11/2/1990
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Lawrence Joseph Michaud, a priest of the Marist Order, served at parishes within the Archdiocese of Boston and across New England, including St. Joseph’s Parish in Haverhill during the late 1950s and early 1960s. In March 1994, a woman submitted a written account to Cardinal Bernard Law alleging that Father Michaud had repeatedly sexually abused her when she was approximately twelve years old while he was assigned to that parish. This allegation, if true, raises serious questions about the safety of children in his pastoral care.
Order: OFM Cap
Ordained: 1933
Status: Accused
Died: 2/23/1980
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Edwin Modicowitz served in multiple states during his ministry, including Indiana, Wisconsin, New York, and Massachusetts. Allegations surfaced in 1998 that he had sexually abused an altar boy at St. Denis’ Parish in Westwood, Massachusetts, in 1965 or 1966. The accuser indicated that there may have been additional victims.
Ordained: 1950
Status: Sued
Died: 2/8/1999
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father William H. Morgan served in the Archdiocese of Boston, and in 1992, the Archdiocese received an anonymous letter that prompted an internal investigation into allegations of sexual abuse. During that investigation, Morgan admitted to having abused two young cousins approximately 30 years prior. According to a 1998 archdiocesan social worker’s report, Morgan apparently never underwent treatment following those admissions. Following recommendations from the Archdiocesan Review Board, he resigned from his position as parish pastor in 1993.
Ordained: 1948
Status: Sued
Died: 9/12/1982
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Personnel files released in December 2002 contained a single anonymous complaint received in 1992. According to contemporaneous news reporting, the allegation involved claims that Father Moriarty had sexually abused a child at Saint Mary of the Hills in Milton during the 1950s. Father Moriarty passed away in 1982, and criminal or canonical proceedings were not completed at the time of his death. The Archdiocese of Boston subsequently included his name on its publicly released list of clergy for whom allegations had been publicized, in the interest of transparency.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1944
Status: Accused
Died: 12/16/1974
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Philip D. Moriarty — whose name also appears spelled “Moriarity” across some source records — was included on the USA Northeast Province’s list of Jesuits with credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, published on January 15, 2019. The allegation describes abuse of a minor between 1963 and 1969, during a period when Father Moriarty was assigned to Xavier High School in Concord, Massachusetts. Father Moriarty died in 1974. Because the allegation was not reported until 2005 — more than three decades after his death — neither canonical nor criminal proceedings were available.
Ordained: 1975
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Robert H. Morrissette served in the Archdiocese of Boston and held assignments at St. Mary’s Parish in Lynn, St. Joseph’s Parish in Salem, and Assumption Parish in Bellingham. Archdiocesan personnel records and documents released in December 2002 reflect that, when confronted by church officials in 1984, Father Morrissette acknowledged engaging in sexual contact with a 16-year-old boy — conduct that church officials and contemporaneous press accounts characterized as sexual abuse of a minor. Archdiocesan records also documented additional reports of concerning behavior involving other individuals during his ministry. According to those records and contemporaneous reporting, Cardinal Bernard Law approved Father Morrissette’s transfer to Assumption Parish in Bellingham in December 1984 despite having received reports of the allegations against him.
Order: CFX
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Thomas Morrissey, also known as Brother Gabriel, joined the Xaverian Brothers in 1959. In July 2019, the Xaverian Brothers publicly named him on their list of members with a credible or established offense against a minor. The listing noted allegations of abuse and attempted abuse, reported in 2002 and later, with the alleged conduct occurring in Danvers, Westwood, and Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and again in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Morrissey was placed on a safety plan in 2002, which restricted his contact with minors. He was also included on the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s list of accused clergy, published in July 2019. According to the Xaverian Brothers’ list updated in March 2021, Morrissey died in 2021.
Ordained: 1969
Status: Accused
Died: 4/21/2003
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In March 2003, Father Motherway was among 48 priests whose names were removed from the Official Catholic Directory following allegations of sexual abuse. In August 2011, the Archdiocese of Boston published a formal list of clergy accused of the sexual abuse of minors; Father Motherway was included under Category E, designated for deceased clergy for whom criminal or canonical proceedings were not completed at the time of death, but whose allegations had been publicly reported. Father Motherway was also included on the Diocese of Fall River’s publicly accused clergy list, published in January 2021.
Ordained: 1959
Status: Sued
Died: 6/11/2011
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Charles J. Murphy served in the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, and was the subject of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct over the course of his ministry. In May 2004, a civil lawsuit was filed in connection with alleged conduct at the Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph, where Father Murphy had served as director of counseling.
Ordained: 1946
Status: Settled
Died: 5/22/1999
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Kenneth B. Murphy served in the Archdiocese of Boston and was publicly identified as accused of sexual abuse on a list released on January 19, 2011. According to reports, at least one claim associated with Father Murphy was settled; details of any settlement remain limited in public records. Father Murphy passed away on May 22, 1999.
Ordained: 1969
Status: Accused
Died: 3/13/2021
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Anthony Ngwumohaike served within the Archdiocese of Boston, MA, including as a priest and chairman of the General Council of the Nigerian Catholic Community in Boston. His personnel file, released in January 2004, showed allegations of sexual abuse. According to a church spokesman, Ngwumohaike remained in active ministry because the allegations against him were either anonymous or withdrawn.
Order: SVD
Ordained: 1929
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Paul Niehauser was a member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), Chicago Province, who served in various locations throughout his religious ministry, including assignments in Japan, Illinois, Iowa, New York, Oregon, and Massachusetts. In February 2024, his name was publicly identified on the religious order’s list of clergy who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.
Ordained: 1973
Status: Convicted
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father W. James Nyhan served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston for many years before allegations of sexual abuse emerged. Reports of abuse were brought to the archdiocese in 1994 and again in 1997, but he was not removed from ministry until 2002.
Ordained: 1949
Status: Settled
Died: 8/7/2000
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Years after his death, an allegation surfaced that he had sexually abused a minor. The claim involved the repeated abuse of a boy, ages nine to eleven, which reportedly occurred on approximately twenty occasions inside the rectory of St. Colman’s Church in Brockton, Massachusetts, where O’Donovan had served.
Order: SMA
Ordained: 1956
Status: Settled
Died: 10/15/1994
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Denis O’Driscoll was from Ireland, where he was ordained as a priest of the Society of African Missions. He served with that order until approximately 1982, when he was possibly incardinated into the Archdiocese of Boston, though records indicate he appears to have begun work in the archdiocese as early as 1977. Father O’Driscoll died in Ireland in 1994 at the age of sixty-four — approximately twenty-six years before a survivor’s sexual abuse claim against him would be resolved through civil litigation.
Ordained: 1931
Status: Accused
Died: 12/4/1960
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father William V. O’Neill served within the Archdiocese of Boston, where he was assigned to Immaculate Conception Parish in Everett, Massachusetts. On May 17, 2002, an allegation was made that O’Neill had sexually abused and exploited a twelve-year-old boy in 1957 during confession at the rectory of Immaculate Conception. The setting of the alleged abuse — occurring during the sacrament of confession in the priest’s residence — represents a profound violation of the sacred trust placed in clergy.
Ordained: 1960
Status: Guilty plea
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Eugene M. O’Sullivan served in multiple parishes within the Archdiocese of Boston. In 1964, a private complaint was made to Cardinal Cushing that O’Sullivan had sexually abused an altar boy. Multiple additional allegations arose at his first parish, and he was subsequently transferred to three other parishes — each time following multiple complaints of sexual misconduct.
Order: CFX
Status: Accused
Died: 5/25/2006
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Donald J. O’Toole, also known as “Brother Alois,” joined the Xaverian Brothers in 1935 and served in high schools and missions across the United States and abroad, including Louisville, KY; the Bronx and White Plains, NY; Baltimore, MD; East Africa; and Shrewsbury, MA. As a member of the Xaverian Brothers religious order, he served at St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, which is located within the Archdiocese of Boston. On July 12, 2019, the Xaverian Order publicly named him on its list of members with credible or established offenses of sexual abuse against minors.
Ordained: 1966
Status: Settled
Died: 9/12/2008
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Francis E. O’Brien, Jr. served in the Archdiocese of Boston and was publicly accused of sexually abusing a young boy multiple times between 1966 and 1971. The victim was between the ages of 7 and 12 at the time of the alleged abuse, which occurred while Father O’Brien was assigned to Christ the King Parish in Hudson, Massachusetts. The allegations were resolved through a civil lawsuit that settled in June 2021 for a high five-figure sum. Father O’Brien passed away in 2008, decades after the alleged abuse occurred.
Ordained: 1957
Status: Accused
Died: 9/4/2000
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Lionel P. Ouellette — sometimes spelled Ouelette — served in the Archdiocese of Boston from at least 1957 through his retirement in December 1996. Over the course of his ministry, he served at multiple parishes across the North Shore and greater Boston area. Early in his tenure, he developed a reported pattern of inappropriate behavior toward young girls and women. A 1972 letter to his superiors described him as having a reputation for inappropriate conduct with young women, and by 1994, a formal sexual abuse allegation surfaced that he had sexually abused a young girl during his time as an assistant priest in Lynn in the early 1960s.
Ordained: 1973
Status: Convicted
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
The criminal case resulted in a plea arrangement in which Pagacz acknowledged there was sufficient evidence to support a finding of guilt on a charge of sexual assault. He was ordered to pay court costs and fines and to undergo sex offender counseling. Prior to the plea, the rape charges involving a 16-year-old girl were dropped separately after she declined to testify. The plea addressed the remaining indecent assault charge involving a 17-year-old girl, whose allegations both girls had recanted and, in the case of the 17-year-old, subsequently retracted.
Ordained: 1988
Status: Settled
Died: 12/25/2009
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Deacon Joseph A. Papile was ordained to the diaconate in 1988 and was later included on a list of accused sexually abusive clergy released by Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian on January 19, 2011. At least one claim involving Papile was settled with the Archdiocese of Boston, though the details of the underlying allegation remain limited. Papile passed away on December 25, 2009, prior to the completion of any canonical or criminal investigation. The Archdiocese’s August 2011 published list noted no formal determination of guilt, either because he died before the process concluded or because proceedings were incomplete at the time of his death.
Ordained: 1973
Status: Guilty plea
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Ronald H. Paquin was a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston with a documented history of sexual abuse spanning decades. Over the course of two decades, the Archdiocese received at least 18 complaints that he had sexually abused boys. He was placed on leave in 1990 and reinstated in 1998, but was not permanently removed from ministry until 2000. He was formally laicized in May 2004.
Ordained: 1969
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Leonard E. Pelletier was a priest within the Archdiocese of Boston who faced allegations of sexual abuse that dated back more than two decades before they were formally reported. In September 2002, the Archdiocese placed him on administrative leave following a report of abuse. Available records suggest there was a single alleged victim. The long delay between the alleged incident and its formal report reflects a pattern common among survivors of clergy abuse, for whom coming forward can take years or even decades.
Status: Guilty plea
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Varghese Pereppadan was a visiting priest from the Diocese of Irinjalakuda in India who came to the United States for studies and ministry. He arrived in Massachusetts in October 2003 and began working at Our Lady of the Presentation Church in Brighton while pursuing his education in Cambridge. Within a year of his arrival, Pereppadan was accused of sexually molesting a teenage girl at the parish — an allegation that led to criminal charges and a court-supervised resolution.
Order: CFX
Ordained: 1959
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Mario Pezzotti, originally from Italy, was accused of sexually abusing students at Xaverian Missionary Faith High School in Holliston, Massachusetts, beginning in 1959 and continuing into the early 1970s. Former students came forward in 1993 with multiple allegations spanning several years. At the time those allegations surfaced, Pezzotti had been working in Brazil with Kayapo Indian children and in a supervisory role over other priests — raising serious questions about institutional oversight given his continued access to minors.
Ordained: 1983
Status: Unsubstantiated
Died: 4/3/2020
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John M. Picardi, Jr. served in multiple parishes under the Archdiocese of Boston and was the subject of sexual abuse allegations spanning more than a decade. In 1992, he was accused of sexually assaulting a male youth minister in his late twenties during a trip to Florida — an incident that internal church records indicate Picardi admitted to archdiocesan officials. He was placed on sick leave and sent for counseling.
Ordained: 1958
Status: Settled
Died: 4/17/2013
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
According to personnel records released in December 2002, Plourde admitted to initiating a sexual “relationship” with a 12-year-old boy beginning in 1976, which lasted approximately two years. A private financial settlement was reached with the victim in 1990 — prior to any formal Archdiocese involvement — reportedly in the range of $35,000 to $38,000. In 1992, the victim reported the sexual abuse to the Archdiocese and sought the return of child sexual abuse photos Plourde had taken of him, leading to Archdiocese involvement in the matter.
Ordained: 1993
Status: Laicized
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Steven W. Poitras was placed on administrative leave from his assignment as parochial vicar at St. Michael Parish in Hudson, Massachusetts, in November 2006, following an allegation that he had sexually abused a child in 1994. Upon receiving the complaint, the Archdiocese initiated a preliminary internal investigation and notified the Massachusetts Attorney General and the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1947
Status: Settled
Died: 1/24/1999
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Leo E. Pollard was a Jesuit priest (Society of Jesus) who ministered within the Archdiocese of Boston and taught at Boston College High School for many years, as well as at Fairfield Prep in Connecticut. He has been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors during the 1950s and again during 1966–1967. Allegations were formally raised decades after the alleged incidents occurred, and at least one civil claim was settled with the Archdiocese of Boston. In January 2019, Pollard was included on the Jesuits USA Northeast Province’s official list of clergy with credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.
Ordained: 1962
Status: Settled
Died: 8/14/2015
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James F. Power was ordained in 1962 and served in parishes within the Archdiocese of Boston, including as parochial vicar at St. James the Great in Wellesley. Allegations against him include the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy during a camping trip to Acadia National Park in Maine in 1980. This allegation led to a civil settlement in 1996 for $35,000. As is common in civil settlements, the resolution did not constitute an admission of liability by the Archdiocese.
Order: OMI
Ordained: 1967
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 1992, a sexual abuse allegation emerged that in the mid-1980s, Prybis had entered a rectory room where a 14- or 15-year-old boy was present, undressed himself, and asked the boy to strike him with a belt. The accuser reported the incident to church officials at the time. The sexual abuse allegation is documented in internal Archdiocesan records from September 1992 and was later reported in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald in January 2003.
Order: SM
Ordained: 1957
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Henry J. Rancourt served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked in parish settings that placed him in contact with young people. In 1992, an anonymous allegation surfaced claiming that Rancourt had kissed and molested Haitian boys at a Boston parish school. The sexual abuse allegation was received by the Archdiocese of Boston that same year.
Ordained: 1956
Status: Sued
Died: 2/15/2017
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In August 2002, the Archdiocese removed Rebeiro from Quigley Memorial Hospital after receiving an allegation of sexual abuse involving a young girl in the early 1970s when she was approximately 12 or 13 years old. Rebeiro’s name was included on the Archdiocese of Boston’s publicly released list of accused clergy in August 2011, which noted that he had been placed on administrative leave while the matter remained under review. Rebeiro died on February 15, 2017. Following his death, a lawsuit filed in March 2022 alleged that he sexually abused a boy at the rectory and school connected to St. Joseph’s Parish in Holbrook, Massachusetts.
Ordained: 1962
Status: Settled
Died: 5/4/2020
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Decades later, a lawsuit was filed by a former student who alleged that Father Regan sexually abused her on multiple occasions when she was between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, between 1977 and 1980. According to the lawsuit, the abuse was not a single incident but a pattern of conduct that continued over several years. The accuser alleged that Father Regan told her he would not allow her to graduate unless she complied with his sexual demands.
Ordained: 1943
Status: Accused
Died: 6/4/1992
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Allegations against Father Reilly surfaced after his death. In 1999, two men each reported to the Archdiocese that Reilly had sexually abused them during his time at St. Agatha’s. One described being abused as a ten or eleven-year-old altar boy; the other reported an incident when he was a sixteen-year-old member of a boys’ choir Reilly had started at the parish.
Order: CSS
Ordained: 1954
Status: Accused
Died: 2/22/1995
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Leo Thomas Riley was a priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata (Stigmatines), a Catholic religious order, and served as a teacher at Elm Bank Minor Seminary in Wellesley, Massachusetts. In 2002, a man came forward and alleged that Riley had sexually abused him over a four-year period in the late 1950s while he was a student at Elm Bank and Riley was his teacher. According to the Stigmatines’ own Provincial, Rev. Charles Egan, the victim had reported the abuse directly to him at the time it occurred. Despite this, Riley was transferred — and the complaint was neither formally recorded nor shared with others. When the matter resurfaced in 2002, Rev. Egan acknowledged having received the original allegations. Riley died on February 22, 1995.
Order: CSS
Ordained: 1951
Status: Accused
Died: 6/14/1986
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Monsignor Charles J. Ring served within the Archdiocese of Boston during his ministry, though specific details of his assignments and the nature of the allegations against him remain limited in public records. On May 7, 2019, attorney Mitchell Garabedian publicly named Ring as an accused cleric, indicating that at least one sexual abuse survivor had come forward with allegations. This public identification placed Ring among the growing number of Massachusetts clergy whose conduct has been called into question.
Order: OMI
Ordained: 1979
Status: Settled
Died: 6/26/2008
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 2008, an allegation that Robichaud had sexually abused an underage girl at St. Jean-Baptiste Parish in 1979 came to the attention of the Portland diocese through the Oblates. Notably, the allegation had been pending for five months before Robichaud was placed on leave on June 26, 2008. He died by suicide that same evening. The Portland diocese subsequently declined to pursue a formal investigation following his death.
Ordained: 1970
Status: Accused
Died: 10/10/2014
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Barry Robinson was ordained in East Melbourne, Australia in 1970 and served in several parishes across Victoria before transferring in 1979 to Santiago, Chile, where he worked with the Columban Mission Society. He returned to Australia in 1985 and served at a parish in East Melbourne until around 1992, before arriving in Boston, where he was assigned to Blessed Sacrament parish in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood. In March 1994, Robinson admitted to his therapist that he sexually abused a 16-year-old boy in the parish rectory, and also admitted to sexual misconduct during his years in Chile.
Ordained: 1946
Status: Settled
Died: 8/10/1997
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Allan E. Roche was ordained in 1946 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. In 1992, his niece reported to archdiocesan officials that Roche had sexually abused her in the 1950s, between the ages of five and twelve. Roche denied the allegations, and the Archdiocese took no action in response.
Order: SM
Ordained: 1945
Status: Accused
Died: 7/4/1999
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Julian Edward Rondeau was a member of the Society of Mary (the Marists) and served in parishes across Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island, including within the Archdiocese of Boston. In correspondence exchanged between 1992 and 1993, Father Rondeau admitted to a victim that he had sexually abused her and her sister. The abuse apparently occurred in the mid-1960s, when the primary victim was approximately ten years old. The girls came from a family that was both financially and emotionally dependent on Father Rondeau — a dynamic that placed them in a particularly vulnerable position and reflects an exploitation of trust, dependency, and circumstance.
Ordained: 1962
Status: Sued
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father George J. Rosenkranz was ordained in 1962 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. Civil lawsuits filed in March 2002 and January 2003 alleged sexual abuse occurring across multiple decades and named the Archdiocese as a defendant. Those suits contended that church leadership had knowledge of Rosenkranz’s history of misconduct dating back to at least 1970 but responded only by transferring him to different parish assignments rather than removing him from ministry.
Order: OMI
Ordained: 1954
Status: Accused
Died: 5/13/1986
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father George Roulier, known as “Rusty,” was a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and was ordained in 1954. He served across multiple locations including Haiti, New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. In February 2002, an accuser in Massachusetts alleged that Roulier had sexually abused an 11-year-old boy in the rectory of St. Angela’s Parish in Mattapan, where Roulier had been assigned at some point beginning around 1983. He remained assigned to that parish until his death in 1987.
Ordained: 1942
Status: Settled
Died: 11/22/1969
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Sylvio L. Ruest was ordained in approximately 1942 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. While assigned to Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Bellingham, he allegedly sexually abused a boy between the ages of approximately 13 and 14 during 1957–1958. The abuse allegedly occurred on at least five separate occasions, taking place within the church and the nearby rectory. A civil claim arising from this abuse was settled in February 2020 and was publicly announced in September 2020. Father Sylvio L. Ruest died in 1969.
Ordained: 1987
Status: Sued
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Archbishop Paul Fitzpatrick Russell was ordained in 1987 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. A lawsuit filed on August 1, 2022, alleged that Russell sexually abused a 12-year-old boy multiple times in 1989 and 1990 while assigned to St. Mary of the Sacred Heart Parish in Lynn, Massachusetts. According to the lawsuit, the survivor first encountered Russell through volunteer work at the parish food bank, a setting designed to serve vulnerable members of the community.
Ordained: 1964
Status: Sued
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Monsignor Ryan was placed on leave in March 2002 following a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of a minor. That same month, a police officer came forward to accuse Ryan of abusing his brother at Most Precious Blood Parish in Hyde Park in 1970. The survivor had disclosed the abuse to his father in 1971, who responded by refusing to allow his other sons to serve as altar boys.
Ordained: 1943
Status: Settled
Died: 4/30/1967
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Robert Ryer was ordained in 1943 and served primarily within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts throughout his career. He died on April 30, 1967. Father Robert Ryer was named in a lawsuit filed in January 2003 alleging sexual abuse of children at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood. A 2010 news report references three claims that were settled in connection with allegations of abuse by Ryer occurring between 1958 and 1960.
Ordained: 1956
Status: Sued
Died: 10/3/2001
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Paul P. Rynne was ordained in 1956 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, including an assignment at St. Patrick’s Parish in Lawrence. His personnel file, released in 2003, documents sexual abuse allegations spanning multiple decades and involving several survivors.
Ordained: 1972
Status: Settled
Died: 4/26/2013
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
He was accused of raping a 12-year-old girl between 1996 and 1997, following which he was sent for residential treatment. In 1998, he relocated to California to serve as a chaplain at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Menlo Park, where he came under federal investigation following statements made by the Military Vicariate. A lawsuit settled in 2025 alleged that Scanlan sexually abused a 16-year-old boy in 1986 at the Pilgrim Center for troubled boys in Braintree, Massachusetts.
Ordained: 1960
Status: Convicted
Died: 10/28/2020
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Documented concerns about Shanley’s conduct appeared in diocesan records as early as 1967. Despite these reports, Shanley was assigned to parish work and special ministries until 1989. He was later transferred to New York and San Bernardino, California, where additional accusations emerged. Shanley was released from prison on July 28, 2017, registered as a Level 3 sex offender, and died on October 28, 2020, at age 89.
Ordained: 1937
Status: Settled
Died: 12/10/1989
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James C. Shaughnessey was ordained in 1937 for the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and began serving within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts in 1945. He retired in 1977 and died in December 1989. His name was included on a list of accused priests posted in January 2011, and at least one civil claim involving allegations against Father James C. Shaughnessey was resolved with the Archdiocese of Boston.
Ordained: 1932
Status: Settled
Died: 10/13/1972
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Monsignor Francis S. Shea was ordained in 1932 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, for four decades. For more than twenty years — from 1950 until his death in 1972 — he served as pastor of St. Ann’s Parish in West Bridgewater, a long-term assignment that placed him in regular contact with members of the local parish community. He also held a professorship at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton beginning in 1950, where he taught theology and music, and served in various capacities on the Archdiocesan Tribunal. He was named a Monsignor in 1962. Monsignor Francis S. Shea died on October 13, 1972.
Ordained: 1946
Status: Settled
Died: 2/17/2005
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Monsignor William B. Shea was ordained in 1946 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts. Over the course of his career, he held assignments at several parishes and schools, including St. Sebastian’s Country Day School for Boys in Newton, where he taught French and Spanish from 1949 to 1956, and Marian High School in Framingham, where he served as chaplain. He later served as pastor of St. Charles Borromeo in Waltham. He retired in 1996 and died on February 17, 2005.
Order: SDB
Status: Settled
Died: 11/17/2006
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother George M. Sheehan professed his vows in 1954 and served as a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco, a Catholic religious order. Over the course of his religious life, Brother Sheehan worked across multiple states, including New Jersey, Indiana, New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts, giving him access to young people across a broad geographic range. He died on November 17, 2006.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1959
Status: Accused
Died: 1/1/2008
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
On January 15, 2019, the Jesuit USA Northeast Province publicly named Father James T. Sheehan as credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor. According to the Province’s published list, allegations were received in 2002 that Father Sheehan sexually abused a minor between 1979 and 1980 while assigned to Boston College High School in Boston, Massachusetts. The Province’s records indicate that Father Sheehan admitted to the abuse.
Ordained: 1968
Status: Settled
Died: 3/8/2011
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Edward F. Sherry was ordained in 1968 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston for many years. In January 2003, a lawsuit was filed by a man who alleged that Father Sherry fondled and raped him over a period of several years beginning in approximately 1968, when the survivor was between 13 and 16 years old. The alleged abuse is said to have occurred at St. Joseph’s parish in Malden.
Order: CSS
Ordained: 1952
Status: Accused
Died: 12/25/2013
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In February 2002, Father Spagnolia was placed on administrative leave after a single allegation surfaced that he had sexually abused a 14-year-old boy twice in 1971 while serving at St. Francis de Sales in Roxbury. He denied the allegation. It was subsequently reported that during his extended leave of absence he had relationships with two adult men. No criminal charges were filed in connection with the 1971 allegation; the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office determined that the applicable statute of limitations had expired.
Ordained: 1951
Status: Settled
Died: 7/12/1977
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Court documents released in connection with the case of convicted priest Ronald Paquin described an alleged sexual relationship between Paquin and Father St. Hilaire that reportedly began when Paquin was a teenager and continued for many years. According to those records, Paquin told archdiocesan officials about the alleged abuse by St. Hilaire, and a Paquin survivor reported to the archdiocese that Paquin said he and St. Hilaire had shared a bed for thirty years. A separate individual also reported being sexually abused by Father St. Hilaire; that survivor reached a $20,000 settlement before the current scandal became public.
Ordained: 1943
Status: Sued
Died: 4/3/1997
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In September 2002, Father Stanton was named as one of twelve priests accused of sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of twenty-seven plaintiffs. The suit alleged that the Archdiocese of Boston conspired to cover up the sexual misconduct of its clergy over a period of more than fifty years. Father Stanton, who was deceased at the time the suit was filed, was among four deceased priests named.
Ordained: 1968
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Sullivan denied the allegation, stating that the plaintiff had mistaken him for Eugene O’Sullivan, a known abuser. The Archdiocese’s Review Board found the charge unsubstantiated, and in January 2009, Cardinal Seán O’Malley returned Sullivan to active ministry. The civil lawsuit was settled in December 2008 for $475,000. Sullivan was later included on the Archdiocese’s list of accused clergy under the “unsubstantiated” category, with no restrictions noted on his ministry. He was granted Senior Priest status in October 2013 and served as priest in residence at Sacred Heart Parish in Roslindale until March 2024, when he moved to Regina Cleri, the Archdiocese’s retirement facility for priests. He has also been accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy in 1970 at St. Joseph’s in Holbrook.
Order: CFX
Status: Accused
Died: 1/29/1939
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Decades later, in 2002, an allegation was reported that Brother Sullivan had sexually abused a minor in 1938 while stationed in Danvers. On July 12, 2019, the Xaverian Brothers publicly named him on their list of deceased or former members for whom there is a reasonable possibility that an alleged offense against a minor occurred — cases in which a full investigation was not possible due to the death of the member or the passage of time. The public disclosure came more than sixty years after the alleged abuse and long after Brother Sullivan’s death.
Ordained: 1945
Status: Settled
Died: 9/24/2005
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
On January 19, 2011, a law firm published a list of accused priests that included Father Sullivan’s name, with a statement that at least one claim against him had been settled. The Archdiocese of Boston subsequently included Father Sullivan on its publicly released list of accused clergy in August 2011. Father Sullivan was listed under the category reserved for deceased clergy for whom criminal or canonical proceedings were not completed, but whose allegations had been made public. Under that category, the Archdiocese made no formal determination of guilt.
Ordained: 1957
Status: Settled
Died: 11/28/1994
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 1992, Father Sullivan was placed on leave for approximately eleven months while the Archdiocese of Boston investigated allegations of sexual misconduct brought by a woman parishioner. An archdiocesan spokesperson stated that the investigation found “no conclusive evidence” to support the allegations. Father Sullivan denied wrongdoing. Following the investigation, he briefly returned to St. Mary Magdalen before the Archdiocese arranged a reassignment, which took effect in early 1994. Father Sullivan died in November 1994 at the age of 67.
Ordained: 1956
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father C. Melvin Surette was ordained in 1956 and served within the Archdiocese of Boston. Allegations of abuse against him first came to the archdiocese’s attention in 1993. Surette had succeeded Father Bernard J. Lane as the person in charge of Alpha Omega, a program in Littleton, Massachusetts that housed youths with serious behavioral problems. Survivors alleged that he sexually abused several youths in that setting.
Order: FPO
Ordained: 1998
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In May 2019, a then-37-year-old woman publicly accused Father Sweeney of sexually abusing her during a leadership retreat in 2000, when she was a teenager living in Vermont. According to her account, Sweeney encouraged the young people at the retreat to attend confession. Following confessionals, he allegedly told several teenagers that they were possessed and that he would perform exorcisms on them. She alleges that the sexual abuse of herself and others occurred during these supposed exorcisms. Reports indicated there may have been multiple survivors. One civil case related to the allegations was settled in November 2020.
Order: OSPPE
Status: Accused
Died: 9/24/1987
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Czeslaw Szymanski was ordained in Poland by the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit and later served in the United States. He previously worked in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence before serving within the Archdiocese of Boston, where he was assigned to Holy Trinity Parish in Lowell from 1982 until April 1987. On December 9, 2010, three former altar boys publicly accused Father Szymanski of repeatedly sexually abusing them during the 1980s, alleging the abuse occurred when they were between the ages of 6 and 13.
Ordained: 1963
Status: Sued
Died: 1/27/2013
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 1979, Father Tague was convicted of stealing $30,000 from a Department of Youth Services halfway house for juvenile delinquents where he had been working. Allegations of clergy sexual abuse followed: he was accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old resident of a Department of Youth Services facility in Roslindale in 1971. His name also appeared among accused clergy whose personnel records were made public by the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002 and 2003.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1968
Status: Guilty plea
Died: 2/28/2025
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 2002, at least eight men alleged that Father Talbot had abused them as minors between 1972 and 1980. Criminal charges were filed and later dropped. In January 2003, fourteen claims were settled for $5.2 million. In 2005, Father Talbot pleaded guilty to raping two teenagers between 1977 and 1979 and was sentenced to five to seven years in prison. He was placed on the sex offender registry and released on March 18, 2011, later residing at the Vianney Center in Dittmer, Missouri. He was laicized in 2013.
Order: CFX
Status: Settled
Died: 10/8/1971
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In 2005, Brother Thibault was named in a civil lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of a male student at Mission High School in Boston during the 1956–1957 school year. That lawsuit involved multiple plaintiffs and identified several defendants. According to the attorney who brought the claims, almost all were resolved through settlement.
Ordained: 1981
Status: Accused
Died: 1/6/2010
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
On January 4, 2010, the Archdiocese placed Father Thomson on administrative leave following a single allegation that he had sexually abused a minor approximately fifteen years earlier. The archdiocese notified law enforcement and initiated a preliminary investigation. Two days later, on January 6, 2010, Father Thomson was found deceased at his home in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Medical Examiner’s Office determined that he died of natural causes, with high blood pressure and diabetes cited as contributing factors. Because of his death, the archdiocese closed its investigation into the allegation.
Ordained: 1963
Status: Accused
Died: 9/26/2025
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Paul J. Tivnan was ordained in 1963 and served in the Archdiocese of Boston across multiple parish assignments over the course of his ministry. According to personnel file records released in December 2002, Tivnan admitted to sexually abusing two boys and acknowledged what he described as a “relationship” with a fifteen-year-old boy during the late 1970s. Church records indicate one alleged abuse occurred while he was stationed at Immaculate Conception Church in Marlborough.
Order: CS
Ordained: 1908
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Louis Toma was a Scalabrini priest who served as pastor of St. Lazarus Church in East Boston from 1911 until his death in 1961 — a tenure of approximately fifty years. His lengthy presence at a single parish provided him with sustained access to generations of families and children. In August 2005, several women wrote to Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley alleging that Father Toma had sexually abused numerous young girls during his decades as pastor. The Archdiocese of Boston’s Victims’ Support Office director stated that the women’s accounts were individually convincing, collectively consistent, and showed a pattern of recognizable abuse, adding that there was no doubt the women were telling “a terrible truth.”
Ordained: 1961
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Ernest E. Tourigney served within the Archdiocese of Boston across multiple communities, with assignments in Weymouth, Holliston, Cambridge, and Revere. He also served as chaplain at Matignon High School in Cambridge during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Allegations that Father Tourigney sexually abused minors span the length of his career in ministry. The Archdiocese of Boston was made aware of allegations as early as 1974, yet he was returned to ministry and continued serving in parishes for nearly two more decades.
Ordained: 1969
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Allegations of sexual abuse spanning multiple assignments were reported to the Archdiocese of Boston in 1992 and 1993, including claims that Towner had abused at least two boys and one girl. A 2003 civil lawsuit further alleged that Towner sexually assaulted a survivor at St. Joseph’s in Quincy. Several civil lawsuits followed the initial reports, and three claims were settled in the mid-1990s for a combined total of approximately $87,000. In April 1990, at his own request, Towner was laicized. His name was included in a New Hampshire Attorney General’s report released in March 2003 and on the Archdiocese of Boston’s published list of accused clergy in August 2011, where he appears in the category of priests accused after laicization.
Order: CFX
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
According to information released by the Xaverian Brothers, an allegation was received in 2003 stating that Trainor sexually abused a minor in Westwood, Massachusetts, during the early 1970s. The Xaverian Brothers publicly identified Eugene J. Trainor on their list of individuals with credible accusations of abuse against minors, published on July 12, 2019.
Order: OSA
Ordained: 1965
Status: Settled
Died: 2/21/2000
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Robert Turnbull was an Augustinian priest who served for many years at Austin Preparatory School in Reading, Massachusetts, where he taught physics and statistics and served as athletic director. He is accused of sexually abusing minors during his time there, with alleged incidents occurring at the school, at the North Meadow Tennis Club, and at a cabin at Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire.
Ordained: 1955
Status: Accused
Died: 6/22/2013
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Anthony J. Vasaturo was ordained for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1955 and served at parishes across the archdiocese for nearly four decades, including assignments in Wakefield, Marlborough, Roxbury, and Boston. According to personnel records released in January 2004, Vasaturo allegedly admitted to sexual activity with a 16-year-old girl beginning in 1969. His name subsequently appeared on the Archdiocese of Boston’s List of Unsubstantiated Cases, published in August 2011, indicating that the Review Board found the allegations unsubstantiated following a preliminary investigation, or that he was acquitted through canonical proceedings. Father Vasaturo died on June 22, 2013.
Ordained: 1946
Status: Settled
Died: 1/24/1998
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Veneto’s name appeared on a list of accused priests released on January 19, 2011, identifying him as a priest against whom a sexual abuse claim had been settled. In August 2011, the Archdiocese of Boston included him in its published list of accused clergy under Category E — a designation for deceased clergy for whom criminal or canonical proceedings were not completed, but for whom allegations had been made public.
Order: SJ
Ordained: 1962
Status: Accused
Died: 4/13/2009
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James P. Walsh was a Jesuit priest who served in several assignments across New England over the course of his career. Among those assignments was Boston College High School in Boston, a Jesuit-affiliated Catholic secondary school, where he is alleged to have sexually abused a minor between 1984 and 1985.
Order: OMI
Ordained: 1940
Status: Settled
Died: 4/24/1981
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In December 2003, a survivor reported to the Archdiocese of Boston that Father Walsh had sexually abused her on two occasions at Sacred Heart Church in Lowell in 1973 or 1974, when she was 13 or 14 years old. According to archdiocesan intake records, months of non-sexual incidents preceded the two incidents of sexual abuse. The matter was resolved without any admission of liability when the U.S. Province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Archdiocese of Boston agreed to a settlement of $60,000. Father Walsh died on April 24, 1981. In May 2019, the Diocese of Columbus added his name to its list of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors.
Order: OFM
Ordained: 1926
Status: Settled
Died: 10/15/1954
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father Leonard Thomas Walsh was a Franciscan friar and priest of the Order of Friars Minor who served at St. Francis Friary in Brookline, Massachusetts from 1950 until his death in October 1954. He has been accused of sexually abusing a nine-year-old boy at the Brookline friary over a four-month period in 1953. According to accounts reported in connection with the case, the boy had begun visiting the friary on Saturdays for confession, and the alleged abuse occurred during those visits.
Ordained: 1974
Status: Settled
Died: 6/21/2007
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In December 1997, an allegation reached the Archdiocese that Walsh had sexually abused a minor at Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted Parish in Waltham during the 1970s, when the survivor was approximately fourteen years old. The allegation was conveyed to the Archdiocese by a third party on behalf of the survivor, who had died of lung cancer that same month. According to archdiocesan records, Walsh denied the allegation. The survivor had also indicated that two other individuals who had served as altar boys at the parish may have been abused by Walsh as well.
Order: CFC
Status: Sued
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Michael Walsh was a member of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers, also known as the Irish Christian Brothers. He has been accused of sexually abusing boys during his time with the order. Around 1986, he allegedly took nude and sexually explicit photographs of boys who were students at Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury during a camping trip. Brother Walsh is deceased. His name appears on the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers North America Province’s published list of brothers identified in at least two sexual abuse claims filed as proofs of claim in the order’s bankruptcy matter. The list notes that the merits of most claims were not tested.
Ordained: 2002
Status: Charged
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
According to prosecutors, Walsh used those positions to gain access to, groom, and sexually abuse a child who was then in the fourth through sixth grades. The alleged abuse occurred across multiple locations, including Walsh’s home, his car, his office, and a hotel during a youth baseball trip to Cooperstown, New York. A Suffolk County grand jury indicted Walsh in September 2016 on charges of rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14.
Ordained: 1971
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In early 2004, Archbishop Sean O’Malley asked Father Walsh to accept a voluntary leave of absence after a survivor came forward alleging that Father Walsh had sexually abused a child during his ministry. Archdiocesan files documented earlier allegations as well: a 1980 report characterized as “third-hand” that was not substantiated, and two anonymous letters received after January 2001 alleging abuse of boys during his time at St. Edward’s in Brockton — neither of which resulted in a formal complaint.
Ordained: 1974
Status: Accused
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
In January 2001, Father Ward was assigned to the archdiocese’s development office. Then, in February 2002, a man came forward alleging that Father Ward had sexually abused him as an altar boy in the mid-1970s while Father Ward was serving as an associate pastor at Our Lady of the Presentation Parish in Brighton. Following this allegation, Father Ward was suspended from ministry. He subsequently sought voluntary laicization, which was completed in 2004. His name was also included on the Archdiocese of Boston’s list of accused clergy published in August 2011.
Ordained: 1968
Status: Accused
Died: 2/8/2019
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Allegations came to light publicly in February 2002 when three brothers reported that Father Welsh had allegedly molested them repeatedly over the course of two decades while posing as a close family friend. Additional allegations surfaced from a man who said he had been abused in Holbrook. Father Welsh was removed from active ministry on February 20, 2002. Following a canonical process, the Archdiocese of Boston assigned him to a life of prayer and penance in 2004 — a designation reserved for clergy found, through canonical proceedings, to have sexually abused a minor. His name was also included in the archdiocese’s publicly released list of accused clergy in August 2011. Father Welsh died on February 8, 2019, in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Ordained: 1957
Status: Accused
Died: 2/16/2004
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father John J. White served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston for decades, working alongside Father Paul Shanley — who was later convicted of rape and sexual assault of a child — at St. Patrick’s Parish in Stoneham during the 1960s and again as a street minister at Warwick House in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood in the 1970s. In September 2003, a man alleged that both Father White and Father Shanley had raped him when he was a boy during the 1970s.
Order: OFM Cap
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Brother Paul White was a member of the Archdiocese of Boston and part of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers, also known as the Irish Christian Brothers. In September 2013, a settlement was reached on behalf of a woman who accused White of abusing her in the late 1960s, when she was approximately nine years old.
Ordained: 1961
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Allegations of clergy sexual abuse emerged from a former altar boy who reported that abuse occurred at Sacred Heart Parish in Bradford over a period of years beginning in 1964. The civil lawsuit was filed in Essex Superior Court in June 1998 against Father White and the Archdiocese of Boston, and the Archdiocese later settled the case.
Ordained: 1990
Status: Settled
Diocese: Archdiocese of Boston MA
Father James L. Wilson served within the Archdiocese of Boston and held a parish assignment where he had access to children during his ministry. Ordained on June 16, 1990, he was assigned as parochial vicar at Gate of Heaven Parish in South Boston beginning in June 1990. Personnel files released in December 2002 revealed that Father Wilson faced accusations of sexually abusing a minor between approximately 1991 and 1992. In a February 1993 meeting with archdiocesan personnel, Father Wilson admitted to the conduct alleged against him. In that same meeting, he also stated that the survivor had been subjected to abuse by another priest, Father Redmond Raux, at the same parish.
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