Video: 'Abuse Documentary: The Shame of the Catholic Church | Retro Report | The New York Times'

(Wednesday, July 23, 2003) — At least 789 children and probably more than 1,000 have been sexually abused by 250 priests and other church workers in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston since 1940, according to a 16-month investigation by the Massachusetts attorney general that was made public today.

The attorney general, Thomas F. Reilly, described the clergy sexual abuse scandal that has rocked Boston since early 2002 as “the greatest tragedy to children in the history of the commonwealth.”

Reilly placed the blame for the scandal directly on the leaders of the Boston Archdiocese, including Cardinal Bernard F. Law, who resigned under pressure last December, and a number of his top aides who have gone on to become bishops in cities around the nation, including Thomas V. Daily, now bishop of Brooklyn.

“When they had a choice between protecting children and protecting the church, they chose secrecy to protect the church,” Reilly said at a news conference today. “They sacrificed the children for many, many years.”

Reilly said “an institutional culture” of secrecy in the archdiocese prompted the leaders to protect priests and the church, rather than to investigate charges of abuse.

A spokesman for the church, the Rev. Christopher Coyne, issued a written statement this afternoon saying the archdiocese would “carefully review the findings of the report” over the next few days “before making any further public response.”

The 76-page report offers the most comprehensive accounting to date of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in Boston, and was based on a review of 30,000 pages of church documents and 100 hours of grand jury testimony. The number of victims included only people who had reported abuse to the archdiocese, Reilly said. He added, “I have absolutely no doubt that the number is far greater,” since many were unable or unwilling to report what happened.

The report said the number of victims “likely exceeds one thousand.”

No previous official tally of victims has been made. The best estimate comes from the number of lawsuits filed against the archdiocese accusing priests of abuse, which now stands close to 600. But Mitchell Garabedian, who represents 114 litigants, said today that he believed there were thousands of victims.

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Similarly, there is no reliable figure for the total number of priests who have served in Boston since 1940. The report said 237 priests have have been accused of abuse. The Boston Archdiocese now has 505 active priests, but that number is half what it was 20 years ago.

The attorney general’s review did not lead to any criminal charges against Cardinal Law or anyone else in the archdiocese because Massachusetts did not have a law requiring church officials to report suspected child abuse until last year and because the state had weak child protection laws, Reilly said.

“No one is more disappointed than me and my staff that we can’t bring criminal charges,” Reilly said. “If we could have, we would have.”

In quietly angry tones, Reilly said he believed Cardinal Law and his aides knew how to skirt the weak laws. “They knew they were under no obligation to report,” he said. “These were deliberate choices.”

In December, Cardinal Law apologized for “shortcomings and mistakes” and said his decision to resign “was motivated by a desire to do what is best for the archdiocese.”

The report comes just a week before Bishop Sean P. O’Malley is to be installed as the leader of the Boston Archdiocese. Reilly said he was releasing the report now to give Bishop O’Malley a chance to separate himself from the old leadership.

Reilly said his investigation had “found no evidence of ongoing abuse of children.” But, he added, “It is far too early to say it has stopped,” because abuse had become part of the church’s “institutional culture.”

A Catholic himself, Reilly sought to draw a distinction between his church and leaders like Cardinal Law. “This is not about my faith,” Reilly said. “This is about massive, inexcusable failure of leadership by the Archdiocese of Boston.”

Bernie McDaid, who says he was abused as an 11-year-old altar boy, said hearing Reilly and knowing that the attorney general was Catholic was reassuring. “It was validating knowing what we’ve known all along,” McDaid said, “but it was more so coming from him.”

Reilly and the report emphasized that the main problem lay with the hierarchy of the Boston church.

“There is overwhelming evidence that for many years Cardinal Law and his senior managers had direct, actual knowledge that substantial numbers of children in the archdiocese had been sexually abused by substantial numbers of priests,” the report said. It said Cardinal Law was aware of the problem in Boston even before he arrived in 1984.

Because Cardinal Law and his aides “remained committed to their primary objectives — safeguarding the well-being of priests and the institution,” the report said, they did not report accusations of abuse to officials.

One top official in Boston was Bishop Daily, who was second in command to Cardinal Law’s predecessor, Cardinal Humberto Medeiros, and then to Cardinal Law. “Bishop Daily failed to thoroughly investigate” accusations, the report said, and “had a clear preference for keeping priests who sexually abused children in pastoral ministry.”

Frank DeRosa, a spokesman for Bishop Daily, said, “Given the understanding that people had about this issue at that time, about 20 years ago, the bishop followed all procedures he felt were appropriate.”

Another senior official criticized in the report was John B. McCormack, whom Cardinal Law appointed to handle cases of accused priests in 1993. He is now bishop of the Diocese of Manchester in New Hampshire.

The report said that even when confronted with evidence that a priest was lying, Bishop McCormack “would find the priest was in denial.”

Reilly said, “There seemed to be an inability for Bishop McCormack to realize these people for what they are — dangerous to children.” He said Bishop McCormack should resign.

In a written statement issued by his lawyer today, Bishop McCormack said he had “worked to improve the way” complaints of sexual abuse were handled during his time in Boston. “I remain confident that the Lord can and will heal us all.”