Ex-Priest Confesses to Molesting Children : Crime: Former Catholic priest admits to molesting numerous children, but one of his victims calls the public statement “too little, too late.”

James R. Porter, a former Roman Catholic priest in this area who has been accused by more than 60 men and women of sexual abuse, has acknowledged that he molested numerous children during his years in the church.

“I was a very sick man while I was a Roman Catholic priest in the 1960s,” Porter said in a statement released through his attorney on Tuesday.

“As a result of my illness, I sexually abused a number of children. I sought help for my illness on several occasions, and when I finally realized that I could not control my behavior while remaining a priest, I left the priesthood. I have not had sexual contact with any child since I left the priesthood in 1974. I am deeply sorry for all of the pain that I have caused, particularly to the children and their families.”

The former parish priest has been accused of molestation in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Minnesota. No charges have been filed in Massachusetts, but on Tuesday seven men in Minnesota, where Porter served as a priest and basketball coach in the early 1970s, instigated separate civil lawsuits against Porter.

Authorities in Massachusetts expect charges to be filed here soon, and say that the case may grow to be the largest reported episode of sexual abuse involving a priest in U.S. history.

Porter’s attorney, Bruce Jones of Minneapolis, did not return calls from The Times.

Calls to Frederick Torphy, the lawyer for the Archdiocese of Fall River, Mass., were also not returned. Porter’s telephone in Oakdale, Minn., has been disconnected.

But Frank Fitzpatrick, who led an independent investigation that resulted in public disclosure of Porter’s alleged activities, had a strongly worded response to Porter’s comments. Fitzpatrick was an altar boy in the early 1960s at St. Mary’s Church in North Attleborough, Mass., during Porter’s tenure there and said Porter sedated him, and then raped him.

Dismissing Porter’s statement as “damage control,” Fitzpatrick characterized the ex-priest’s apparent apology as “too little, too late.”

Fitzpatrick also cited inconsistencies between Porter’s Tuesday statement and his own tape-recorded conversations with the former priest. For example, Fitzpatrick says Porter told him he left the priesthood in 1969, not 1974.

In a subsequent conversation with a Boston television correspondent, Porter amended the date of his departure from the church to 1971.

“He specifically had said he stopped molesting children in 1967,” said John Robitaille, another former altar boy from St. Mary’s who says he was abused by Porter. “Now it’s 1974. What’s it going to be the next time we hear from him?”

Roderick MacLeish Jr., the Boston attorney representing Robitaille and Fitzpatrick, among others, said Porter’s statement this week was tantamount to a “public confession” that should be useful to Massachusetts state officials in pursuing criminal charges.

In Minnesota, each civil suit seeks $50,000 in damages against Porter and three branches of the Catholic Church--including the New Mexico rehabilitation center where Porter sought treatment.

Porter, now 58, is married and the father of four children.