Chorus Official Heard Charges in Early 1990

A board member of the All-American Boys Chorus acknowledged Wednesday that he was told nearly three years ago about allegations of sexual misconduct involving Father Richard T. Coughlin, who has been removed as director of the famous singing group.

Board member Anthony S. Manrique said the alleged victim, Joe Beckman, 32, discussed Coughlin during a meeting in early 1990 between himself, Coughlin and Gregory S. Smet, a former chorus member and current board member. Beckman alleged that Coughlin fondled and kissed him several times.

“We had a meeting and Joe brought up this stuff,” Manrique said. “At that time, he said it had been brought to the attention of the diocese by (Beckman’s) father several years ago.”

Beckman said he requested the meeting, which was held in the chorus headquarters on the Orange County Fairgrounds, to bring the charges to the board’s attention in hope that chorus leaders would take action.

In addition, Beckman said he told everyone at the meeting that his father complained to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1974 about Coughlin’s alleged misconduct. Catholic parishes in Orange County were included in the Los Angeles archdiocese until 1976.

Spokesmen for the Diocese of Orange and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles said Wednesday that they had no record of any formal complaint alleging sexual misconduct by Coughlin during his career.

Manrique said he did not check after the 1990 meeting to see if a complaint with the church was recorded or investigated. He added that he believed the allegations were taken care of by the church and he did not tell other board members.

“I don’t know if they did investigate or if the allegations had merit,” he said. “My own personal feeling when it was brought to our attention in 1990 was, ‘Well, it must have been handled in the church and they let (Coughlin) continue on.’ ”

The most recent charges of sexual misconduct were presented to the Diocese of Orange in early December, 1992, by a man other than Beckman. During the ensuing investigation, four other alleged victims came forward, officials have said. All of the incidents allegedly occurred 10 to 30 years ago.

On Jan. 29, the diocese suspended Coughlin as a priest and forced his removal as director of the All-American Boys Chorus, an internationally known group founded by the priest in 1970. The popular choir, which is made up of about 100 boys aged 9 to 14, has recorded three albums and once performed for Pope Paul VI. The chorus operates as a nonprofit group not affiliated with or funded by the Catholic Church, but Coughlin had always needed church permission to act as director.

According to the diocese, Coughlin’s suspension is the first time it has formally disciplined a priest because of sexual misconduct allegations.

John H. Bovaird, another member of the choir’s board of directors, said Wednesday that he first heard of the 1990 meeting in December, 1992, when the Diocese of Orange contacted the board of directors about their investigation of Coughlin.

Board members Smet, John E. Dunn and Rita M. Keefe could not be reached for comment. Coughlin, speaking through a diocesan spokesman, said he does not want to discuss the matter with the media.

Beckman said he was disappointed that nothing happened after the 1990 meeting. “I wouldn’t allege a cover-up,” he said, but “it’s about a full two years that they’ve sat on this.”

At a Wednesday afternoon news conference, a spokesman for the church said officials suspended Coughlin on the basis of allegations leveled by four former chorus members and a Boston man.

“Because of the serious nature of the allegations, Father Coughlin cannot function effectively as a priest,” Msgr. Lawrence J. Baird, diocesan communications director, said at a press conference Wednesday. “The allegations are serious as to content. Whether they can be validated is something the diocese cannot determine. (But) there is a reasonable belief that there is some foundation to the allegations.”

Baird said Coughlin has been permanently suspended from his public duties as a priest in the Diocese of Orange. Although he is still a Catholic priest, Baird said, Coughlin is prohibited from such things as saying Mass, hearing confessions and administering sacraments.

Theoretically, Baird said, the suspension applies only within the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Orange. It is possible that Coughlin could resume official duties as a priest in another diocese if he had permission from that diocese. But given the circumstances of Coughlin’s suspension and his age, Baird said he thought it was highly unlikely.

Coughlin met with Bishop Norman McFarland, head of the diocese, and denied the allegations. But he has said he will accept the decision of the church, which investigated the allegations between Dec. 1 and Jan. 29.

Baird said Coughlin’s discipline was handled according to new guidelines established by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in the fall of 1992, when it addressed the issue of sexual abuse of children by clergy. The norms set up a mechanism for dealing promptly with all sexual abuse allegations made against clergy.

The guidelines require prompt intervention where there is a “reasonable belief” that abuse has occurred. If the allegation is supported by sufficient evidence, the alleged offender should be relieved of church or ministerial duties and referred for appropriate medical intervention or counseling.

During the investigation, the church must comply with all legal obligations to report the incident to authorities and cooperate with any inquiry. The church also must help the alleged victims and their families as well as be as open as possible with the community about the incident.

“No single pastoral question is more painful to us as bishops than the situation of sexual abuse where the offender is a member of the clergy or a person in the employ of the church and the offended is a child,” Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Ohio, then president of the bishops’ conference, said in a report of the proceedings.

On Wednesday, Jeanne Miller, president of Victims of Clergy Abuse Linkup, a national organization based near Chicago that tracks sexual abuse involving members of the clergy, praised the Catholic Church for its guidelines.

“Some good policies” resulted from the bishops’ conference, Miller said, adding that there is room to improve the reporting of sexual abuse to law enforcement authorities.

In some states, Miller said, churches still have pastoral privilege, a legal provision that allows churches to keep confidential records and complaints about sexual misconduct involving priests and ministers.

Before the guidelines were established, sexual abuse in the Catholic Church had become a serious problem, Miller said. She estimated that her organization has tracked at least 500 confirmed cases of sexual misconduct by Catholic priests in the United States.

Miller said that since her group was founded in August, 1991, it has received about 3,000 reports, both founded and unfounded, of sexual abuse by ministers and priests from all denominations. She estimated that about 90% of those reports involved Catholics.

In the past, Miller said, the Catholic Church, which has about 57,000 priests, did not adequately investigate complaints against the clergy and was more interested in avoiding civil liability and the loss of revenue from the congregations of the priests in question.

Baird said the Coughlin case is the first in which a priest has been formally disciplined in the Diocese of Orange for allegations of sexual misconduct. He said he did not know how many complaints the diocese has received.

“It is unfortunate that when one incident gets highlighted it can be misperceived as something that is widespread,” he said, adding that he was not trying to downplay the seriousness of the allegations against Coughlin.

During the news conference, Baird declined to be specific about the nature of the allegations or release the names of those who leveled the molestation charges against Coughlin. So far, Beckman has been the only one to come forward publicly.

Although he said his late father, Paul Beckman, complained to church officials about Coughlin, the priest’s personnel file does not reflect any other complaints about sexual misconduct during his long career, Baird said.

Beckman said he does not have a copy of any paperwork that his father might have filed. In 1990, Beckman said, he did not want to contact the diocese because he did not think the church would follow up on his allegations. He said he finally talked about the matter when officials of the diocese contacted him in late December, 1992.