Subordinates Were Relied On to Stem Abuse, Prelate Says

In his second day of testimony about an alleged cover-up of a sex abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese, Cardinal Bernard Law on Friday once again stated that he relied on subordinates to keep track of a priest suspected of child molestation.

A plaintiff’s lawyer and an alleged victim of former priest John J. Geoghan related their impressions of responses that Law gave at a daylong deposition at the chancery here. Geoghan’s conviction in January on a single count of child abuse set off a crisis within the Roman Catholic Church.

The session was closed to the press, and transcripts were not available after Superior Court Judge Constance Sweeney ruled late Friday that Law will have 30 days to review the documents before they are made public.

Transcripts were e-mailed immediately Wednesday after the questioning concluded, and Law reportedly was unhappy with media depictions of his deposition. Faulting the lawyers questioning the cardinal, an archdiocese spokesman, Father Christopher Coyne, on Friday said, “They wanted to control how much spin was out there in the media.”

Michael O’Donnell, a lawyer for two alleged Geoghan victims who sat in on Friday’s interrogation, said Law was asked what “management tools” he used to ensure that no further abuse would take place after Geoghan was transferred to a suburban parish.

“And he responded that the management tool he had in place was the trust and confidence that he put in his subordinates or Father Geoghan’s superiors,” O’Donnell said.

Patrick McSorley, an alleged Geoghan victim who is one of 86 plaintiffs in a civil suit against Law and the archdiocese, dismissed Law’s replies as evasive.

“Most of his answers were, ‘I can’t recall,’ and he blew off the truth, basically,” he said. “He’s just trying to take the problem and move it away from himself.”

The 27-year-old unemployed electrician said Law reached out to shake his hand as the session began Friday. McSorley refused.

“I couldn’t shake the man’s hand because I knew what was about to come was a lie,” he said. “What do you expect? My episode could have been prevented. Now he wants me to shake his hand? I don’t think so.”

McSorley claims he was abused by Geoghan when he was 12 years old. More than 130 people have accused Geoghan of molesting them during his 30 years as a priest. Geoghan is serving a nine- to 10-year sentence on a single charge of fondling a boy at a community swimming pool.

The unusual question-and-answer session marks only the second time a U.S. cardinal has been deposed. In 1995, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles was questioned about alleged sexual abuse in Stockton.

Law was ordered to submit to questioning after a $15-million to $30-million settlement proposed for the civil lawsuit abruptly was withdrawn because the archdiocese said it could not finance the agreement.

Mitchell Garabedian, lead lawyer for all the plaintiffs, said he spent 111/2 months negotiating the deal with lawyers for the archdiocese.

Law’s deposition continued Friday even as church officials scrambled to reassure area Catholics that donations to a cable TV station run by the archdiocese would not be used to finance settlements with clerical abuse victims.

Boston Catholic Television, whose president is Law, has amassed close to $31 million from investments and donations. The station reaches about 1 million households in New England, airing papal addresses, the Rosary and the daily Mass celebrated by the cardinal at his residence.

In an interview published Friday in the Boston Herald, archdiocese chancellor David Smith, who oversees financial affairs, suggested that funds from the nation’s largest Roman Catholic TV station might help finance the mounting damage claims from victims of sexual abuse.

“There is a pot of money out there, [and] not to talk about it would be irresponsible,” Smith told the Herald.

By Friday, a taped message from Smith was running on Boston Catholic Television, assuring viewers: “Your contributions to this ministry, past and present, have been and will be used exclusively to continue the work of Boston Catholic Television. None of the money you have donated or will donate has been or will be used in the outreach to the victims of clergy misconduct.”

Garabedian declined to discuss the proceedings Friday. But he said he expects the cardinal’s deposition to extend beyond Monday, when the inquiry of the nation’s senior Catholic prelate is scheduled to end.

Also Friday, a judge in Cambridge agreed to lower the bail of Father Paul Shanley from $750,000 to $300,000. Shanley, 71, arrested last week in San Diego, was arraigned Monday on three charges of child rape.

Celebrating Mass on Friday in Boston’s Roxbury section, Law made a point of offering special prayers for healing and mercy in the midst of the sexual abuse crisis.

“We weep and we mourn, we grieve” for the sexual abuse victims, Law said. “But we know that here in the midst of our mourning and our grief, we must not be afraid.”

Outside the chancery late Friday afternoon, McSorley voiced a sense of impatience expressed by many alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse.

“I’d like to see the cardinal for once just come out with some truth,” McSorley said. “We want some truth.”