A profession that allows trusting relationships with young people is going to have to be put on notice that it cannot, ever again, be allowed to supervise itself.
Posted on 05/17/2002 5:43:08 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
The Archdiocese of Boston turned former priest Paul J. Mahan loose on the public in the mid-1990s after he had been diagnosed as a ``sociopath'' and a ``threat to adolescent males,'' according to documents released yesterday.
In a sign of just how sick therpists deemed Mahan, doctors at St. Luke Institute in Suitland, Md., expelled him as hopeless in 1995 - kicking him out of a hospital that has specialized in treating clergy with severe sexual disorders.
At least one plaintiff alleges he was raped by Mahan at a home on the North Shore soon after the priest was discharged by the archdiocese without a warning to civil authorities or former parishioners.
``They released a sexual predator into the Marblehead community and did not warn a soul,'' said Joseph G. Abromovitz, a lawyer suing the church and Mahan on behalf of two of the ex-priest's nephews, both of whom claim he raped them from 1993 to 1995. ``My clients were told Mahan was on a routine sabbatical when he was in fact being treated for incurable pedophilia,'' Abromovitz said.
Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer who won the release of Mahan's personnel file, and represents 11 of his accusers, made two of the documents available yesterday after Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney ordered that the archdiocese hand over the records.
Garabedian said he would review the full file before commenting in detail, but added: ``These psychiatric characteristics obviously are of some concern.''
The latest documents unveiled in the Roman Catholic Church abuse scandal include a summer 1995 evaluation from the Southdown treatment center in Ontario, Canada, a facility where now-defrocked pedophile John J. Geoghan was also shipped by the church.
The Southdown report states that Mahan's ``behavior has been aggressive and intrusive and in some instances predatory.'' Therapist Michael John Sy wrote Mahan acknowledged his ``high risk for re-offending'' against children.
But more damning information is contained in a September 1995 letter, also released yesterday, in which the Rev. Brian M. Flatley, then a top archdiocesan official handling sexual abuse matters, argued that Mahan should be dismissed from the priesthood. There had been eight sexual misconduct allegations against Mahan, ``a number of them involving more than one child,'' Flatley wrote.
Flatley cites an incendiary series of evaluations from St. Luke covering Mahan's two separate visits there - one in 1994, a second that spanned late 1994 and early 1995 - that made clear he was a predator.
Upon being discharged after his first 1994 visit, Flatley wrote, Mahan ``immediately lapsed into his pattern of predatory behavior.''
A therapist there concluded ``there was a real question about Father Mahan's ability to tell the truth,'' Flatey's letter states.
After Mahan was sent back to St. Luke for a second time, Flatley wrote, Mahan's therapist telephoned to say he was recommending the priest leave the facility.
``It was his judgment that Father Mahan was not able to be helped at St. Luke Institute and perhaps not anywhere,'' Flatley wrote in a letter to Rev. Richard G. Lennon, one of Bernard Cardinal Law's top aides. The therapist ``is convinced that Father Mahan is exhibiting the symptoms of a sociopath,'' Flatley continued. ``He is a dangerous person. He is a threat to adolescent males.''
In addition to being a chronic liar in therapy - ``he has a lapse of memory whenever there is a victim involved'' - Mahan also misled therapists by saying he had stopped drinking when in fact he had not, Flatley wrote.
At the very time church officials were exchanging the damning assessments, they stood by as Mahan ended his priestly career and moved unfettered to Marblehead.
Mahan later relocated to Arlington, Va., where he worked at a Radio Shack near two elementary schools until earlier this year.
Repeated efforts by the Herald to reach Mahan, including visiting his Virginia apartment building in March, were unsuccessful.
His lawyer, Martin Cosgrove, had fought to keep the psychiatric data away from Garabedian and other plaintiffs' lawyers. Attorneys for the Boston Herald and other media argued in court that the Mahan papers, like the Geoghan files, should be publicly filed.
Flatley concluded his 1995 letter by writing that Mahan should be allowed to leave the priesthood, lest he ``be a source of scandal to the people.'' Garabedian's plaintiffs, including William and Paul Oberle of Boston, allege they were abused by Mahan between 1969 and 1982 at St. Ann's in Dorchester and St. Joseph's in Needham.
I don't blame the whole church. And I agree with you, let's get on with the purification. And I do pray to God that the purification be thorough. - But I say stuff like that because I see so many Catholics who think this a much ado about little. And with that I disagree vehemently. I think some people need to be shocked into confronting the reality of what's going on. There is a stinking, canerous boil of putrescence in this Church, and it needs to be carved out and jettisoned. And my biggest fear is that this won't happen. Who will have the guts and courage to do what needs to be done? The Pope? He's a good guy, but don't know if he's up to it. The Cardinals and the Bishops? They're neck deep in the putrescence, and its gushing from their pores to begin with. The good priests (of whom, I agree, there are many, many)? They don't have much power, it would seem. The laity? Despite all the screams of anguish (like mine), I wouldn't be surprised if they continue to be trod over. Maybe I'm too pessimistic. I pray that I am.
Bring it on,release their names and deeds, the Catholic Church believes in Christ not man.
Hierarchies accountable to no one but themselves are breeding grounds for corruption. Apparently, according to an article posted yesterday, the Anglican Church in Canada is on the verge of bankruptcy because of pedophilia cover-ups, and the Australian Anglican Church is being rocked with new revelations there.
A profession that allows trusting relationships with young people is going to have to be put on notice that it cannot, ever again, be allowed to supervise itself.
1) Faithful Catholics will not be leaving their Church.
2) The Church has not abandoned them. Many in the hierarchy have, but St. Augustine said that the floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of bishops, so it is not a new problem.
3) How can Catholics, if they have taken your advice and left the Church, "demand leaders who are capable of moral leadership"?
I know the feeling. I told my pastor the other day, "Oh, Father, we are in SUCH deep doodoo!" He agreed. The Church is in a lot of danger from this evil. "Pessimistic" is the right way to feel about this. The purging will never be complete. There will always be somebody in the Church who is corrupt or corruptible, and there will always be somebody else who is willing to hide them, cover for them, and make excuses for them. The CHURCH, thank God, is not just the "American Church," and she is in good shape in may other countries.
Even though I hate to see this happening in America, in a way, it's a good thing, if it roots out the "Amchurch" bunch of modernizers, destroyers, wreckovators, and pederasts and exposes them for what they are: Hyenas within the fold. I want my ROMAN Catholic Church back.
A profession that allows trusting relationships with young people is going to have to be put on notice that it cannot, ever again, be allowed to supervise itself.
A profession that allows trusting relationships with young people is going to have to be put on notice that it cannot, ever again, be allowed to supervise itself.
How utterly ridiculous a statement.
Impossible to prove but I [brought up and educated as a Catholic] have always believed the church was founded and promoted by homosexuals...it has always glorified males and treated women with contempt, except when in their traditional roles as mothers, and even then women don't/didn't get much respect from the "fathers" of the church. Homosexuals are the only men who feel compelled to glorify and elevate men and who have nothing but contempt for women. This has been deeply embedded throughout church history and dogma from the beginning. You do the math.
I believe people who remain devoted to religion are child-like and addicted to fairy tales. People should think for themselves. If it should turn out, for the sake of argument, that there is no "supreme God-figure," then the Christian-Judeo ethic that all right thinking people abide by is the sole creation of man -- perhaps inspired by the belief in a supreme being but nevertheless developed and adopted by "mere" humans. Not believing in such a mythical God-figure does not make people bad. Just realistic.
Hawking said recently that he believes there is "something" [my quotes] -- some kind of intelligence -- behind the universe, [while not acknowledging that this entity would be a supreme being in the religion-based model]. I think that's the farthest he has ever come to making such a declaration.
But something does not equal a supreme being who created every nook and cranny of a world filled with misery, sickness, death, evil, and destruction. We mere humans should step up and take responsibility for what happens here on earth and maybe then those who find comfort in the words "it's God's will" will realize that some things are beyond our control [acts of nature, the weather, etc.] and some are not and that we all should strive to make the world a better place for everyone in this lifetime."
You bet. I want it back too.
Ok. So...if those who believe are wrong, then nothing will happen, right? (Nothing on the other side of death. We live, we die, like plants. Period. Ok. Got it.)
BUT...If YOU are wrong, what will happen to you before the Judge of All?
What a cynical thing to say.
Get the United Way on the phone. We have found them a potential scoutmaster to make them feel good about themselves.
OK, and I believe people who remain devoted to self are child-like and addicted to egomania.
But when YOU say it, it is out of intellectual superiority, but when I say it, it is 'cause I'm a dullard who cannot think for myself?
Please note the above-quote: this man is NOT a pedophile. He is a run-of-the-mill gay man who likes his fresh meat smooth and wrinkle-free. He is, to use the parlance of the gay community itself, a chickenhawk--one of the gay comuninity's own, just a little kinkier.
At the very time church officials were exchanging the damning assessments, they stood by as Mahan ended his priestly career and moved unfettered to Marblehead.... Rev. Brian M. Flatley, then a top archdiocesan official handling sexual abuse matters ... concluded his 1995 letter by writing that Mahan should be allowed to leave the priesthood, lest he "be a source of scandal to the people."Lavabo.
Jesus Christ said the same thing about his followers, but approvingly.
The more impressed you are with your own intelligence and wisdom over God's, the less likely you are ever to come to the truth about things that really matter.
And only a fool would conclude that homosexual behavior is healthy, smart, and morality-neutral. You don't have to conclude otherwise because Judeo-Christian belief says so. Nature itself teaches this obvious truth, and AIDS, anal gonorrhea, and hepatitis B etc prove it in spades.
Your stupidity is showing. Mount thy broom and hie thee to DU before someone dumps a bucket of water on you.
All of the above could have been sumarized in one word: Democrat
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