Predator Priest Let Loose on the Public: Father Mahan Diagnosed as Sociopath,Threat,Predator;Liar

Boston Herald ^ | 5/17/02 | Eric Convey and Tom Mashberg

[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.

[AKA Elena]

I guess the schools I attended ... believed (in the fifties) in truth in History.

My Catholic girls high school and my Catholic grammar school scooped all the dirt on the Church and defined it as evil ... just as we learned the origin and tenets of ALL world religions.

We covered the evils of all periods of history including the good and the bad of the Crusades and the misguided evil of the Inquisition.

Maybe we just had stupendous history teachers.

[CatoRenasci]

In his writings to various churches in Greece and Asia Minor, St. Paul rebukes them for various errors into which they have fallen. In this same way, the institutional Church can fall into error.

[saradippity]

I had the same experience as you did. I knew all the flaws and warts of the Catholic Church as well as the Truth.Maybe the boy's weren't listening,or their teacher's were not as good or they were not as smart as the girls.(little joke)

[yendu bwam]

Answers seem to be harder for all of us except those who can't seem to understand the talk of the Lord protecting the institutional Church

One of the most amazing and fantastical things about the Catholic Church is that throughout every era (the Crusades, the Inquisition, WWII, the eras of massive fiscal corruption, of political corruption, and so forth), it has preserved and found the strength to preserve its 'deposit of truth' from corruption. This has not been true with most of the Protestant churches. Though huge segments of the Catholic Church have strayed mightily from that deposit of truth, the Church managed to protect it, as if held in a vault and protected from human malfeasance and misguidedness. In that sense, the Church really is unique, and it's not hard to sense divine protection there. When things like this molestation tragedy happen, it is perhaps God's way of shoving us back to the original deposit of truth.

[Matchett-PI]

"And how much of what is now considered the teachings of the Church are not the work of God, but of the Corrupt Men who would make the Church the Whore of Babylon?"

From the sixth century down-wards Christianity was a mongrel system ... Baronius confesses that in the sixth century few in Italy were skilled in both Greek and Latin. Nay, even Gregory the Great acknowledged that he was ignorant of Greek. "The main qualifications of the clergy were, that they should be able to read well, sing their matins, know the Lord's Prayer, psalter, forms of exorcism, and understand how to compute the times of the sacred festivals. Nor were they very sufficient for this, if we may believe the account some have given of them. Musculus says that many of them never saw the Scriptures in all their lives. It would seem incredible, but it is delivered by no less an authority than Amama, that an Archbishop of Mainz, lighting upon a Bible and looking into it, expressed himself thus: 'Of a truth I do not know what book this is, but I perceive everything in it is against us.'"

[Aliska]

"How is it possible for priests, bishops, and cardinals to have no conscience?"

I'm wrestling with this question. Offhand, it would seem that their consciences have been corrupted and deadened by their worldly approach to governing the church and the honors and deference associated therewith. Some of the corruption and truth evasion goes far deeper than the recent scandals and relate to false teachings and practices that have crept in.

I'm waiting for a brave honest Priest to post a series of Theses to debate the proper response to the corruption in the Church. At least the Priest need not fear for his life, this time.

The brave, honest laity have already posted quite a series of "theses" and they are going unheeded. Priests are too caught up into the system to be able to see clearly. They accept things as they are probably out of fear of making waves. The only ones who seem to have the courage to speak out are the dissenters primarily.

As to fearing for his life, it would depend on how far he would go in speaking out. The hierarchy wouldn't necessarily put out a contract on him (although I wouldn't rule that out entirely), but certain elements in some quarters might think they were doing God a favor by silencing such a one permanently.

[ArrogantBustard]

I, and many others, have been objecting to the queering of some of the seminaries for years. For our trouble, we've been condemned as bigoted, intolerant homophobes who are to doctrinaire and rigid in our thinking. I've worn such condemnation as a red badge of courage. At the risk of being considered obnoxious, "See, I told you so!!!" Now, let's get the perverted sodomites and their enablers out of positions of authority, like I and others have been requesting for years, before any more damage is done. The Church has taught for 2000 years that buggery is sinful. Do you have a problem with that? Do you think that teaching isn't from God? Corrupt men teach that buggery is an 'alternative lifestyle', that we must accept in our celebration of diversity. The Church has never taught that, and the recent Catechism of the Catholic Church simply and unambiguously confirms 2000 years of teaching that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered'. I don't see how anyone can have trouble understanding that. Some may disagree with it, but to claim not to understand it seems a bit disingenuous.

AB

[Aquinasfan]

The whole point is what is now the catechism was written by the very men whose behaviour is in question, thus how can one trust their choices and understanding of God's word? Have they enunciated the true teaching of Christ or have they taught what is most comfortable to them in their institutional desires?

Can God prophesy through a sinful person?

John 11

49   And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, 50   Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. 51   And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; 52   And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

Despite being a sinful person, Caiaphas was able to prophesy because of the divine protection given his office.

You might want to try correlating Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19 and Rev 3:7.

[ArrogantBustard]

Though huge segments of the Catholic Church have strayed mightily from that deposit of truth, the Church managed to protect it, as if held in a vault and protected from human malfeasance and misguidedness. In that sense, the Church really is unique, and it's not hard to sense divine protection there. When things like this molestation tragedy happen, it is perhaps God's way of shoving us back to the original deposit of truth.

Thank you, sir. Pointed, concise, and correct.

[Aquinasfan]

Answers seem to be harder for all of us except those who can't seem to understand the talk of the Lord protecting the institutional Church from error is (at least potentially) self-serving and designed to keep them from questioning the bad behavior of those who benefit materially from the institution.

The Church only claims infallibility in doctrine regarding faith and morals. The Church does not teach the impeccability of its clergy.

According to them, our spiritual reward comes only from adhereing to their institutional Church, from which they reap all the material benefits. It doesn't compute.

You can't separate Christ from His Church, not even in scripture. But it is possible to separate the sinful acts of clergy from the Sacred Doctrine of the Church.

[yendu bwam]

I, and many others, have been objecting to the queering of some of the seminaries for years.

A church which is 30 or 40 percent 'intrinsically sexually disordered' cannot hope to properly serve as the primary intercessor between the laity and God. Homosexual acts are indeed sinful, as per scripture and the Church. Homosexual inclinations are indeed disordered - just like alcoholic inclinations are disordered, or gambling inclinations are disordered. We must have compassion and understanding for those suffering from homosexual or alcoholic or gambling inclinations. That does not mean that those with such inclinations are best suited to be our priests. They are not.

[CatoRenasci]

Of course I have no disagreement with the Church's teaching that buggery is sinful. The plain words of our Lord and his Apostles may not be easy to understand at times, but they are there for prayerful consideration. I have perhaps been unclear, in that what I question is the extent to which the ediface of the institutional Church is in fact a construct of God for His purposes, or a construct of men for their purposes. Or, more accurately, the extent to which the construct of God's for His purposes has been corrupted by men for their sinful purposes.

[Aliska]

Maybe catholics should be asking why so many of their sons and daughters grow up manifesting same-sex attractions. Most of these people have grown up in the church. One would think that a baptized child who grows up properly nurtured in the faith would be protected to a great extent against such inclinations.

And it is not just a catholic problem. Something is causing it and I would like to know what.

[Aquinasfan]

In his writings to various churches in Greece and Asia Minor, St. Paul rebukes them for various errors into which they have fallen. In this same way, the institutional Church can fall into error.

Individual teachers and churches can fall into error, but that does not mean that the central, established, dogmatic teachings of the Church can fall into error. Otherwise, what standard would one use to measure error against? There can only be one truth, one "pillar and foundation of truth."

[Aliska]

Some evil men have wormed their way into the Church.

That is not true. These evil men, almost 100%, were born into the church and nurtured by her.

[CatoRenasci]

Can God prophesy through sinful, even wicked men? Surely. But, then how do we know true from false prophets? Not an easy question. The question you don't seem to want to get to is whether the very docrine that the Church is infallible on matters of faith and morals is a doctrine introduced for the convenience of a corrupt hierarchy. But let us not be distracted from rooting out corruption in the Church by our (potential) disagreement about how far it runs. Follow the thread and root it out, and it leads where it leads.

[eastsider]

The Church was divinely structured by Christ Jesus on Peter and the Twelve. Those who succeed to that structure can abuse it to their advantage without corrupting the divine structure itself.

[saradippity]

Not true Aliska. I have told you before to read some books on guerilla warfare and you said you were too busy. If you would read them you would be happily surprised to find some of your questions answered.

[ArrogantBustard]

Of course I have no disagreement
That's what I thought. Just getting cards on the table.

more accurately, the extent to which the construct of God's for His purposes has been corrupted by men for their sinful purposes.
God created all that is, and found it all 'good'. Sinful men (Adam and Eve) corrupted it. God created the Church, founded on rock, promised that the Gates of Hell would not pevail against it. Sinful men do evil things, pretending to act in the name of the Church, but all the while violating the clear, unambiguous, constant teachings of the Church. Some of the bureaucratic structures of the Church have been corrupted. The deposit of Faith, the fundamental teachings, have not been corrupted.

[ArrogantBustard]

Something is causing it and I would like to know what.

How about evil men and evil demons. What makes you think that the Faith is being properly taught in 'Catholic' schools, CCD programs, and RCIA classes. In many cases it is not being taught at all. I've seen this fraud up close and personal. What is being taught, in many cases, is the acceptance and tolerance of evil in the name of 'diversity', and a theory of 'salvation' that is hardly distinguishable from Pelagianism. It is being taught by people who call themselves Catholic, but do not believe what the Catholic Church teaches and has taught for 2000 years. It is being taught by people whose expressed intention is to destroy the Church. Read Ungodly Rage for an interesting, look at these people.

AB