[BlackElk]

Well, we are in agreement on this. I think I have worked hard to earn a reputation of being unfriendly towards people like the deceased but you are certainly right on this one. May God have mercy on Geoghan's soul.

[Dec31,1999]

Yes, may God have mercy, but not man. We've had enough of these clergy-rapists. Now they beg for forgiveness. Boo Hoo.

Put them in jail.

Cry me a river. They have not a thought about the poor kids they abused. Kids who have grown up confused and have led immoral lives due to having trusted would-be "holy men", the most trusted men in our society.

Now that they are caught in the act, they want to be absolved from their crime. NO DICE.

Don't be misled by Catholic Clergymen, such as sinkspur, again. He is a liar.

[Dec31,1999]

May God have mercy on Geoghan's soul.

May God have mercy on the souls he violated. A man of the cloth is supposed to have vision and common sense. I have no prayer for Geoghan, except that I pray that he rots in hell.

[maryz]

Being in Boston, I've followed this saga pretty closely. One newspaper article said that Geoghan dressed some of his victims in priest's vestments. In another article, I read that Geoghan's monsignor uncle used to dress him in priest's vestments when he was little. Perhaps there's no cause to jump to conclusions, but . . . . Geoghan's father died when he was very young, and the uncle figured prominently in his life. This was the same uncle, by the way, who intervened and managed to get Geoghan reinstated in the seminary after he had been tossed for "immaturity" and "effeminacy."

Another newspaper article cited something from Geoghan's "treatment" record in which he stated that he had never been abused. Like beauty, however, abuse is sometimes in the mind of the beholder. I recall an op ed in the Boston Herald written by a college student during the height of the scandal, in which the kid argued that it would be wrong to get rid of homosexual priests, because of a homosexual priest who had helped him "come to terms" with his own homosexuality.

IMO, Geoghan was soft as a grape, in the old 60s phrase. Law's handling is not so easily excused. I recall the main impression I got from Geoghan's sentencing was that this was the first time he had been told that what he was doing was wrong. It took a Massachusetts judge to break it to him??!

Yet another woe that "lies too deep for any cure but the Cross" (Robert Farrar Capon's phrase).