Catholic World News News Feature

Boston Cardinal Was Warned Of Accused Pederast Priest July 17, 2001

BOSTON, Jul 17, 01 (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston was warned in a 1984 letter that a diocesan priest was molesting young boys, according to court papers that were described in the Boston Herald on Tuesday.

Father John Geoghan, 65, remained an active priest until 1993, serving in several Boston-area parishes, after which he resigned following public allegations of pederasty. Geoghan was officially stripped of his ministry in 1998 and is now the subject of at least 84 civil lawsuits as well as criminal prosecution, covering his time in six parishes starting in 1962.

In an official court filing by the archdiocese's lawyers, Cardinal Law states that he had "no personal knowledge" of whether the charges in the letter were true. He said such charges would have to be proved at a trial, according to the Herald. Archdiocesan officials referred all questions to their legal team, who were unavailable.