A Catholic priest from South Weymouth stepped down last week after being accused of molesting a young boy 40 years ago.
The incident is the latest in a series of reported cases of sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic Church, including several that were uncovered in the Boston area in 2002.
“You have reportedly the most moral institution in the world, acting so immorally. The way the church has acted is a disgrace,” said Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer in Boston who has represented about 700 victims of clergy sex abuse.
Garabedian, a Boston University alumnus, said people have recently been pouring into his office and coming forward with stories about abuse by Catholic priests.
An 80-year-old man who came into Garabedian’s office told the lawyer a Catholic priest had abused him when he was just 6 years old.He carried around this secret for 74 years, Garabedian said.
Charles Murphy, formerly a priest of St. Francis Xavier Parish in South Weymouth, allegedly sexually abused a 14-year-old boy from 1970 to 1971.Garabedian is representing the man who has come forward with his memories of sexual abuse as a young child.
But the scandal extends beyond Massachusetts.The New York Times reported on March 24 that future-Pope Benedict XVI failed to defrock a priest that had allegedly molested over 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin during the 1990s.
The Wisconsin priest, Rev. Lawrence Murphy, was not put on canonical trial because he claimed to have repented, was in poor health and argued that the case was beyond the church’s authority, according to The Times.
In response to the church’s actions, Garabedian said, “The church is only protecting the church.The church doesn’t care about victims of abuse.The church is a business. Since business was good, they weren’t preventing the abuse from happening.”
Father Paul Helfrich, Catholic Center Director at BU, said he thinks the church should continue to do what he said it always does &- reporting abuse to proper civil authorities and reaching out to victims.
Helfrich said this would definitely affect “some people who may have been exploring joining the Catholic Church” who might have “turned aside from that path because of this situation.”
When it comes to Catholic students at BU, Helfrich said he wants them to “pray for the victims and their families so that they find the healing and peace that they seek.”
As for Garabedian, he said he is encouraged by the amount of courage his clients have shown.
“My client, as is the case with all victims of clergy sexual abuse, should be proud of himself for coming forward, speaking out, empowering other victims and making the world a safer place for children,” he said.
Some students at BU said they felt that the priest’s image was tarnished, but not that of the entire Catholic Church.
“It hasn’t made me think any less of the religion or anything in any way. I think of it as the priests being solely at fault,” said College of General Studies freshman Kevin Wang.
Wang also said that while he is shocked and disappointed in the priests’cases, he thinks the church should adopt a more thorough screening process prior to initiating someone into the ministry.
“I wouldn’t discriminate against all Catholics just because of this one priest,” said Helen Israel, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.”I understand how the Catholic Church can feel shameful for his actions because he, without a doubt, represents it in all aspects of his life.”
Israel said she thinks it is not the church that needs recovery, but the priests themselves.
CAS freshman Fredrik Bergstrom said the church is not entirely at fault.
“They are protecting each other. That’s what everyone would do in a situation like that, no matter if it’s a church, a company or just a group of close friends.”
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