Dec. 1999 Fr. Geoghan Is Arraigned On Criminal Charges - Boston Catholic Child Sex Abuse

On December 9, 1999, the infamous Boston, MA priest John Geoghan was arraigned on charges of molesting three boys in the 1980s and 1990s. He had two arraignments in the same day, one in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, and one in Middlesex Court in Cambridge. He was charged with two counts of rape of a child, and and indecent assault and battery. One arraignment involves a young boy whom Father Geoghan had molested in a pool several years earlier.

The priest was accused of molesting more than 100 youth during his 30-year career as a Boston priest. Several of the priest's abuse victims turned up in court to witness the arraignment.

This passage from an August 2003 New York Times report, summarizes Geoghan's history: "Mr. Geoghan's abuses date back to his first assignment as a parish priest, at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Saugus, an area north of Boston where he served from his ordination in 1962 until 1967. And they continued until the 1980's through a swath of suburban Boston parishes, in the bedrooms of his parishioners' children, at his family beachfront home, while he prayed, even at a Boston Red Sox game, victims said.

All along, bishops and cardinals received warnings from parents and some priests. He was sent for psychiatric treatment and returned to ministry. For their part, the bishops said they were only following the accepted psychiatric wisdom."

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