Repeat offender
Despite the Catholic Church's attempts to provide therapy for its sex-offender priests, some of them - like Father John Geoghan - spent years moving in and out of the system. Geoghan is accused of molesting 130 boys, one as young as 4 years old.
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Key
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Alleged acts of abuse |
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Treatment
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Early 1960s |
At Blessed Sacrament in Saugus, Geoghan often took young boys to his rectory bedroom to "wrestle," said a fellow priest.
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1968
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Geoghan received treatment for sexual abuse at the Seton Institute in Baltimore, according to a therapist there at the time.
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14 plaintiffs have accused Geoghan of abusing them during this period.
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1974
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Geoghan abuses a 12-year-old Roslindale boy at St. Andrew's Church in Jamaica Plain, according to criminal charges.
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April 3-12, 1989 |
Geoghan is assessed at St. Luke Institute in Maryland, which he describes as "cold, mechanistic." He received an electrocardiogram and CAT scan. Diagnosis: homosexual pedophilia.
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90 plaintiffs have accused Geoghan of abusing them during this period.
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Sept.-Nov., 1989
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Geoghan spends three months in residential treatment at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Conn.
Psychiatrist Robert Swords offered a diagnosis of "atypical pedophilia, in remission." Swords wrote that Geoghan was "clinically quite safe to resume his ministry."
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1992
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Geoghan fondles an altar boy donning vestments for a christening ceremony, according to criminal charges.
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January 1995
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Geoghan returns to St. Luke Institute. His superiors are told he should not have unsupervised contact with male minors.
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1995
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Geoghan allegedly molests a Weymouth boy.
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July-September 1996
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Geoghan in residential treatment at Southdown, a psychiatric hospital in Ontario. "The primary objective is to aid Fr. John in being able to experience, identify, and express his feelings," wrote therapist Samuel Mikhail. In December, he is granted senior priest retirement status.
Geoghan is defrocked.
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16 plaintiffs have accused Geoghan of abusing them during this period.
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Sources: Court documents;
news reports; Mitchell Garabedian
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Graphic: Globe Staff/Hwei Wen Foo and Boston.com
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