7/29/2003

EAGLE TRIBUNE

by Meg Murphy

BOSTON -- A lawyer for clergy sexual abuse victims said he has documented evidence the Vatican ordered Catholic Church officials in 1962 to keep charges against priests "a secret of the Holy Office" and not to notify law enforcement authorities.

Carmen L. Durso, a native of Haverhill, said the evidence is contained in a secret Vatican paper that he only recently obtained and could open the door to prosecution of Cardinal Bernard Law and other Boston Archdiocese officials under federal conspiracy and obstruction of justice laws.

Durso submitted the 38-page paper to U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan in Boston yesterday, along with a letter urging a federal investigation into the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

"We ask you to consider whether these offenses are punishable under any federal laws or statutes, specifically including those which punish conspiratorial activities," said Durso. "The records which have been produced indicate that the abusive acts and the coverups by supervisors have been ongoing since at least the 1950s to present."

A week ago, State Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly concluded his 16-month investigation into six decades of clergy sex abuse, concluding that while the number of victims exceeded 1,000 he could find no criminal law under which to prosecute church leaders.

But Durso said Reilly did not know of the 1962 Vatican paper that ordered archbishops, bishops and other Catholic officials to specifically not notify civil authorities about accusations against priests that could result in prosecution. He said that document raises the specter of a criminal conspiracy that is not outdated by any statute of limitations.

Durso received a copy of the paper last week from lawyer Daniel J. Shea of Houston, Tex., who also represents victims' groups. Shea said he got the document from a Catholic Air Force chaplain in Germany, who translated it from Latin into English. Shea identified the chaplain as the Rev. Thomas Doyle, an Air Force major.

Attorneys for abuse victims have been trying to track down the Vatican paper for more than a year, Durso said. They first learned of it from references on the Vatican's Web site. It is called "On the Manner of Proceeding in Cases of Solicitation," and outlines orders telling religious supervisors to treat accusations of sexual abuse as a church secret.

"This document may provide the link in the thinking of all of those who hid the truth for so many years," Durso wrote to the U.S. Attorney's office.

"The constant admonitions that information regarding accusations against priests are to be deemed 'a secret of the Holy Office' may explain, but most certainly do not justify, their actions. Indeed, the directions regarding both the hiding and the destruction of documents should be evaluated in terms of the crime of obstruction of justice."

Durso and Shea provided a copy of the Vatican paper to The Eagle-Tribune. It was printed by the Vatican Press and prefaced with the statement that it should be "diligently stored in the secret archives of the Curia as strictly confidential. Nor is it to be published nor added to with any commentaries."

Samantha Martin, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Sullivan, confirmed he is aware of the Vatican document.

"All the materials are under review," she said. "Beyond that, we're not commenting."

Durso said the supervisors in the archdiocese were essentially "covering up" crimes at the behest of a foreign agency in Rome. "The Vatican can say anything they want, but they can't tell priests to hide evidence of a sexual crime. There are limits to what a religion can do," he said.

"Those individuals who were part of the Archdiocese of Boston were engaged in a cover-up in different ways and at different times, but all to the same end," Durso said, noting only about five of the 237 priests accused of sex crimes have been criminally prosecuted.

He said the U.S. attorney can also rely on 40,000 pages of documents from civil suits launched by clergy abuse victims, along with Massachusetts Attorney General Reilly's report.

"The thing that upsets me more than anything else is that all of the other guys are going to get away with it" unless federal authorities step in, Durso said. He also said the complicated legal battles and emotional drain is taking its toll on him and the victims he represents.

"If there were some way to make this all stop tomorrow and meet my clients needs, I would," Durso said. "This is not fun."

Patrick Emerton, a former Haverhill resident, said a federal conspiracy investigation might force the church hierarchy to tell the truth. Emerton, whose brother Chris was allegedly abused by Rev. Ronald H. Paquin at St. Monica's Church in Methuen, said the Catholic clergy must not be allowed to get away with criminal behavior.

"Church is more powerful than state. A bishop is more powerful than the people in the pews," he said, citing outdated notions that Emerton believes the church hierarchy still lives by.

He said the Boston archdiocese should be treated like a corrupt corporation.

"They were hiding things," Emerton said. "If you are an individual or family that has had to deal with something that is hidden and it is eating at you corrosively -- the truth is a very helpful thing."