Little or nothing is going to be done; the fact is this has been going on for we can guess thousands of years. How can a leadership deal with a problem the leaders themselves may have? This is outrages for there is no transparence in the Church... A broken wrist by a nun and sexual abuse in Newton St Jeans parish when I was seven, so long ago it was beyond the 55 years cut off for litigation; I really just wanted to know if she was alive and her name, money was not even a consideration for the damage that I carry... These shames we well never unearth in totality...

Fr. Schaeffer, no doubt a good man, was complicit in McGuire's crimes. What normal person would look the other way in this knowledge? Continued exposure and focus on this heinous problem must be maintained or else it will insideously occuppy dark corners of the church and go on and on. If, reading this article, it would seem to you that it is only a part of history you are wrong. The Catholic churches in Haverhill were listed one by one in the local Eagle Tribune as 7 priests were removed for various crimes, sexual and financial. The beast lives on. These priests were not part of the past. They are the here and now in the church. These horrible men were recently selected and ordained, not part of some vague past history referred to as though it was not here with us today. The bad seeds in this garden were germinated and groomed in the local seminary, St. John's, in Brighton. When the Cardinal arrived here to replace Cardinal Law, he was told he should close its doors. Perhaps, to erase the memory of the predator priests it produced over so many years. Instead, he let it go on and it produced at least three of the criminal priests inflicted on poor Haverhill's churches. The Cardinal, Fr. McGuire and many other highly placed bishops and leaders press on apologising. It was said by a Jesuit theologian that the normal, historic state of the church is chaos, turmoil and disarray. Today, the faith lives on and the Church will survive. Unfortunately, many of those bad seeds are still among the faithful. Be watchful, be aware, guard your children.

You, and the people like you who continue to support this institution, make me sick. Too afraid of your little soul going to that imaginary place called "hell" after death, to stand up for the living, while you ae alive, and abolish this terrible pile of dung. If there is a God, and hope there is, you and your ilk are in for a very big surpise when you die. Beacuse all of the people at The Globe, who worked to uncover this filth that is the Catholic Church, are going to be sitting at his right hand, while all the cowards who would willingly sacrifice kids because they're so scared, and sweep all this stuff under the rug, will be burning in hell.

No one talks about what went down in St. John's seminary during the 50's and 60's. That sanctimonius hellhole corrupted and trained the men that would then take that thuggery and buggery to the streets. The catholic church's stench envelopes us all.....and well it should....for the crimes are so heinous.....and the neglect by both believers and prosyletizers is so unforgivable.

Sandusky and McGuire can be roommates. It's time for the Rev. Schaeffer to take early retirement - goodbye. Not in June, but now. For all of your accomplishments, you are a failure, sir. Fr Leahy - is it time to hand over the reigns? Celibacy? Give us a break.

The response by BC and it's spokesperson is evasive and defensive....and undercuts the work and words of the university in it's Church in the 21st efforts to bring healing to the systemic pattern of abuse in the Church....and yes....the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits and its sponsored institutions are powerful, and this is an example of how its power is used to protect its material interests over the need for real justice......it's hypocritical, but from my experience with them....not surprising in the least.

@127guy....get over yourself! Stop the winging about how these thugs are treated. Just stop it. It is nothing but hubris...a sense of entitlement. This sense of entitlement, the idea that they (the Catholic Church) were much too important to let this mess go public... is what makes us all sick. That makes them more important than the poor slobs that they "shepherd". Male hubris...the bottom line of most of the worlds evils.

And remember, it is these same men who think that, as employers, their devotion to their religion requires that they prevent anyone who works for them from having contraception included in their insurance coverage. Such delicate moral sensibilities!

Thank you for a good post, a balanced one. I will go all the way up to the late John Paul II to accuse Church hierarchy and officials of coddling and protecting the pedophiles and am outraged that they want to make that late pope, who protected Bernard Law, a saint, no less, of the Church. Yet, as a person who remained away from the Church for many years, for reasons unrelated to the issue of pedophile priests and those who ignored pleas from victims and their parents, I still will support the Roman Catholic Church because of what it has given me. I am grateful and openly in much appreciation towards the many sisters and priests who helped shape my moral and spiritual beliefs. No, the entire institution is not corrupt, although it is deeply flawed and damaged - and the Church needs to be confronted for its sins and made to face what evil it has done.

Fr. Russ, I am sorry to hear what happened to you. Appalled and sorrowful.

Any one who continues to attend their parishes & puts money in their plate obviously doesn't think this is bad enough to leave the RC church and is tacitly approving this behavior.

Interesting that BC would align itself with the abuse enablers rather than dismiss Rev. Bradley M. Schaeffer -- an act that would be mostly symbolic since he is retiring by the end of the year anyway. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Perhaps BC has reacted this way either because it has more (perhaps undiscovered) connections or involvement with the child abuse issue. Or perhaps it is stonewalling simply because of some sort of "domino theory" sense of leadership vulnerability that "if Schaeffer goes who will be next".

BC says it "had no knowledge of the McGuire case or Schaeffer's role in it when he was elected to the board in 2004, although the first alleged victims' lawsuits were filed a year earlier." Whatever happened to checking someone out before naming him to a position of power and responsibility. Lawsuits are public record. How is it possible that BC did not conduct the most basic of background checks?

lclopez, yes, I agree -- but, of course, pleading what is in essence stupidity, or credulousness, or laziness and lack of due diligence is a popular excuse because it acknowledges both the error (and in modern times even North Korea apparently is admitting its latest failure with a missle launch rather then assert success as it did last time because it is getter harder to convince even its pathetic, brainwashed subjects) and, at the very same time, claims a lack of responsibility for the error. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I might be willing to believe the lack or thoroughness was an accident if they did something about what was missed when it was brought up -- but they aren't going to. So, my conclusion is that the were aware all along. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> So, perhaps the next step is a vote by the faculty and alumni on reconstituting the board so that it is more competent (as the current board views its own inadequacy), or more honest and ethical (as I would tend to view it).

The vow of chastity which Jesuits must take is just another case of theological stupidity. This vow asks too much of priests whose sexual desires don't change simply because they take a vow of chastity. Catholic riests, just like the Episcopalian priests, should be allowed to marry. Note well the other doctrinal idiocy of the Church and its stark contradiction. Married men can become priests but unmarried priests cannot marry. Go figure.

Geat job, Mike Rezendes. Very thorough, comprehensive reporting.

Except that the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times and the wire services had and published this story and all the documentation over a year ago. The only thing new here is that Rezendes "discovered" that Fr. Schaeffer is a trustee of Boston College (something anyone can discover by reading the BC annual report or going to the BC website -- it's not as if it was a big secret). Everything else is a rehash of a story that other papers did a year ago (see, for example the NYTimes on March 29, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/us/29jesuit.html?pagewanted=all and the links there to the Bishopsaccountability site to all the documentation that Rezendes implies that he "unearthed"). Since what is "new" here is so thin, I have to believe that Rezendes either doesn't read newspapers or that he was manipulated into pursuing this story by one of the advocacy organizations. There is little reporting here and a lot of rehashing. To what end? What next? Will Rezendes running a breaking news front-page story on the resignation of Richard Nixon?

I disagree. Our wonderful pastor writes fabulous "reflections" that are published in our weekly parish bulletin and he makes no bones about questioning (and this takes courage) the silence of the bishops in the nation who let the entire responsibility for transgressions to fall onto the local supervising priests who are trying to deal with pedophile priests. Our pastor puts himself on the line by what he writes and I suspect that his "punishment" is to not be made a monsignor, even though he has been a priest for many years. So many of us in the parish admire him for his moral fortitude. I think it is a mistake to say that the RC Church is "no good" and we all should leave it. Who is the Church? We, the people, not just the hierarchy. We are the Body of Christ.

um, maybe because Fr. Schaeffer wasn't involved in any lawsuits? But, hey, let's not let facts get in the way of your knee-jerk response

yeah, and the moon is made of cheese, too. Deal with facts. not your unwarranted speculations

and what is your experience? or do you just put that out there hoping that no one will challenge it and just naively accept "your experience.?' Perhaps you could give us some first hand facts about Jesuits and their institutions instead of just dismissing them with your generalized and non fact based assertion.

why do you make irresponsible and idiotic comments like this. Deal with real people. Deal with facts.