Two Clergy With Danvers Ties on List of Accused Priests
The Boston Archdiocese released an official list late last week with the names of 159 priests involved in cases of the sexual abuse of children. Two priests with ties to Danvers were included in the list.
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Two clergymen with ties to Danvers were named in the list of clergy accused of sexually abusing children that was released by the Boston Catholic Archdiocese on Thursday.
The cases mentioned span the better part of six decades, and in many cases, including one of the two with a Danvers connection, the individuals accused of abuse have since died.
The 159 names on the list aren't necessarily news in themselves, but it the first time the Church has officially released the information.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley explained in a letter that he chose to withhold the names of certain priests, however, particularly ones that were never publicly charged while they were alive.
Out of 248 priests and two deacons accused of child sex abuse since 1950, 91 names were not released. That group includes deceased priests who weren't publicly accused, priests working in Boston under religious orders or other dioceses and those named in unsubstantiated accusations that didn't go public.
O'Malley was quickly criticized by advocates for clergy abuse victims and Attorney General Martha Coakley for not going far enough and releasing those names as well.
The list last week was broken into five categories, A-E. Category "A" cases were those where the accused was found guilty either by the Church, the state or both, and was either dismissed from office or sentenced to a life of prayer and penance and/or faced criminal charges.
The two Danvers priests on the list were:
- William M. Walsh, who was restricted after serving as a Parochial Vicar at St. Mary's of the Annunciation from June of 1997 until January of 2004. Before having served in Danvers, Walsh was assigned to churches in Brockton, Hyde Park, and Jamaica Plan. Walsh is listed under Category: B, Cases That Have Been Concluded Canonically By Laicization. Walsh was laicized in 2011.
- John K Connell was Chaplain of St. John's Preparatory School from 1984 until 1995, having previously served in Dorchester, Cambridge, and Newton. Connell is also listed under Category: B. Cases That Have Been Concluded Canonically By Laicization (in 2005.) Connell passed away in 2007.
In This article
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St. Mary of the Annunciation Church
24 Conant St, Danvers, MA -
St John's Preparatory School
72 Spring St, Danvers, MA
Adriana Mirra
3:07 pm on Thursday, September 1, 2011
Father William taught my religion class once a week at St. Marys... its scares me to think that he would do that but if anyone saw that guy, he looked like someone who was the scum of the earth. Always looked a mess and wasn't very nice either. He once told me class that us girls should go after celebrities like frankie munez or whatever because they have a lot of money... not really fit as a teach at a prestigious catholic school.
Keith Lucy
12:03 pm on Friday, September 2, 2011
First - If you knew him, you would know that no one called him Father William. He was known as Father Bill which casts doubt on your entire premise.
Second - He was very nice to those who were nice in return. You're "scum of the earth" comment tells me that you are not.
Patrick OMalley
2:59 am on Friday, September 2, 2011
O'Malley is just like the rest of the Catholic bishops. He will do as little as he possibly can to help the victims of child rape, and his goal is to minimize the impact of child rape on the church's reputation.
However, Boston Catholics will listen to him because:
1) he followed Bernard Law, one of the biggest pedophile protectors in the history of man.
2) he was better than Bernard Law.
3) he is a slow talking, slow thinking person, so people think he's a nice guy.
The fact is that he will still do his best to hide pedophiles, as is proven by his incomplete list. Massachusetts should convene a grand jury to see exactly what he is hiding. In Philadelphia, when they convened a grand jury, they found unspeakable crimes.
Read the first 6 pages of the Philadelphia Grand Jury Report at http://www.philadelphiadistrictattorney.com/images/Grand_Jury_Report.pdf to see that the Catholic church still doesn't care about child rape in 2011.
Glen Morrison
8:08 pm on Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Father Walsh was a very good priest while at St. Mary's. He gave very good homilies and was a generally laid back kind of guy. If the accusations are true it is too bad. But I can say that while in Danvers he was nothing but an upstanding guy to my family.