Vilified accuser goes on
By Marie Szaniszlo
Monday, May 23, 2005 - Updated: 04:43 AM EST

Not every survivor of clergy abuse is willing to criticize the Boston archdiocese, particularly if they rely on it to pay for the years of therapy and medication ``survival'' often entails.
 
     Criticism, after all, can come at a cost.
 
     No case made it more clear than that of Paul Edwards, who accused the archdiocese's top canon lawyer of molesting him as a child, only to become a cautionary tale, many survivors say, of how fierce the backlash can be.
 
     ``They'll tell you anything you want to hear,'' Edwards, 37, said bitterly. ``But in the end, nobody pays for what they've done. Nobody.''
 
     After he accused Msgr. Michael Foster of molesting him in the 1980s at Newton's Sacred Heart Church, he said, Foster's supporters launched a campaign to discredit him, portraying him as a pathological liar.
 
     His vilification was so complete, Edwards said, that he lost the child he and his wife had applied to adopt, was ostracized by his neighbors and clients and received threatening phone calls Eventually, he dropped his civil suit and he and his wife left the state.
 
     Earlier this year, in a four-hour meeting with the Rev. John Connolly and Barbara Thorp, who heads the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, Edwards asked that O'Malley clear his name. Two weeks later, Thorp contacted him and said she hoped to have an answer for him by week's end.
 
     ``I never heard from them again.''
 

Archbishop advised to prioritize: Victims decry long wait to meet with O'Malley
By Marie Szaniszlo
Monday, May 23, 2005 - Updated: 05:29 AM EST

Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley has not met with a clergy abuse victim for six months, angering many who say fixing the damage from the archdiocese's molestation scandal should remain his priority nearly two years into the job.
 

     As of October, the archbishop had met with 110 victims and family members, aides say. Since then, meetings with two dozen others were postponed as O'Malley became embroiled in the controversy over the closing of a quarter of the archdiocese's 357 parishes.
 

     ``Seventeen months? How timely is that?'' Christine Hickey, 48, of Cambridge, an abuse victim, said of her wait to see the archbishop. ``What's an hour of your week when this is supposed to be the most important thing you were sent here to do?''
 

     Through his public relations firm, O'Malley declined to be interviewed. The Rev. John Connolly, who oversees the archdiocese's efforts to address the abuse crisis, however, called the length of Hickey's wait ``very unusual.''
 
     But it is not unique.
 
     Robert Costello, 43, of Milford has also been waiting to meet with O'Malley for more than a year.
 
     ``I just wanted to see what he planned to do. Was it just going to be, `Call this office,' or was he personally going to get involved, which is what people wanted?'' he said. ``Eventually, I stopped asking. I didn't want to get my hopes up.''
 
     When O'Malley was installed in June 2003, he pledged to win back trust. Within three months, he settled lawsuits with some 500 abuse victims and sent each a letter of apology through their lawyers.
 
     But many wanted to meet with O'Malley in person to recount their pain and be reassured such crimes wouldn't happen again.
 
     O'Malley expects to resume meeting with victims by the end of this month, Connolly said. ``It remains a paramount priority for him,'' he said. ``From the first moment, Archbishop Sean articulated his commitment to do everything it took, for as long as it took.''
 
     Susan E. Gallagher, a victim and member of the Governor's Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence, disagrees, pointing to O'Malley's failure to meet with survivors who released a detailed list of proposed reforms, and to her own attempts to reach him.
 
     ``He doesn't have his priorities straight,'' Gallagher said. ``He's not reachable. You have to go through layers of other people, instead.''
 
     After several calls to O'Malley's Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach went unanswered, Gallagher said, she sent Connolly a letter asking six questions on the commission's behalf - including how many archdiocesan priests or other employees had been accused of sexual abuse. After three weeks, she received a letter telling her O'Malley would review her letter.
 
     ``At least give me a straight answer,'' Gallagher said.
 
     Kelly Lynch, a member of the public relations firm that represents the archdiocese, said, ``The archdiocese does not comment on any individual circumstances.