Accused priest fought inclusion in abuse report

Times-Tribune - 8/18/2018

Aug. 18--A Diocese of Scranton priest accused multiple times of sexual impropriety tried to keep his name out of a statewide grand jury report focused on priestly sex abuse.

A lawyer for the Rev. Martin M. Boylan, 71, a former pastor at St. Patrick's Church in Scranton and many others, wrote to a state prosecutor to argue the report should not name Boylan because police never charged him with sexually abusing an 8-year-old boy and because other accusations amounted to nothing, according to a copy of the letter included among responses to the report by accused priests and others.

"Why should Father Boylan be named when no charges have ever been presented?" attorney Paul Walker asked in a May 23 letter to Daniel J. Dye, a senior deputy attorney general and one of the leaders of the grand jury investigation.

In an interview Friday, Walker said his client was prepared to defend himself if charged with a crime and called the report's other allegations of impropriety by Boylan "rumors and innuendos."

The grand jury report, released Tuesday, says 301 religious leaders abused more than 1,000 victims since the 1940s in six Roman Catholic dioceses across Pennsylvania. The report lists 59 religious leaders in the Diocese of Scranton. The diocese itself named 70. Both lists name Boylan, who the grand jury report says underwent multiple psychological evaluations while still ministering to Roman Catholics.

At least four times someone accused Boylan of sexually propositioning or abuse, according to the report.

The diocese learned of the first one in April 1993 when Boylan served as chaplain at Marywood College, now Marywood University.

"A male graduate student alleged that Boylan sexually harassed him and propositioned him for sex," the report says.

The Catholic Church forbids priests from having sex and opposes homosexuality.

The diocese, led by the Most Rev. James C. Timlin at the time, sent him for "a comprehensive psychological evaluation" at a treatment center in Downingtown in Chester County, west of Philadelphia.

After the evaluation, "it was determined that Boylan would take leave from the ministry and undergo two to three years of outpatient psychotherapy," according to the report.

The report says he underwent evaluations in 1994, 1997 and 2004, and a note in his diocesan file "did not raise any serious concerns that would prevent Boylan from exercising public ministry."

The report does not say who wrote the note.

The diocesan Independent Review Board, appointed by Timlin in the early 1990s to look into allegations of misbehavior, viewed Boylan quite differently, according to the grand jury report.

An April 5, 2016, letter to the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, current bishop of Scranton and a former board member, said Boylan's case had come back to the board "throughout the years."

"In 1996, the (review) board had recommended that Boylan return to Downingtown, but this recommendation was ignored," the grand jury report says. "The official notes of the board observed that Boylan 'attempts to orchestrate his own approach to therapy.'"

The letter says Boylan often wrote to Timlin to ask for an appointment as a pastor.

"The board always objected to this possibility. Nevertheless, Timlin appointed him pastor and Boylan continued to consistently appear at public events throughout the diocese," the letters says, according to the grand jury report.

After his stint in treatment, Timlin appointed Boylan to pastoral positions at seven churches between 1994 and 2009. Boylan was assigned to St. Patrick's in July 2011, according to the grand jury report. By then, Bambera was bishop.

That's where Boylan was assigned March 31, 2016, the day a victim assistance coordinator for the Diocese of Florida notified the local diocese that an 18-year-old man reported Boylan touched him inappropriately when he was 8 years old.

A day later, the victim contacted the Scranton diocese and said the assault happened at a summer event at St. Vincent's Camp in Honesdale. The victim said Boylan had anal sex with him and touched his genitals, according to the report.

Boylan denied the allegation to diocese officials and said he didn't remember the victim.

The diocese suspended his ability to minister publicly and recommended he seek treatment at the Downingtown center. He agreed.

On April 3, the diocese notified the Wayne County district attorney's office of the allegation. The police investigation did not result in charges.

The same day, the diocese publicly announced Boylan's suspension from ministry.

Three days later, a man called the diocese and reported Boylan "approached him with sexually suggestive overtures" when he was a student at Marywood College in 1983. The man said Marywood and Boylan agreed he would leave the university, but the man was still upset Boylan remained a priest, according to the grand jury report.

On May 25, 2016, a former parishioner called the diocese to report "an incident of sexual abuse by Boylan that occurred in 1984." Boylan was an assistant pastor at St. Patrick's then, according to the report. The caller said he did not intend to file charges and wished to remain anonymous.

State police declined to press charges in the case involving the abuse of the 8-year-old because of difficulties with the statute of limitations in charging Boylan and because an alleged victim refused to testify. The report points out many abusive priests avoided prosecution because the statute of limitations on filing charges against them passed long before victims began publicly accusing them.

A bill pending in the state General Assembly would eliminate the statute of limitations in cases involving minors.

In his letter, Walker said police didn't charge Boylan because of "factual inaccuracies about this allegation." There was no camp at St. Vincent's, no one who would know could recall Boylan being at any such event.

"We were prepared to defend him if there were any charges filed," Walker said Friday. "People would have testified that he wasn't there."

Boylan has 75 to 100 letters attesting to his good character, Walker said.

The attorney pointed out the graduate student was not a child. In his letter to the state prosecutor, he labeled mentioning the graduate student's allegation in the report as "gratuitous" and "character assassination."

"These allegations have no place in a report on allegations of child sex abuse," Walker wrote.

He said psychological evaluations of Boylan after the initial one were routine. He called them "consistent with new appointments and to satisfy any lingering concerns."

"None of these evaluations raised any concerns and quite frankly don't belong in a public report," Walker wrote.

Walker called the review board member's views "subjective."

"Father Boylan has always dutifully obeyed the directives of the church and fulfilled his obligations," he wrote.

Walker pointed out the diocese kept appointing him a pastor to minister publicly.

Boylan remains suspended from ministry.

Walker said Boylan has hired another lawyer to challenge the suspension.

As for the diocese putting Boylan on its list of "credibly accused" priests, Walker said the diocese is "overcompensating" because it fears criticism.

"They're afraid of their own shadow," he said. "Everybody's afraid now."

Dan Gallagher, a diocese spokesman, challenged that assertion.

"Bishop Bambera has been clear that his decision to publicly share all credibly accused is in an effort to promote healing among victims and the faithful," Gallagher said in an email.

Contact the writer:

bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9147;

@BorysBlogTT on Twitter

The Rev. Martin M. Boylan's career in the Diocese of Scranton after his ordination to the priesthood in 1980:

August 1980-June 1982, assistant pastor, St. Jude's, Mountain Top.

June 1982-September 1983, assistant pastor, St. Gabriel's, Hazleton.

September 1983-September 1985, assistant pastor, St. Patrick's, Scranton.

September 1985-February 1986, assistant pastor, St. Peter's, Scranton.

February 1986-September 1986, administrator, Blessed Sacrament, Wilkes-Barre.

September 1986-September 1987, assistant pastor, St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Wilkes-Barre.

September 1987-September 1988, chaplain and procurator, Bishop Hannan High School, Scranton.