A few years ago, I wrote an article for Catalyst, the Journal of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, entitled, “Sex Abuse and Signs of Fraud.” (Nov. 2005) The article got a lot of attention, and has since been re-published here and there online.
My article detailed a series of sexual abuse claims brought against the Archdiocese of Boston in 2000 and 2001 alleging sexual abuse by priests some two decades earlier. The claims had moved well along the all-too-short path to a mediated settlement when they were suddenly exposed as frauds and the legal tables turned on the claimants. The discovery of fraud was a fluke. As is typical, there was little to no investigation of the claims.
The gist of the story is this: Sean Murphy and Byron Worth, then ages 37 and 41 respectively, lived 100 miles apart in Massachusetts, but brought nearly identical molestation claims against a priest, alleged to have occurred three decades earlier. Each account served to corroborate the other. The priest had previously been accused by others making him an easy target.
It turned out that a year before making the claims, Sean and Byron were inmates together at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute in Shirley, MA where they concocted the scam and rehearsed the details of their stories. Sean and Byron were indicted for fraud and larceny, and faced a 2-year return to prison for the scam. Sean’s mother was also indicted for the fraud. The Boston news media buried the story in the emerging tsunami of settlement demands for claims against priests.
Sean Murphy’s return to prison was, for his own interests, time well spent. After his release, he made news again last year for masterminding a scam involving the heist of Super Bowl rings.
At about the same time Sean, Byron, and their shared contingency lawyer made their $850,000 demand of the Archdiocese – which would have had the two men enjoying a cool quarter-million in each of their bank accounts after a 40% contingency fee – at least two other inmates at MCI-Shirley accused another Boston priest. They, too, shared the same story, the same prison, and the same contingency lawyer.
At the time I wrote, “Sex Abuse and Signs of Fraud,” I had been approached by a number of inmates asking for the names of priests who might have been present in their childhood neighborhoods. One man told me that he was asked by his lawyer if he was ever a Catholic.
“If you want to accuse a priest of something,” he quoted his lawyer as saying, “I can have $50 grand in your account by the end of the year.”
Father Richard John Neuhaus once wrote that the very notion of sexual abuse by priests “is sleazy business.” He was right, and the ills begot by that sleazy business are not all, as yet, exposed.
“But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation,
Into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires
That plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the
Love of money is the root of all evils;”
(1 Timothy 6: 9-10).
Editor’s Note: Several of you have expressed a desire to join Fr. MacRae in a Spiritual Communion. He celebrates a private Mass in his prison cell on Sunday evenings between 11 pm and midnight. You’re invited to join in a Holy Hour during that time if you’re able.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
As the mother of a 19yr old son I am well aware of the daily temptations put under his young,impressionable nose. It is my Job as his mother to see that he stays on the straight and narrow and allow him the freedom to make the correct choices in life.
It amazes me that any mother would willingly help her son tarnish and destroy the life and reputation of an innocent priest for financial gain..unfortunately the ‘big bucks’ claims seems far too much of a temptation for some.
praying for you daily father macrae
love and blessings
Jan
I don’t even know what to say to this… what evil there is in the world. Did not the Catholic dioceses have any legal counseling as to what these huge payouts might bring about- like fraudulent claims! This can’t be the first time people have taken advantage like this…
The lack of investigation absolutely kills me. The “assumption of guilt” is so unjust and is what created the atmosphere of allowing people to perpetuate fraud…and they’re still doing it! And sadly, even in those cases where it is proven to be fraudulent, a priest’s reputation is damaged, trust is lost…it goes on.
The thing is, had they actually investigated the claims from the very beginning, and investigated them seriously, there wouldn’t be settlements paid out so quickly. This practice, as Mary noted above, doesn’t just hurt the innocent, but minimizes the very real damage done to real victims at the hands of those who really were guilty.
It is wrong to create conditions which are a temptation for others It is for this reason I believe huge cash payouts set a most unwise precedent in Law.
Victims of real abuse need long term support. All medical expenses and help with other aspects of life is a better approach. It should not be a surprise given human nature that it would not be long before shrewd opportunists would emerge tempted by the lure of big money.
This is in no way a denial that there are poor souls who did suffer evil abuse and their stories needed to come to light .It is a grevious wound on the mystical body of Christ.
Caught up in this pain are the innocent priests who have been targetted by opportunists out for easy money.