Betrayal by The Investigative Staff of the Boston Globe Page A

evade its responsibility for Geoghan was made by Law's attorney, Wilson D. Rogers Jr., in a July 2001 edition of
The Pilot.
“Each assignment of John Geoghan, subsequent to the first complaint of sexual misconduct, was incident to an independent medical evaluation advising that such assignment was appropriate and safe,” Rogers wrote.
    The cardinal echoed that statement in January 2002, when he attempted to contain the Geoghan scandal by apologizing for having reassigned the pedophile priest to parish work even though he knew Geoghan was a repeat child molester. In an extraordinary mea culpa, Law said it was “tragically incorrect” for him to have assigned Geoghan to St. Julia's parish in 1984. Yet he also seemed to be excusing his actions when he echoed Rogers's earlier statement in
The Pilot
and claimed his decision was based on “psychiatric assessments and medical opinions that such assignments were safe and reasonable.”
    At first glance the statements made by Law and his attorney appear to be supported by Church documents. For example, the documents show that in 1980, after Geoghan had casually admitted to a Boston pastor that he had sexually molested Maryetta Dussourd's seven sons and nephews, Church officials sent him to Dr. Robert W. Mullins for psychotherapy and to Dr. John H. Brennan for psychoanalysis. The records also show that in 1981, after Geoghan had admitted to molesting the Dussourd boys and had been removed from St. Andrew's parish, in Boston's Jamaica Plain section, Brennan wrote to Bishop Daily to say he had met with Geoghan and that “it was mutually agreed that he was now able to resume priestly duties.” In 1984, after Geoghan had been transferred to St. Brendan's parish in Dorchester, where he had molested still more children, Church officials once again sent him to Mullins and Brennan. Mullins, in a written evaluation, described Geoghan as “a longtime friend and patient” who had been removed from his parish due to “a rather unfortunate traumatic experience.” And he recommended that Geoghan be allowed to return to “full pastoral activities without any need for specific restriction.” Brennan, for his part, met with Geoghan again and, despite the priest's recidivism, gave him yet another favorable review. “No psychiatric contraindications or restrictions to his work,” he wrote.
    In fact neither Mullins nor Brennan had any expertise in evaluating sexually deviant behavior. Mullins, a neighbor and friend of the Geoghan family in Boston's West Roxbury section, was a family physician with no credentials in psychotherapy, psychology, or psychiatry. Indeed, a 1989 evaluation of Geoghan by the Institute of Living referred to Mullins's treatment of Geoghan as “friendly, paternal chats and not really psychotherapy.” Brennan, for his part, was a certified psychiatrist but with no specialty in treating sexual disorders. And in 1977 he had been charged in a civil lawsuit with sexually molesting one of his patients. In 1980, at about the time he began treating Geoghan, the suit was settled and the woman was paid $ 100,000.
    Moreover, neither Mullins nor Brennan could be said to have made an “independent” evaluation of Geoghan—the term used by Law's attorney. While Mullins's impartiality was compromised by his friendship with the Geoghan family, Brennan's was tainted by his relationship with the Church. At the time, Brennan was director of psychiatric education at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton, a Catholic institution, and was accepting patient referrals to his private practice from Rev. Fulgence Buonanno, a well-known Franciscan priest and a psychologist who worked at St. Anthony's Shrine, in downtown Boston,
    Still, Church records show that Brennan was capable of delivering a harsh critique, though never in writing. In April of 1989, five years after Geoghan had been reassigned to St. Julia's, and after more accusations that he had molested boys, Brennan delivered a dire