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Priest Pleads Guilty To Raping Boys In Mass.
Franciscan's Sentence Suspended
POSTED: 12:52 pm EDT July 22,
2008
UPDATED: 5:25 pm EDT July 22,
2008
BOSTON -- A New York priest has pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and another count of rape and assault while on field trips with children in the Bay State in the late 1970s.
Priest Pleads Guilty To Abuse Charges The Rev. Frank Genevieve, 51, who now lives in a Franciscan retreat in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., was charged with taking children from his Troy, N.Y., parish on field trips to Massachusetts during a period of several years. Once there, according to the victims, he would abuse them."It ruined my life. I haven't been in a church since it happened, and I don't think I'll ever go to a church again," said victim Mark Lyman, of Troy, N.Y.The boys were between 13 and 16 years old at the time. One boy was raped three times and another boy once at an unnamed rectory in the North End or in Genevieve's car in downtown Boston, said a spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney."He took videotape, sexually explicit photographs ... there were a number or things that he, as a sexual predator, used in a lot of ways to guarantee our silence," Lyman said.Genevieve pleaded guilty in Suffolk Superior Court and received an eight-to-10 year sentence at Cedar Junction -- all suspended. He was also sentenced to five years probation.Genevieve taught at the former Christopher Columbus High School in Boston's North End and was an assistant priest at St. Margaret's Parish in Buzzard's Bay in the late 1990s.A spokesman for the Albany Diocese said Genevieve was a member of the Franciscan order wile working at St. Anthony of Padua's church in Troy and so was not overseen by diocese officials.The Franciscan Province of the Immaculate Conception said Genevieve was removed from active ministry in June 2002.One of the alleged victims in the case, now 42, has a $5 million lawsuit pending against Genevieve in Suffolk Superior Court."We know that there are many other (victims) in New York, and there may be several others here in Massachusetts, as well. It's very difficult having been abused inside a rectory, in a parish, in a church even. It is very difficult to be inside a church," Lyman said.With the guilty pleas, Genevieve must register as a sex offender and wear a global positioning device.
Priest Pleads Guilty To Abuse Charges The Rev. Frank Genevieve, 51, who now lives in a Franciscan retreat in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., was charged with taking children from his Troy, N.Y., parish on field trips to Massachusetts during a period of several years. Once there, according to the victims, he would abuse them."It ruined my life. I haven't been in a church since it happened, and I don't think I'll ever go to a church again," said victim Mark Lyman, of Troy, N.Y.The boys were between 13 and 16 years old at the time. One boy was raped three times and another boy once at an unnamed rectory in the North End or in Genevieve's car in downtown Boston, said a spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney."He took videotape, sexually explicit photographs ... there were a number or things that he, as a sexual predator, used in a lot of ways to guarantee our silence," Lyman said.Genevieve pleaded guilty in Suffolk Superior Court and received an eight-to-10 year sentence at Cedar Junction -- all suspended. He was also sentenced to five years probation.Genevieve taught at the former Christopher Columbus High School in Boston's North End and was an assistant priest at St. Margaret's Parish in Buzzard's Bay in the late 1990s.A spokesman for the Albany Diocese said Genevieve was a member of the Franciscan order wile working at St. Anthony of Padua's church in Troy and so was not overseen by diocese officials.The Franciscan Province of the Immaculate Conception said Genevieve was removed from active ministry in June 2002.One of the alleged victims in the case, now 42, has a $5 million lawsuit pending against Genevieve in Suffolk Superior Court."We know that there are many other (victims) in New York, and there may be several others here in Massachusetts, as well. It's very difficult having been abused inside a rectory, in a parish, in a church even. It is very difficult to be inside a church," Lyman said.With the guilty pleas, Genevieve must register as a sex offender and wear a global positioning device. Copyright 2008 by TheBostonChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
