BOSTON -- New documents released Tuesday show that Boston Archdiocese officials, including Cardinal Bernard Law, knew about a priest raping a 27-year-old man in 1992 but allowed him to continue his ministry.
NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that documents show that the Rev. John Picardi, now assigned to a parish in Flagstaff, Ariz., admitted raping a 27-year-old youth minister in Florida in 1992.
"I know from speaking with this man that he fought Father Picardi off, that nothing like this had ever happened in his life, that he was not gay in orientation and that he reported it in 1992 to the archdiocese and that [Picardi] admitted it," the alleged victim's attorney, Eric Macleish, said.
A 1995 internal memo to Law says: "Our files indicate that Father Picardi raped the 27-year-old man and admitted that fact."
Picardi was allowed to continue his ministry in Paterson, N.J.
"According to Father [Richard] Lennon, canon law does not allow us to use this incident to keep Father Picardi out of ministry," the memo states.
The memo followed a molestation accusation made against Picardi in New Jersey by a 12-year-old girl. In a letter to the priest, the New Jersey Department of Human Services deemed the inappropriate touching as "non-accidental in nature" and informed Picardi of a "decision to assign you to duties which would keep you from direct access to children."
By 1996, Law was pushing to defrock Picardi, and the clergy review board agreed to recommend he not be exposed to children. But the priest appealed his case to Rome. The Vatican wrote to Law, urging him to reverse himself on the problem priest.
"Were your eminence to resolve the matter, we would be extremely happy to learn of this outcome," the Vatican wrote.
A 1997 clergy review board document stated that Law asked that the case be re-examined. His opinion was reinforced by Bishop William Murphy and Lennon, then vice chancellor for canonical affairs.
After Law resigned as archbishop of the Boston Archdiocese, Lennon was appointed as interim bishop. Church spokesman the Rev. Christopher Coyne said that at the time, Lennon was acting solely as a canon lawyer following canon law.
"He was brought in on a number of these cases to assess what would be done under canon law," Coyne said.
Law also wrote a letter to the bishop of Phoenix as part of Picardi's transfer there. Law never mentioned his admitted rape, instead referring to it as "an incident of homosexual behavior with an adult."
The alleged victim's lawyers said that they want to depose Lennon to determine what he knew about Picardi and when he knew it.
Copyright 2007 by TheBostonChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
