Talk about Touching (and Money) in the Archdiocese of Boston

Another priest who signed a letter asking Cardinal Law to resign over his handling of priests who abused children was in the news today.

A Walpole priest was charged yesterday with sexually assaulting a man he’d followed into the woods at a Canton rest stop, police said.

The Rev. Emile R. “Mike” Boutin, 46, a youth pastor at Blessed Sacrament in Walpole, pleaded not guilty to indecent assault and battery at his arraignment in Stoughton District Court, said Norfolk District Attorney spokesman David Traub.

Naturally, Fr. Boutin was "fully in compliance with" Cardinal O'Malley's "sexual abuse protection program": sitting children as young as kindergarten down to talk about what "the right names are" of the parts of their body inside of their underpants, accompanied by stories about rape, incest and sexual violence.

Meanwhile, back at the clericalism dude ranch...


Here's the review on cruisinggays.com of the Canton Park and Ride

The men I've met have ranged from incredibly handsome, naked and persistent, to cute and shy. All perform. Occasionally there's hot group action with up to ten men at once, but usually threesomes...

The young man was 21. Though you would hope a 21 year old is worldly about what happens in the wooded areas near the expressway, I'm sure there are many young men who would learn the hard way. Quite frankly, I'm going to remind my own 20 year old because with all the stranger danger you teach, I can't really remember specifically mentioning rest stop activities.

Ironically, a few months back, Fr. Boutin wrote about the sexual abuse crisis and displayed my favorite top two disturbing warning signs - claiming the Church could use some sexual updating with psychosexual mumbojumbo and coming right out and saying priests shouldn't be celibate. If they're saying it, one should have a pretty good idea that he's tried and failed - and questions ought to be asked about "who" or "how many" are on the other side of those failures.

Should priests be celibate today? No....

This crisis is instead about an unwillingness on the part of the Church to deal honestly with the psycho-sexual health of those who are called to lead in the Church -- both the priests and the bishops, both gay and straight -- and to listen to professionals who are not in the Church, but who know much more about these issues than the bishops and rectors of seminaries do.

I'm sad to also report that local bloggers received an email circulated yesterday from an anonymous source.

Rev. Keith LeBlanc resigned as pastor of St. John Parish in Haverhill after he was caught stealing significant amounts of money from his parish.

To care for St. John's in Haverhill - a parish that has been victimized by a proven thief priest - the Archdiocese sends in Rev. Paul Coughlin.

See: http://www.eagletribune.com/latestnews/x1703941481/St-John-the-Baptist-Church-welcomes-interim-priest

In March 2006, the same Rev. Paul Coughlin resigned as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Westwood after . . . you guessed it, he was caught stealing significant amounts of money from his parish.

See: http://www.wickedlocal.com/westwood/local_news/x38853726

What organization in the world other than the Archdiocese of Boston would do something like this? Of the hundreds of priests in the Archdiocese, how could they possibly choose a proven thief priest to replace a proven thief priest? What are the reactions of the people at St. John's in Haverhill when they find out about this? How could any intelligent parishioner contribute one penny to the parish when financial oversight that was criminally violated by one proven thief priest is handed over to another proven thief priest?

Certainly, I would not want to see a priest caught with his hands in the cookie jar permanently removed from ministry. As I have mentioned before, Walter Cuenin's ministry didn't skip a beat when he was caught stealing.

But going forward, wouldn't you assign a priest who fell to the temptation of stealing to one of the numerous ministries that wouldn't put him back on the path of that same temptation?

Of all circumstances, after removing a priest for questions about the finances, you assign another priest with a past history of being removed for stealing as the interim replacement?

Isn't that like assigning a priest removed for kicking the neighborhood dogs to be the chaplain for the Animal Rescue League?


Aren't you setting him up for wrath of parishioners when they get another shocking reminder about how poor the judgment is in the leadership of the Archdiocese of Boston?

If they were going out of their way to sabotage a priest's vocation, they wouldn't be able to think of a better plan.

They are are more irresponsible and inept than any administration in the history of the Archdiocese of Boston.