Peninsula Daily News and Associated Press
Three priests who served in North Olympic Peninsula churches in the 1980s were among those on a list just released by the Archdiocese of Seattle of 77 child sex abusers who served or lived in Western Washington over the past several decades.
Two of the Peninsula priests — James McGreal and Paul Conn — were said in 2004 to have been responsible for more than one-third of the 153 sexual abuse allegations reported to the Seattle Archdiocese between 1950 and 2002.
McGreal was at Queen of Angels Church in Port Angeles from 1986-87, while Conn served at the church from 1985-88.
McGreal and Patrick Desmond McMahon, who was at St. Mary Star of the Sea in Port Townsend from 1973-1985, were among priests who were permanently barred from ministry after allegations that they sexually abused children were found to be credible, the church announced in 2004.
In 1988, Conn pleaded guilty to molesting at least six altar boys at Queen of Angels and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Apologizes for actions
Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain apologized for the actions by the nearly all-male list of priests, brothers and deacons, and at least one sister, who abused minors.
He said in a letter that he disclosed the 77 names Friday “in the interest of further transparency and accountability” and to continue to encourage victims of sexual abuse by clergy to come forward.
“Our work in this area will not be complete until all those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society,” Sartain said.
Hundreds of boys
According to court records, McGreal told his therapist that he had molested hundreds of young boys in 10 parishes, including Port Angeles, and in two hospitals over a 40-year period.
McGreal, who died in 2011, was never charged.
After he left Queen of Angels Church in Port Angeles, he was at St. Theresa Church in Federal Way from 1987-88.
The church identified McGreal as a pedophile in 1988.
The New York Times reported then that the Rev. George Thomas, chancellor of the Seattle Archdiocese, said there had been allegations of pedophilia for 20 years against McGreal and that he had been in treatment for 10 years.
A lawsuit was filed in 1994 by an unidentified boy in Clallam County alleging he was sexually abused when McGreal was at Queen of Angels. The suit was later settled for an unspecified amount.
The Seattle Archdiocese paid $7.87 million in September 2003 to settle 15 sexual abuse cases involving McGreal.
Pleaded guilty
Conn left active ministry in 1991 and is listed by the church as being laicized, which means he is no longer a member of the clergy.
Greg Magnoni, communications director for the Seattle archdiocese, said in 2004 that 40 allegations had been received against McGreal and 14 against Conn after the archdiocese released statistics of 153 reports as its part of a national, church-sanctioned study conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
The study was called “The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States 1950-2002.”
In 2008, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that a woman filed suit against the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle claiming her father was sexually abused by McMahon and McGreal during the 1960s and ’70s in a North Seattle parish.
The newspaper said the woman said in the lawsuit she was deprived of a normal relationship with her father because of the abuse made possible by the church’s attempts to cover up the behavior of McMahon and McGreal.
McMahon’s final assignment was to All Saints in Puyallup, where he served from 1989-90.
He was placed on medical leave in 1990, according to The Associated Press, and on administrative leave in 2002.
In the list released Friday, the church lists him as laicized.
Admitted, established or credible
The list includes cases where allegations of child sex abuse have been admitted, established or determined to be credible, the church said.
The list took nearly two years to develop with the help of independent consultants and a review board of professionals who advise the archbishop on child sex abuse.
The 77 named in the list lived or served in Western Washington between 1923 and 2008.
Sartain said the archdiocese has made efforts to respond to victims since the mid-1980s and thanked abuse survivors who have come forward.
Seattle attorney Michael T. Pfau and his law partner, Jason P. Amala, have settled more than 150 claims against the Seattle Archdiocese and others that operated its schools and parishes in and around Seattle.
Many of the claims involved people on the list.
List will help survivors
Pfau said the list will help abuse survivors address their abuse.
“Many of our clients believe they were the only one, or they think they will not be believed if they come forward,” he said in a news release.
“This list will help people realize they are not alone, which is often the first step toward healing and closure.”
Pfau also called on the archdiocese, for “true transparency,” to release the files and secret archives kept on the people named, saying other archdioceses have done so.
“Releasing the files allows abuse survivors to begin to understand how it happened, which can be another important step toward finding closure,” he said.
“It also helps the general public to understand the magnitude of the problem, and to ensure this never happens again.”
