What happened to you in a Boston Archdiocese parish, school or program was not okay.

Five counties. 789 people. That is how many victims, by the Archdiocese's own files, had complained of sexual abuse by its clergy when the Massachusetts Attorney General finished a grand-jury investigation in July 2003. 250 priests and church workers accused. Sixty years of it, 1940 to 2000, the worst decade the 1970s. The report's word for what the top of the Archdiocese did with those complaints is "conceal". Two of the priests it names were convicted in Middlesex Superior Court, John Geoghan in 2002 and Paul Shanley in 2005. If you were a kid in a parish, a parochial school or a youth program anywhere from Boston to the New Hampshire line and down to Plymouth, and a priest or someone on the church's payroll crossed a line, this page is about you.

WatchingWatching: a bill to lift the age-53 rule and the $20,000 charitable cap (House Amendment 110 to S.3141) is in a House-Senate conference; it must reach the Governor by January 5, 2027.

Free
Confidential
No obligation
You never pay a dollar

6 questions. Your answers are private and go to one person.

Two priests of this archdiocese, both convicted in Middlesex Superior Court, have pages of their own. Paul Shanley's is linked below; John Geoghan survivors: his six parishes, 1962 to 1993.

This applies to you no matter what

You were never in a Geoghan parish or a Shanley parish. The Attorney General counted 250 accused priests and church workers, not two. Those two are on this page because a jury convicted them; the report is about the whole see.
It was the '70s. That was the report's worst decade, 282 victims. Your birth year matters more than the year it happened, and the deadline section further down says why, and what the bill in conference would change.
You already took something from the Archdiocese, in 2003 or in one of the pastoral settlements since. Tell the lawyer first thing. A release you signed may close some doors. It may not close all of them, and that's for a lawyer to read, not you.
It wasn't a priest. A brother, a teacher at the parochial school, a coach, the lay man who ran the youth group. The report's 250 includes church workers, and the law on claims against an institution doesn't ask for a collar.
You live in New Hampshire, in Rhode Island, in Florida now. The case sits in Massachusetts; you don't have to, and nobody's going to ask you to move back for it.

The Attorney General's report, the two convictions, the 2003 settlement and the bill: what the public record says, and when

None of what follows is ours. The findings were made by the Massachusetts Attorney General after a grand-jury investigation, the convictions were returned by Middlesex County juries, the settlement was signed by the Archdiocese, the bill sits with the Legislature, and reporters wrote it up. Every line links to where it came from. The report's findings are the findings of an investigation, not a court judgment against the Archdiocese, and we say so every time.

January 18, 2002

Three decades of Boston-area parishes, more than 130 people who by then had said Geoghan fondled or raped them (the AP's count), and the charge a jury got to hear was one afternoon at a swimming pool in Waltham in 1991. The boy was 10. The jury, sitting in Cambridge, found Geoghan guilty of indecent assault and battery. The same AP story said the Archdiocese had put him in a parish in 1984 after pulling him out of two others over molestation complaints, which is the AP's reporting on the civil suits, not a finding of the criminal case. Associated Press, January 18, 2002.

July 23, 2003

The Massachusetts Attorney General published "The Sexual Abuse of Children in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston", the product of a grand-jury investigation. From the Archdiocese's own files: 789 victims had complained of sexual abuse by clergy, 250 priests and church workers stood accused, 1940 through 2000, the peak 1970 to 1979 with 282 victims. The report found that top Archdiocese officials "decided that they should conceal, from the parishes, the laity, law enforcement and the public, their knowledge of individual complaints", and a section of it is headed "The Archdiocese Did Not Notify Law Enforcement Authorities of Clergy Sexual Abuse Allegations". It also says why nobody was charged: the investigation "did not produce evidence sufficient to charge the Archdiocese or its senior managers with crimes" under the state law of the time, which didn't make clergy mandated reporters until May 2002. Findings of an investigation, not a judgment. Massachusetts Attorney General, report (PDF).

September 9, 2003

The Archdiocese agreed to pay $85 million to settle the claims of 552 people, after months of negotiation and an overnight meeting with the new Archbishop; a Superior Court judge approved the memorandum of understanding. It resolved claims already filed, by people who had already come forward. It is a past event, not a price list. NBC News / Associated Press.

July 22, 2004

How it was paid, and what almost happened instead. Religion News Service reported that in December 2002 the Cardinal had the Vatican's permission to put the Archdiocese into bankruptcy, that other bishops stepped in after his resignation, and that it never filed. The $85 million came from selling 43 acres of the chancery grounds to Boston College for $99.4 million. "The $85 million that we owed was being paid for by the sale of this property," the Archdiocese's spokesman said. No Chapter 11, then or since. No bar date. Religion News Service.

February 7, 2005

Shanley next. St. Jean's Church in Newton, CCD classes, a boy who went to them between 1983 and 1989; that's the conduct a Middlesex Superior Court jury convicted him on, two counts of rape of a child and two of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. The indictments had come back in June 2002, so the case was nearly three years old by the verdict. He appealed. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed on January 15, 2010, Commonwealth v. Shanley, 455 Mass. 752, and his own page here goes through all of it. Commonwealth v. Shanley, 455 Mass. 752 (Justia).

February 22, 2019

Worth knowing where the Archdiocese stood. A bill that year would have eliminated the time limit on civil child sexual abuse claims, and the Archdiocese told the Legislature it was against it. Its statement said the 2014 law "has proven to be beneficial to the victims" and that lifting it "would jeopardize our ability to continue to work with victims and their families". The same statement put the number of victims the Archdiocese had met with at more than 1,000. Two-thirds of the Catholics in Massachusetts are in this one see. Catholic News Agency.

September 16, 2026

The one still moving. A House amendment to a Senate bill would end the civil time limit going forward, open a two-year window for claims the calendar has already closed, and repeal the $20,000 charitable cap for institutions that enabled abuse. Not one House member voted against it. Since then it's been with a House-Senate conference committee, which took it up on September 17 and hasn't finished. They have until January 5, 2027 to get it to the Governor, and if they don't, nothing on this page changes and the current rules stay. WCVB, via BishopAccountability.

We checked this on September 22, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from September 16, 2026. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in an Archdiocese of Boston sexual abuse lawsuit

The Archdiocese, not the man. A priest who is dead, defrocked or in prison has nothing a court can reach, and most of the 250 on the Attorney General's count are one of those three by now. The claim that matters is against the institution that ordained him, assigned him, took the complaint and moved him. The theory is the ordinary one, negligent supervision, and Massachusetts wrote it into the statute book in 2014 as a claim of its own: that the defendant "negligently supervised a person who sexually abused a minor" or that its conduct "caused or contributed" to the abuse. The Attorney General's report is the most detailed public account of what the Archdiocese knew and when, and a lawyer will use it. But hear this plainly, because it's the honest version: the report is an investigation's findings. No court has entered a judgment against the Archdiocese on them, and the Archdiocese has admitted no liability in any pending case.

Now the two things that are different in Massachusetts, and they're the reason this page is a watching page and not a case page. First, the state caps what a charity can be made to pay in a tort case at $20,000. That's chapter 231, section 85K, and the Archdiocese is a charity under it. Every dollar the Archdiocese has paid above that line, the $85 million in 2003 and the pastoral settlements since, it paid voluntarily. It can choose to again. A court can't make it. Second, the bill in conference would repeal that cap for institutions that enabled abuse and open a two-year window for claims the calendar has closed. If it reaches the Governor by January 5, 2027 and is signed, this page changes the same day. If it doesn't, the cap stays and so does the age-53 rule. Nobody can promise you which. What a lawyer can do now is take your dates and hold your place, so that if the door opens you're already standing at it.

Your deadline: the Massachusetts statute of limitations for sexual abuse in a Boston Archdiocese parish, school or program

Until you turn 53, or seven years from the day you understood what it did to you, whichever comes later. That's the rule for a claim against the person who did it, chapter 260, section 4C: 35 years from your 18th birthday, or 7 years from discovery. It's why the questions ask your birth year. Born in 1974 or later and you're under 53 on age alone. Born in 1973 and it comes down to months, which birthday, which month the papers go in. Born before that and it turns on discovery, and discovery is a conversation with a lawyer about when the harm and its cause connected for you, not a date you look up.

Against the Archdiocese it's the same two periods on paper, section 4C½, added in 2014. Here's the part nobody puts in an ad. The 2014 act says its 35-year clause for claims against an institution applies to acts that "first occurred after the effective date of this act", and its 7-year discovery clause applies "regardless of when" the claim arose. So for abuse in the '70s or the '80s, whether the age-53 route reaches the Archdiocese at all is contested, and the discovery route is the one being argued over, case by case. Unsettled is the honest word. It's also exactly what the bill in conference would settle, with a two-year window that ignores the calendar entirely.

Plainly, then. Born in 1974 or later: you have a route today against the person, and an argued one against the Archdiocese. Born earlier, abused in the '60s, '70s, '80s: you may, on discovery, and the Archdiocese has met with people from exactly those years. And if the bill passes, every one of those sentences gets rewritten. A lawyer reads your dates. Not a calendar, not this page.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never told a soul. Not a parent, not another priest, nobody.
You told the pastor, or your parents wrote to the chancery, and he was moved. The Attorney General's report found that's what the Archdiocese did with complaints; it's not a mark against yours.
You stayed in the Church. Plenty of the 789 did.
It wasn't rape and you're half sure it wouldn't count. Both convictions on this page include indecent assault and battery. What counts is for a lawyer to weigh, not you.
His name is not on any list. The Archdiocese's own count is 250 accused; its published list is shorter. A name that isn't on it is a name nobody's checked yet.
You live in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, anywhere else now. The case sits in Massachusetts and you don't need to.

The parishes, schools and programs

If it was in Suffolk County, or Middlesex, Essex, Norfolk or Plymouth, it was in the Archdiocese; that's the whole map, the New Hampshire line down to the town of Plymouth. You know which one it was, the parish, the school, the camp, and the questions just need it said out loud. Geoghan and Shanley each have a page of their own here, both of them convicted in Middlesex Superior Court. Geoghan's is /father-john-geoghan. Shanley's is /father-paul-shanley, and it's the one that covers Newton (St. Jean's), Stoneham (St. Patrick's) and the street ministry he ran in Boston through the 1970s. Anywhere else? First question, and say where.

Questions people are asking

Is it the priest I'd sue for sexual abuse, or the Archdiocese of Boston?

The Archdiocese, as the institution, on a negligent-supervision theory, and people have: the 552 claims it settled in September 2003 were exactly that. Whether you can today depends on your birth year, when it happened and what a lawyer makes of discovery, which is what the questions above sort out. Both of these are true, and you need both. The Attorney General's 2003 report found the Archdiocese concealed complaints. No court has ever turned that finding into a judgment, though, and the Archdiocese has admitted no liability in any pending case, and that's the part people forget.

Is there a deadline for a clergy abuse claim in Massachusetts?

Against the priest: your 53rd birthday, or seven years past the day you connected what happened to what it did to you, whichever is later. Born in 1974 or later and you're inside it on age alone. Against the Archdiocese: the same periods on paper, but the 2014 law limits its 35-year clause to acts after the law took effect and leaves the 7-year discovery clause open, so for older abuse it's contested. A bill in conference would end the limit, open a two-year window and repeal the charitable cap; it has until January 5, 2027 to reach the Governor. A lawyer confirms your dates. That's the call.

What is the $20,000 cap and does it apply to the Archdiocese?

That's $20,000, exclusive of interest and costs, the most a Massachusetts court can make a charitable organisation pay in a tort case, under chapter 231, section 85K, and the Archdiocese is a charity under it. It's the plain fact that makes the bill matter, because the bill would repeal the cap for institutions that enabled abuse. Everything the Archdiocese has paid above $20,000 to anyone, it paid by choice. Nobody should promise you a figure, and we don't.

What if I already settled with the Archdiocese?

Say so on the call, first thing. If you were one of the 552 in 2003, or took a pastoral settlement since, you almost certainly signed a release, and a release can close the claim it covers. Whether it covers everything, and whether the bill's two-year window would change that, is a lawyer's reading of your paper, not ours.

Were any Boston priests actually convicted?

Two, and only two on this page (the record above has the sources). Geoghan's came first, a jury in Cambridge, January 18, 2002. Nine to ten years. He never finished them, because in August 2003 he was killed in prison. Shanley's came three years on, Middlesex Superior Court, February 7, 2005; he appealed, and in 2010 the Supreme Judicial Court said the conviction stood. Everyone else in the Attorney General's 250 is accused, which is a different word, and this page doesn't print their names.

What does it cost?

Here, nothing. Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

You answer 6 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed MA attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.