THE HOUSE OF AFFIRMATION

The House of Affirmation, located at 120 Hill St., Whitinsville, MA 01588, was established in 1973 as a rehabilitation center for pedophiles and other troubled clergy and ended in financial scandal in the late 1980s. Established under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, the House of Affirmation had branches around the country and in at least one foreign country. Some of the centers were located in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, California, Missouri, and England. Affirmation Books was the publishing arm of the House of Affirmation. 

An article appeared in the June 29, 1973, edition of The Catholic Free Press, the diocesan newspaper, that included a photograph of Rev. Thomas A. Kane dressed in what appeared to be academic robes. Rev. Kane told the newspaper that he had received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Birmingham, England, and would return to become director of the newly established House of Affirmation in the Whitinsville section of Northbridge, MA.

Who is Rev. Thomas A. Kane? Rev. Kane was the House of Affirmation. He co-founder the House of Affirmation and purportedly used it to line his pockets, formulate a child sex ring, and satisfy his molestation desires.

Kane accumulated ample real estate holdings before his departure from the House of Affirmation. The holdings included one house each in Upton and Whitinsville, an inn and a farm in Maine, three condominiums in Boston, two condominiums in Florida, an interest in trusts that owned other Boston properties, and an interest in a pet store on Boston's upscale Newbury Street.

Rev. Kane use Affirmation Books, the publishing arm of the House of Affirmation, to advertise and promote his beliefs regarding relationships with children. For example, the book, "Intimacy," published in 1978 by Whitinsville-based

Affirmation Books, includes essays by therapists offering seemingly contradictory views on celibacy and sexuality. "Celibate persons should celebrate, relish, and enjoy life," one passage reads. "They should see the divine in the sexual act, the act of human creation, and acknowledge their sexual selves, their maleness or femaleness," reads another. Other books include:

Kane, T. (1980). Happy are you who affirm. Whitinsville,
Massachusetts: Affirmation Books.

Kane, T (1976). The healing touch of affirmation. Whitinsville,
Massachusetts: Affirmation Books.

As stated in one news article, "a psychological text published by a now-defunct treatment center for troubled priests could have served as a primer for molestation of adolescents and adults by clergymen, according to psychotherapists who have studied sex abuse in the church." 

Rev. Kane left the House of Affirmation in 1986 amid allegations of financial improprieties brought by eleven center managers and executives. In June 1988, 11 months after being removed from his responsibilities at the House of Affirmation, Rev. Kane was named executive director of the National Guild of Catholic Psychiatrists, following a recommendation from Bishop Timothy J. Harrington.

After settling a lawsuit where he was shown to have been with several boys, Rev. Kane filed for bankruptcy in the early 1990s. Before filing for bankruptcy, Rev. Kane transferred a piece of property he owned in Florida to Monsignor Brendan P. Riordan, who also was a director of the House of Affirmation and was a friend of Rev. Kane. Monsignor Riordan is also accused of child molestation by a survivor.

On Wednesday, June 3, 1992, the Office for Youth Ministry for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester was relocated to the former House of Affirmation at 120 Hill St., Whitinsville, MA. The Office for Youth Ministry for the Roman Catholic Diocese is sometimes called the Oakhurst Retreat and Conference Center. The location is: Youth Ministry Office, 120 Hill St. Whitinsville, MA 01588 508-234-0346.

The House of Affirmation has been the center of several lawsuits against priest molesters who lived there. You probably can obtain more information about the House of Affirmation from the public record court documents or by writing the attorneys involved in the law suits

BOOK INVESTIGATES CASES \ SEXUAL ABUSE BY PRIESTS CALLED 

July 22, 2007

Giuliani has connection with accused priest

Placa was legal adviser for Whitinsville center

By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani has close ties to a Catholic priest accused of sexually molesting boys and who also was the lawyer for a now-closed Whitinsville counseling house for troubled priests that has been described as the center of a pedophile sex ring.

Monsignor Alan J. Placa, who works for Mr. Giuliani’s consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, was legal adviser in the 1980s to the House of Affirmation, where priests accused of sexual abuse were sent for psychotherapy and other counseling services. The center closed in 1987 amid a financial scandal.

Monsignor Placa, who while an active priest arranged the annulment of Mr. Giuliani’s first marriage, baptized his two children and officiated at the funeral of his mother, is a childhood friend of Mr. Giuliani and they both attended Manhattanville College.

He was stripped of his duties as a priest, but not defrocked, after Newsday, a Long Island newspaper, published a story in 2002 about young men who alleged that Monsignor Placa abused them in the 1970s. He has been on administrative leave since and has worked for Mr. Giuliani for the past five years.

Catholic activists who are fighting the church over the clergy sex abuse issue say Mr. Giuliani’s association with the monsignor raises serious questions about the former New York mayor’s candidacy.

“The White House should not be inhabited by a man whose closest friend is accused of being an abuser of young men,” said Ann Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org in Massachusetts. “Giuliani has a responsibility to account for his friendship with Alan Placa and I think he should speak with Alan Placa’s accusers and see how credible they are.

“For Giuliani to turn a blind eye to these credible allegations raises questions about his judgment,” she said.

Jeffrey Barker, a spokesman for Mr. Giuliani’s campaign, declined comment, directing questions to Giuliani Partners, Mr. Giuliani’s security consulting firm. Mr. Giuliani leads all GOP presidential contenders in Massachusetts polls.

“Rudy Giuliani believes Alan Placa has been unjustly accused,” Sunny Mindel, a spokeswoman for the company, said in a prepared statement.

Monsignor Placa did not respond to a request for an interview.

The monsignor was closely associated with several Central Massachusetts priests who were at the center of a clergy sex abuse scandal in the 1990s.

At least three lawsuits were filed by area residents who said they were assaulted as boys by priests at the Whitinsville facility. The accused priests included colleagues of Monsignor Placa, one of whom was the Rev. Thomas A. Kane, former pastor of St. Mary Church in Uxbridge.

Monsignor Placa still lives in the rectory of the Long Island church where Monsignor Brendan Riordan, a former director of the House of Affirmation who was named in a sex abuse lawsuit settled by the Worcester Diocese in the mid-1990s, is pastor. He has also owned property in New York with Monsignor Riordan and co-owned property in Florida with him and Rev. Kane.

A 1993 suit filed against Rev. Kane, the diocese and the House of Affirmation by Mark Barry of Uxbridge alleges that Rev. Kane repeatedly sexually assaulted him. The New York Times has reported that Monsignor Placa was the first lawyer Rev. Kane turned to after learning of Mr. Barry’s accusations.

That suit was settled for less than $50,000 and included a non-disclosure provision. Mr. Barry has not spoken publicly about the case since.

David Lewcon, 53, of Northbridge, who worked at the center in the 1970s as a painter and wallpaperer helping his father, a contractor, renovate the 1898 building, has accused Rev. Kane of sexually assaulting him. Mr. Lewcon settled what he described as a “six-figure” lawsuit with the Worcester Diocese in which he alleged he was sexually assaulted as a minor by the Rev. Thomas H. Teczar at St. Mary in Uxbridge.

Mr. Lewcon described the House of Affirmation as a breeding ground for sexual predators.

“It was presented as a retreat for vocational redirection,” said Mr. Lewcon, a publisher of speciality magazines. “What we have found out since, and what it has been called in the Blackstone Valley by people who really know what went on there, is that it was a pedophile boot camp.”

Monsignor Placa’s involvement with the Whitinsville facility drew additional attention after the release of a 2003 report from a Suffolk County, N.Y., grand jury that accuses him of molesting young boys and, in his role as a lawyer, helping to cover up sex abuse by other priests.

He was referred to as “Priest F” in the grand jury’s lengthy investigative report, which quotes a letter he wrote to colleagues in which he touted his track record of settling multimillion dollar clergy sex abuse claims for “sums ranging from $20,000 to $100,000.” The 180-page report was written after more than 30 priests and more than 40 victims of abuse testified.

The report notes that no indictments were issued because the alleged crimes had occurred more than five years previously and could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.

Richard Tollner, one of Monsignor Placa’s chief accusers in the Rockville Centre, Long Island, clergy sex abuse scandal, confirmed to the Salon online magazine that he was one of the victims who gave grand jury testimony and that Monsignor Placa was Priest F.

Monsignor Placa has denied Mr. Tollner’s allegations.

Mr. Tollner and other alleged victims in New York have accused Monsignor Placa of presenting himself as a priest in interviews with them when he was really acting as the lawyer for the Rockville Centre Diocese. Monsignor Placa has denied these accusations.

“With news reports on Mr. Giuliani’s relationship to Monsignor Placa, some clergy abuse victims say they think Mr. Giuliani may be forced to answer harder questions about the link to his boyhood friend and employee.

George “Skip” Shea of Uxbridge, 47, an actor and artist who also agreed to an out-of-court settlement in a sex abuse case against Rev. Teczar, worked briefly at the House of Affirmation in the 1970s as a groundskeeper.

“It was a serious, full-blown sex mentality there,” George Shea said.

“Eventually this will stick,” he said of Monsignor Placa’s links to the GOP presidential contender.

Contact Shaun Sutner by e-mail at ssutner@telegram.com

More investigation is needed into the running of the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville, which closed in the early 1990s after allegations were made of gross fiscal mismanagement by one of its founders, the Rev. Thomas A. Kane.

Monsignor Edmond Tinsley, a priest of the Diocese of Worcester and member of the House Board of Directors, has testified that the records from the House of Affirmation were destroyed. George E. Rueger, auxiliary bishop of Worcester, also a board member has remained silent and failed to assist clergy abuse victims when they came forward with his knowledge.

The House of Affirmation was founded by Father Thomas A. Kane, Sister Anna Polcino and lay Catholic psychiatrist Conrad Baars. It was formally opened with a Mass of dedication at 11:30 a.m. in St. Patrick's Church, Whitinsville, followed by a benefit buffet at 2 p.m. at Pleasant Valley Country Club, Sutton on June 1, 1974 according to published report in The Catholic Free Press. The newspaper never said who benefited from the buffet.

Cardinal John Wright, according to the Free Press article, helped get Vatican permission for opening of the house. Among hierarchy at the dedication were Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan of Worcester, Cardinal Humberto Medeiros of Boston and Cardinal Alfrink of the Netherlands.

The "House" opened with a great flourish of publicity. Yet, not one news article mentioned that one of its reasons for existing was treatment for sexually dysfunctional priests. You would think it was just tired and overworked priests and religious who went there. The term "stress" shows up a lot in newspaper clippings of the era. Although not part of the church, it had close ties to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester.

The House of Affirmation, a non-profit corporation, was said to be independent of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester. Yet in review of the board members shows that Bishop Timothy J. Harrington of the Worcester Diocese was president and treasurer of the five-member board of directors. Two other Worcester directors were Father Kane and Sister Polcino and two New York priests, the Rev. Alcuin Coyle and the Rev. Brendan P. Riordan completed board membership.

In dealing with the financial scandal at the House of Affirmation, those who attempted to expose the truth to Attorney General James P. Shannon and later to Cardinal Bernard Law paid a heavy price for their truthfulness. Most were fired, and co-founder Dr. Conrad Baars, who was legitimate and tried to expose existence of "double books," was not only fired but became the subject of rumors spread by both Kane and Polcino of being incompetent to cover their now exposed embezzlement activities, according to an 1987 statement given by his widow, Virginia Baars. Why did the attorney general and Cardinal Law, who was later driven to resignation when it became known that he actively covered up for abusive priests in the Boston archdiocese, not take action on this information of alleged criminal misconduct?

When it was determined that financial mismanagement occurred on the part of Father Kane, he avoided litigation by agreeing to write the House of Affirmation a big check on Oct. 16, 1987 and was barred from participating on the board. Bishop Timothy J. Harrington of the Worcester Diocese then sent Fr Kane on sabbatical "to get rest." Sister Polcino retained an emeritus title with the House and retired to Seaside, N.J.

At a closed-door meeting held at the bishop’s house, in 1987 the directors elected George E. Rueger, auxiliary bishop of Worcester, and the Rev. Edmond Tinsley to the board to replace Father Kane and Sister Polcino.

Public documentation now shows that the House of Affirmation closed in the 1990’s among financial hardships and was never able to recover from the public scandal of financial mismanagement to the original pricey $300.00 a day fees once charged for services provided to those who became subject of treatment for sexual addition to young children and adolescents.

Testimony has been given by Rev. Tinsley that he destroyed all the records from the house of affirmation. One must question why these important records were destroyed. Could it have been to protect discovery of documentation that would have supported the accusations made by victims of sexual abuse by priests who were sent to the House for treatment of deviant behavior against children? The diocese recently documented that it knew priests of the Worcester diocese had been molesting children going back to the 1950s.

Catholic priests being treated at the House for this deviant behavior against children were given weekend permission to attend local parishes within the communities surrounding Whitinsville. This practice resulted in numerous accusations of clergy sexual abuse. Father Robert Burns, recently the subject of revisited clergy sexual abuse suits by Boston archdiocese legal representative Wilson Rogers Jr., was named in a suit with the House of Affirmation. That suit was filed and immediately impounded so no one could find out what the accusations were. Still, Mr. Rogers was able to go back in 2002 and get parts of the suit unimpounded for his own reasons.

Activity within the House of Affirmation has long been a contention of clergy sexual abuse with in the Worcester diocese. Many board members have faced sexual abuse accusations. Father Kane has been the subject of at least two civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct, to which the Worcester Dioceses has paid a monetary settlement in return for confidentiality agreements. Rev. Alcuin Coyle of New York was removed from his pastoral duties for allegations of sexual abuse. The Rev. Brendan P. Riordan, was the subject of a confidential settlement in a civil lawsuit by Mark Barry, which absolved him and other priests of legal liability involving misconduct at the House. Bishop Rueger was the defendant in a sexual abuse lawsuit which was later dismissed by the complainant. The accusations made in the suit, however, are still under current investigation by state police detectives assigned to the district attorney office, according to DA John Conte.

Father Kane remained a priest in good standing of the Worcester diocese even after he passed over a check to make good on the fiscal irregularities discovered during an investigation. He later was hired to be executive director of the Guild of Catholic Psychiatrists on a recommendation by Bishop Harrington who continued to say the fiscal scandal was behind them and he was still a priest in good standing. Father Kane was later removed from priestly duties in 1993 when allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced and could no longer be publicly denied.

July 24, 2002

Suit claims priests ran sex ring

By Kathleen A. Shaw, Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER-- A child sexual abuse ring involving the Rev. John Geoghan of the Boston archdiocese, the Rev. David L. Blizard and the late Rev. Victor Frobas of the Worcester diocese and others, operated from the former House of Affirmation in Whitinsville, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Worcester Superior Court.

The suit also names the Worcester diocese, the Boston archdiocese and its Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Daily, who was also chancellor in Boston at the time of the alleged incidents.

The allegation was made by Robert Malo, formerly of Northboro, who received settlements in the mid-1990s from the Worcester and Wheeling/ harleston, W. Va., dioceses regarding alleged abuse by Rev. Frobas, who has since died, and the Rev. Thomas A. Kane.

These incidents in the latest suit are said to have occurred from 1978 to 1980. Rev. Blizard, a native of Whitinsville, was assigned to Our Lady Immaculate parish in Athol at the time. Rev. Frobus was at St. Rose of Lima in Northboro. Rev. Geoghan was in the Boston archdiocese and Rev. Kane was executive director of the House of Affirmation.

According to the suit, “....the House of Affirmation Inc. contained a 'child sex ring' whereby young children were subjected to repeated sexual abuse.”

The House of Affirmation was founded by Rev. Kane and the late Sister Anna Polcino, a religious sister who was also a psychiatrist. The House was founded to provide treatment for priests and religious for a variety of psychological problems, including sexual issues.

Rev. Kane, the subject of a past suit alleging sexual abuse of a 9-year-old boy, was last known to be in Mexico. He operated as a therapist at the House based on a bogus doctoral degree. He also served as executive director.

The House, which operated independently but had the support of bishops and cardinals locally and throughout the country, closed in 1987 amid a financial scandal.
A confidential settlement of a suit by Mark Barry of Uxbridge against Rev. Kane and the Worcester diocese included an agreement within the agreement to absolve from blame other priests, including Monsignor Brendan Riordan of the Rockville Centre, N.Y., diocese, and the Rev. Robert A. Shauris, then a priest of the Worcester diocese. Rev. Shauris has been on leave from the diocese for several years.

Daniel J. Shea, a lawyer from Worcester and Houston, has maintained that the agreement also pointed to a child sexual abuse ring. He has subpoenaed Bishop Daniel P. Reilly to give a deposition under oath regarding a lawsuit filed by two women against the Rev. Robert E. Kelley, a convicted child rapist, who is scheduled to be arraigned today in Worcester Superior Court on another child rape charge.

Mr. Shea said the lawyers for the Worcester diocese are attempting to steer any questioning of the bishop away from the House of Affirmation. The late James G. Reardon, who represented the Worcester diocese before his death, called a number of priests to his office in the 1990s and specifically questioned them about the existence of a so-called “ring.”

Mr. Malo is represented by Tom G. Vukmirovits of 306 Main St., Worcester. Mr. Vukmirovits said he has known Mr. Malo for several years and has handled past issues for him.

Rev. Geoghan was convicted on a child molestation charge in January in Boston and was sentenced to a prison term. The subsequent revelations made in that case opened up the sexual abuse scandal within the Roman Catholic Church.

According to the suit, Mr. Malo was sexually abused by Rev. Frobas, who was then assigned to St. Rose of Lima parish in Northboro. He later brought Mr. Malo, who was a child, on two occasions to a church either in Boston or the Boston area.

Mr. Malo was “dropped off at this church for a couple of hours by Victor A. Frobas under the guise of 'playing a game,”' the suit alleges. “This game consisted of going into a bedroom, attached to this church, and then removing items of clothing one piece at a time under the direction and instructions of defendant Geoghan.” Mr. Malo was abused through anal and oral sex on these occasions, the suit said.

Rev. Frobas was a priest of the Wheeling/ harleston diocese from 1966 to 1978 and was “relocated” to the House of Affirmation to receive treatment of his sexual attraction to and molestation of young boys, the suit said. He was at the House for a period of time from 1978 to 1979, according to the suit.

The late Bishop Timothy J. Harrington “joined” him to St. Rose of Lima parish in 1978 and 1979, the suit said. Bishop Harrington did not tell parishioners in Northboro about Rev. Frobas' “problem” with “sexual abuse or pedophilic tendencies,” the suit said.

The bishop never took “preventative actions” to limit his access to underage boys, the suit said. During late 1978 or 1979, Mr. Malo was taken to the House of Affirmation by Rev. Frobas, where he was “included in said 'child sex ring' and sexually abused” by Rev. Blizard, according to the suit.

Rev. Blizard's whereabouts are not known. A number of men have come forward in recent months to say they were abused by Rev. Blizard, but this is the first suit against him. He left the priesthood in the late 1980s and was last known to be living in Waterbury, Conn.

Mr. Vukmirovits said Mr. Malo recently met with state police attached to the office of District Attorney John J. Conte to discuss his allegations against Rev. Blizard.
The suit also alleges that in the 1993 suit Mr. Malo brought against the diocese, the House of Affirmation, Rev. Frobas and Rev. Kane, the suit was settled but Mr. Malo was given false information, and thus can invalidate the confidentiality agreement that was part of the settlement.

Before bringing suit in 1993, Mr. Malo inquired about the identity “of the man that sexually abused him in Boston” and provided descriptions. He was told by Bishop Harrington “that no such priest existed or, alternatively, that any such priest was dead.” Mr. Malo lacked sufficient information at the time to bring action against Rev. Geoghan or the Boston archdiocese, the suit said.

Mr. Malo recognized Rev. Geoghan when he saw recent newspaper articles or photographs of videotape clips of Rev. Geoghan and Rev. Blizard in late 2001 and early 2002, the suit said. He then made the connection to the abuse, the suit said.

He also realized by reading recent newspaper articles that he was given false information about the assets and real estate conveyances and holdings of Rev. Kane. He said false information regarding this property and assets was also given by the diocese, the suit said.

Rev. Kane transferred property in Florida to Msgr. Riordan just before declaring bankruptcy. The second name on the transaction was Monsignor Alan J. Placa of the Rockville Centre diocese. Monsignor Placa, who is also a lawyer and a longtime friend of former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, was recently removed from his position in New York after a sexual misconduct allegation was made against him by a man living in that state.

Mr. Malo was convicted of sexually abusing one of his own children and served a jail sentence that began in January 2001 and ended several months ago. He has also been found guilty of a charge of assault and battery on his wife, Kim. The two are now separated.
Kim Malo, who lives in Northbridge, has been critical of the Worcester diocese, saying that its protection of pedophile priests led to the abuse of her children.

Suit against house of affirmation revisited in 2002, ten years after impoundment order.

Worcester Voice

The Worcester Voice has uncovered new information regarding a suit against the House of Affirmation, located in the Worcester Diocese town of Whitinsville.

On November 8, 1991, a civil suit was filed on behalf of "John Doe" in Suffolk Superior Court (SUCV1991-07517) naming the House of Affirmation, Rev. John Thomas, Rev. James Kelley and Rev. Robert Burns. The suit additionally named the Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston and Bishop James M. Malone of Youngstown, Ohio.

On February 7, 1992, Attorney Wilson Rogers, filed a motion for an impound order which reads, "Motion of defts (defendants) Rev John Thomas, Rev James Kelly, Rev Robert Burns and The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston for an Order Impounding All Papers in this action After hearing, ExParte, the court finds that the nature of the parties, the particulars of the controversy, the privacy interests involved, the interest of the community and the reasons as annunciated in the affidavit submitted represent good cause shown and accordingly the court ORDERS the IMPOUNDMENT of Civil Action Cover Sheet, Complaint, Summons, this motion for Impoundment, Affidavit in Support of Motion and the Docket Sheet The matter is set cown for a hearing on Tuesday February 11, 1992, at 2:00 PM, counsel for the defts will forthwith notify counsel for plff of this Order, (O'Brien,J)"

Nine additional docket entries include motions to continue the impound order with the last filed on September 25, 2002 to include a permanent order impounding all the papers in this action. The final docket entry date September 1, 1992 states, "A Stipulation of Dismissal (filed 08/27/92) as to plff (plaintiff) and defts, with prejudice and without costs, JUDGEMENT entered on pursuant to Mass. R. Civ.P. 58(a) as amended and notice sent to parties pursuant to Mass. R. Civ.P. 77(d)."

On January 15, 2002 Attorney Wilson Rogers Jr. - 10 years after this case was secretly closed - represented the Boston Archdioceses within weeks of the crisis in the Catholic Church breaking in Boston - filed a motion to gain access to suit transcripts. This highly unusual action can only cast a shadow of suspicion as to the contents of this case which could be necessary 10 years after judgment. The House of Affirmation closed in 1987 amid serious financial scandal. The former executive director, Father Thomas Kane, a priest of the Worcester Diocese, was located in 2002 operating what was called a teacher training institute in Mexico. It was also discovered that although he represented himself as a psychologist and therapist, he had no doctoral degree from the University of Birmingham, England, as he had said.

We also know that the Worcester Diocese was a key party to the secret suit. Monsignor Edmund Tinsley, who is Fiscal Affairs Director for the diocese, stated under oath that he destroyed all documentation and records available for the House of Affirmation. Michael P. Ascher, a Springfield, Mass., lawyer representing a victim of Father Robert E. Kelley said recently that these records were destroyed when the Worcester Diocese’s own report of clergy sexual abuse going back to 1950 showed that the diocese had known for many years that some priests in this diocese has been sexual abusers but it destroyed the records of one of the major treatment facilities where these priests might have been send.

So the fact that additional information has been impounded by the courts and then suddenly retrieved by the Catholic Church should be of no surprise to us. It does, however, sadly illustrates again that this game of deception projected by the Worcester Diocese and its legal representation has been well organized, and financially backed to save the reputation of the church and not the souls of its faithful.

How many other cases are impounded in the court system protecting the Catholic Church, and their employee’s in relation to sexual abuse accusations may never be known.

May 22, 2002

Northbridge man wants monsignor prosecuted

By Kathleen A. Shaw, Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER -- Mark D. Barry, the subject of a confidential settlement to a civil suit involving alleged sexual abuse by the Rev. Thomas A. Kane, maintains he has been trying to persuade Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte to prosecute a Long Island, N.Y., priest for sexual abuse.

Mr. Barry, of Northbridge, said he took ``strong exception'' to a statement made last week by Mr. Conte that he had no ``viable'' case against the New York priest, Monsignor Brendan P. Riordan ``I have made four attempts to reach him in the last month or two and have the telephone records to prove it,'' Mr. Barry said. ``To put it simply, I want Monsignor Riordan prosecuted.''

Mr. Conte said yesterday that investigators for his office will take a statement from Mr. Barry to determine if there is anything new that can be added to information taken from him in 1999. The district attorney said his records show that Mr. Barry would have been an adult when the sexual abuse by Monsignor Riordan allegedly occurred.

He added that the initial report shows that the alleged incident did not happen in Massachusetts and is out of his jurisdiction.

Mr. Conte declined additional comment on the situation.

Mr. Barry agreed to a settlement in a civil suit in 1995. The suit was against Rev. Kane, former executive director of the House of Affirmation in the Whitinsville section of Northbridge, and alleged that Rev. Kane began sexually abusing Mr. Barry when he was 9 years old and living in Uxbridge. The suit also stated that Mr. Barry was abused by three other priests, including Monsignor Riordan.

The settlement agreement, in which Mr. Barry was awarded about $42,000, prohibited Mr. Barry from publicly discussing the case or taking legal action against the three other priests.

Despite the confidentiality agreement, Mr. Barry said that ``I can say that I have tried to bring criminal actions against Monsignor Riordan.''

Monsignor Riordan, who formerly was a director of the House of Affirmation, was a friend of Rev. Kane. Before Rev. Kane filed for bankruptcy in the early 1990s, he transferred a piece of property he owned in Florida to Monsignor Riordan and Monsignor Alan Placa.

Mr. Barry said he was upset to read statements by Monsignor Placa, who serves in the Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York, in The New York Times in which the priest was quoted as saying that Mr. Barry lied under oath about alleged abuse by Monsignor Riordan.

``He is a lawyer, a priest and a man of God. I can't believe that he called me a liar,'' Mr. Barry said.

Lawyer Daniel J. Shea, who is representing several alleged victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, said at a press conference last week that the district attorney has not sought to prosecute Monsignor Riordan in connection with alleged sexual abuse because the monsignor had left the state. Mr. Conte replied by saying he did not have a viable case against the monsignor.

Mr. Barry said he made three calls to the district attorney's office, starting about a month ago, and was referred to Mary Sawicki, who heads the office's sexual abuse investigation unit. She took information from him and said it would be turned over to Mr. Conte, according to Mr. Barry. On a fourth call, he tried unsuccessfully to speak directly with Mr. Conte. He said he never received a return call.

Mr. Barry said he has made other attempts to seek prosecution, including calls to the state attorney general's office and the Suffolk Superior Court, where the original suit was filed. Each time he was referred back to Mr. Conte's office, he said.

February 13, 2002

Experts see psych text as priest abuse primer

ROBIN WASHINGTON, Boston Herald

A psychological text published by a now-defunct treatment center for troubled priests could have served as a primer for molestation of adolescents and adults by clergymen, according to psychotherapists who have studied sex abuse in the church.

The book, "Intimacy," published in 1978 by Whitinsville-based Affirmation Books, includes essays by therapists offering seemingly contradictory views on celibacy and sexuality.

"Celibate persons should celebrate, relish, and enjoy life," one passage reads.

"They should see the divine in the sexual act, the act of human creation, and acknowledge their sexual selves, their maleness or femaleness."

The volume is one of a series from the publishing arm of the House of Affirmation, a chain of treatment centers for priests accused of child molestation, among others. The center was founded in the 1970s by the Rev. Thomas Kane and the late Anna Polcino, a nun who was also a psychiatrist.

The centers went out of business in 1986, after charges of financial mismanagement, including accusations that Kane used funds from the institute to purchase condos in Florida.

Kane, who is now living in Mexico, was himself sued for child sex abuse in 1993, and was named in a second suit of two altar boys who charged that they were molested by a priest released to a Northboro parish after treatment at the House of Affirmation.

The book is dedicated "with love and gratitude" to "present and former residents of the House of Affirmation" - a group that included the Rev. Gilbert Gauthe, who allegedly molested dozens of boys in Louisiana and was recommended for release by the staff.


Gary Schoener, a licensed psychotherapist and executive director of the Walk-in Counseling Center in Minneapolis, who has treated several former House of Affirmation residents, called the text "psychobabble."

One passage Schoener called "nonsense," reads, "Married lovers are not sexual and passionate enough. And what's more, neither are celibate lovers, who should at least be as sexual and passionate as married people. There is no other way to be a really great lover."

"How can you possibly do that without having sex?" Schoener said, suggesting that, at best, the authors were advocating masturbation.

"Masturbation is still a violation (in the Catholic church), though it's a slightly different type of sin."

On a more dangerous note, he said the work could influence priests who abuse adolescents and adults. Unlike pedophiles who have almost total control over their victims, clergymen who abuse the post- pubescent often must conjure up a sexual-theological excuse for their actions to lure in their subjects.

"The lines that we hear priests use could come from this," he said. "There are lines in this I heard just last night, because last night I read the deposition of a woman who was sexually abused by her priest. It's almost identical.

"The issue is not that the adolescent or adult believes it, hook, line and sinker. It's that there's enough confusion to open the door."

Schoener's assessment is consistent with the experiences of Haverhill's Joe Parker, who told the Herald last month of his alleged years-long abuse at the hands of the Rev. Ronald Paquin, which he said began when Paquin initiated conversations mixing masturbation with liturgy.

"He would blend the two, so not to come on too strong or as a predator," Parker said.

Richard Sipe, a former priest and a psychotherapist who has studied and written extensively on problems related to priests' sexuality, called the text reminiscent of "love therapy" popular in Catholic seminaries in the 1970s.

"You were supposed to lie down and sense the person sitting before you was deficient in love and you were supposed to give them love."

"That's a very slippery slope. Today, it's considered in psychological circles as sexual abuse."

Sipe said the book reflects a basic confusion in the church on advising clergy of sexual matters, such as in one seminary exercise of the 1970s where candidates were told to lay on a couch nude.

"They were told they would be more comfortable with their sexuality. That went to the logical conclusion you'd be more comfortable with sexual release."

David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests responded to the passages with astonishment.

"Wow. That's got me scratching my head," he said.

"One of the biggest misconceptions about sex abuse by priests is the church's claim that they've relied on the best medical and psychological advice available. But they haven't relied on the best medical advice. They've relied on the safest, most secretive medical advice."  

November 16, 1992

Baars-addendum" - 'An American investigative reporter's look into one of the Catholic child prostitution ring operations',

by Thomas Doyle, O.P.,J.C.D.

The following is information obtained from an investigative reporter.

Conrad Baars was legit. He got suckered in by the notorious Fr. Thomas A. Kane of the Worcester diocese. Kane, who had a phony PhD, brought Baars in as a "cover" to give legitimacy to his new House of Affirmation in Worcester. No treatment went on there that we could ever tell.

Kane used it to get money to invest in real estate (he did creative things with the books) and to bring perpetrators together and to pass around young boys and teenage boys.

Baars was supposed to stay out of sight and out of mind but he started asking questions about the double set of books etc. Kane got rid of him. Baars never got over it.

Kane operated a ring out of the House. Dave Lewcon of Webster knows plenty about this. One of the "directors" was Brendan Riordan of Rockville Centre, NY, who met boys there. He was named in a confidential settlement agreement in the suit Mark Barry brought against Kane. Kane started molesting Barry at age 9 and passed him around to a bunch of priests. Riordan was one. Barry told me the story. Riordan is the live in lover of Msgr. Alan Placa, who was recently removed by Mansion Murphy. Murphy is still protecting Riordan.

I have managed to get most of this in the paper but no one seemed to take much notice. The House of Affirmation was a real house of horrors.

When Barry filed suit, Kane started moving his real estate to other names. Riordan and Placa got a nice piece of real estate in Florida. Dave Lewcon, who has many contacts, is telling me that Kane was also heavily into providing drugs to people. I don't think he was a user but he was a source. Drugs were all part of his party culture.
The House closed in the late 1980s amid financial scandal that the Worcester diocese tried to cover. Kane, with his phony credentials, was the therapist to Bishop Timothy Harrington. It is generally known that Kane got away with everything because he had the goods on everyone. It was known that Harrington had a drinking problem and I believe he had a mistress in the Sisters of Mercy. She was with him until he died and then was removed from the Worcester scene rather quickly. The insider knows that girlfriends to the Worcester priests often came from the Mercy sisters. This sounds awful but I have heard enough. Msgr. Leo Battista, friend of Harrington and Msgr. Tinsley (who is still covering things up) was taking his girlfriends right out of the Mercy convent. We got that into print some years ago. It just goes on and on.

Baars died after he was fired from the House. His daughter believes his treatment by Kane contributed to his demise. I gather Dr. Baars was legit and really wanted to make a contribution. He fell in with evil people and could not see it.

I never heard that Bishop Flanagan was a perpetrator but he was a loyal churchman and covered up plenty. I always got along with him but people who worked for him said he was a cold fish and not good with people.
These bishops all learn a public act to make the people in the pews believe they are warm and pastoral. You know as well as I that it is largely a crock.

Sr. Anna Polcino was generally considered to be a joke in the Worcester area although she conned a lot of people. Word is she was part and parcel of the whole thing and knew all. She has since died.

She was a surgeon in her religious order and then developed arthritis. She went back to school to become a psychiatrist. Her credentials are weak. I think she came from Worcester State Hospital (not exactly a first-class operation by any standards.)

Paul DellaVallee did the work on House of Affirmation when it folded. I remember him saying that Kane got his hooks into her and played on her fears and weaknesses. I have also heard she was very cognizant of what was going on. She ended up retiring to her own condo (probably bought by Kane and H of A) in New Jersey. People in Worcester always described her as looking like a "bag lady." She was no dresser, that's for sure. She used to speak and fronted for the house. I met her once at a business and professional women's meeting in Worcester. She seemed okay, but what did I know then?

Kane never was a PhD. He took a year away from Worcester, re-emerged a year later and claimed to have a PHD from the University of Birmingham, England. I still laugh and have it on my desk. You see... U of Birmingham never heard of him and he never got a degree there. He got no degree anywhere. But there is this picture of Kane, little round Celtic face and all (my little Celtic face is round too!) dressed in his "doctoral robes" with this elaborate story that he got his PhD after study at Birmingham and would be starting a treatment facility with the blessing of the bishop.

I read our whole file on the House. They got Baars on board. Wright got approval from the Vatican. Flanagan, Madeiros and a bunch of other bishops went on board.

It opened with this great flourish and much publicity. Not one news article said they were taking in perverts. You would think it was just tired and overworked priests and religious.

Our report in that area, Tom Mattson, had been an ordained Protestant minister and was really crazy to boot. I loved him anyway. He fell right into that humanistic Kane claptrap and wrote article after article about this wonderful "priest-therapist" who was an international figure and whose theories were just it. What Kane was doing was collecting big bucks from these bishops to take in their perpetrators. They were allowed loose where they could scout boys. Kane even sent them out into parishes where they abused even more kids. Kane was a perpetrator himself and was bringing in boys to be passed around. This is not hearsay. It has all been documents and we have run it in the paper.

The reason lawyer Dan Shea got hot onto this and trekked up from Houston is because he was a seminarian for the Providence diocese. Dan has a very strong intellectual base. He graduated from Louvain and really wanted to be a priest. He ran afoul of "Truck Stop" Louis Gelineau who didn't like intellectuals. One day after meeting with Gelineau, he was walked out of the building (he actually was a transitional deacon) when a Msgr. Daniel P. Reilly (now Worcester bishop) called him over and said he had a wonderful solution since Dan had "an authority problem."

He said there was this wonderful place up in Whitinsville called the House of Affirmation and he was on the board and would get him in. Dan took it at face value and went. He was at the House all of 20 minutes. Kane started putting the moves on him, he felt uncomfortable and left.

Fast forward 30 years and Rich Nangle, a fellow reporter, is looking through the courthouse and in a file on one victim find this piece of paper connected to the Mark Barry suit against Kane. In it was a separate section that named a Fr. Robert Shauris, Fr. Tom Teczar and this Msgr. Brendan Riordan of Rockville Centre. Rich and I not being lawyers were puzzled by the additional names not in the original suit. Dan called one day and we read it to him over the phone. He must have gone through the ceiling because he identified what we had. These guys were all perpetrators and were hidden within the first confidential settlement. No one was to see that document, even the judge. Reilly himself signed it. I give Dan credit. He located Kane for us down in Mexico and got us on the path of finding all those documents on Riordan and Placa.

We have since gathered that a lot of bishops were going in and out of that place and it was the place to go if you wanted kids and teen-agers. Madeiros, who is not clean, was involved there. We can only guess at this point about others.

Mark Barry admitted to us that he had been passed around to all the guys listed in that settlement. Dave Lewcon, a Teczar victim, was at the House while he father did some renovation work for Kane. He can tell plenty about what went on there. There was no treatment.

I think Kane also picked up business because his rates were cheaper than the places that really tried to treat these people. He pulled in a lot of money.

When the place finally folded, Bishop Harrington did his best to hide everything. He actually writes a letter of recommendation so the phony Dr. Kane could be executive director of the Catholic Guild of Psychiatrists.

The House of Affirmation 
and the Worcester Diocese

Geminiwalker_Ink (c)2002 all rights reserved

In 1970 the first outpatient program run by the Catholic Church, the Counseling Center for Clergy and Religious, was established by the diocese of Worcester, Massachusets with Sister Anna Polcino, M.D. as director. The program was allegedly designed to give clergy and religions a "place to talk over their emotional problems." Polcino had served for many years as a missionary surgeon in the villages and hospitals of Pakistan and Bangladesh. When arthritis forced her early retirement from surgical medicine, she went back to medical school and became a psychiatrist.

Thomas Kane, a priest and alleged psychologist who had joined her in leadership at the center, began to think the outpatient approach was inadequate.

Two years before the center opened, Thomas Kane had a nine-year-old boy in tow that he, himself, was sexually abusing. In 1993 Mark D. Barry filed a lawsuit accusing the Rev. Thomas Kane of molesting him over several years, starting in 1968. When Mr. Barry was 9 years old, Father Tom had taken the boy to rural retreats and offered him to other priests for sexual purposes. According to Daniel J. Shea, a Houston lawyer who has represented clients who have accused priests of sexual abuse and who is familiar with such cases in the Worcester Diocese, the confidential settlement clearly suggests that while a boy, Barry was passed around by a ring of priests for sexual purposes.

J. Gavin Reardon, Jr., of the Reardon and Reardon law firm that represents the Worcester Diocese, said the October 1995 settlement "included the names of other individuals who were mentioned in the course of discovery during that litigation but were not sued." Mr. Shea said the document appears to open the door to charges against Rev. Kane, including transporting a minor across state lines for sex.

Rev. Thomas began to drum up support for changing the out-patient treatment facility in Massachusetts to an in-patient facility -- with beds.

The new program, incoporated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and re-christened House of Affirmation, (it was not considered by the church to be a Catholic Church program, and it received no church funds), was set up "in a lovely old mansion on eleven wooded acres in Whitinsville, near Grafton, just outside Worcester, Massachusetts and not too far away from the infamous Clark University and the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology. It accepted its first thirteen residents in 1973. If it received no church funds, does that mean it received government funding? And if so, did Father Robert Drinan have a hand in that? And, if so, did the military, through Congress, have a hand in that?

House of Affirmation did no promotion, yet the demand for its services was overwhelming -- far more than one program could provide. Word spread and soon it was accepting residents from as far away as England and Africa. Soon, there were three more Houses of Affirmation in the United States -- in Webster Groves, Missouri, near Saint Louis; in Whitinsville, Massachusetts; and in Montara, California, near San Francisco (not that far from the infamous Bohemian Grove or the Presidio.) -- and one in England, near Birmingham. There was also an outpatient center on Dartmouth Street, in Boston. More than six hundred clergy and religious, including two bishops, had gone through the program, and there was no sign of abating interest.

Meanwhile, Thomas Kane was abusing his protegé as well as who knows how many others, and networking with others with the same inclination who would keep the secret. It is the culture of secrecy that allows sexual abuse to flourish. That is the sickness, not the sex -- the secrecy, and the denial. And in that, the entire Catholic Church is sick. The only people who know the secret and keep the secret are those who are involved. To keep the secret is to be involved. And it is obviously more than a dyad. They find each other. They pull each other in.

With the help of NAMBLA and the United States Government, Catholic priests, regardless of their level of involvement, were handed a "get out of jail free" card to throw off the chains of repression that had crippled them emotionally for so long.

Mr. Barry claimed in his lawsuit that he was forced by Rev. Kane to perform sexual acts at St. Mary's church in Uxbridge beginning in the 1970s. Mr. Barry was living in Uxbridge at the time and was an altar boy at the church. He reported that the sexual abuse also occurred at the former House of Affirmation in Whitinsville that Rev. Kane co-founded and directed. Mr. Barry said Rev. Kane plied him with liquor and gave him money and expensive gifts. As he grew older, he said, he was taken to rural retreats where he was offered by Rev. Kane to other priests for sexual purposes.

Ten months after arriving in Worcester, Bishop Reilly signed a confidentiality agreement in the case which was written to protect three priests who, while not named in the complaint, appear to have been involved in a child sex ring.

Meanwhile, the staff of the House of Affirmation, representing themselves as psychiatrists and Godly priests and nuns, "educated" the public about the stresses of the clergy, never once alluding to pedophilia until much later on. The issue they claimed to address was the dwindlilng number of "vocations" that left the Church short-staffed and overworked.

They blamed the cultural revolution, stress, loneliness and struggles with celibacy. They blamed Vatican II. They did a lot of blaming. They never bothered to follow their own catechism and perform an "examination of conscience" to determine where they, as a church, as an institution, and as individuals, might be at fault.

Even their apologies ring hollow. They are sorry if mistakes were made.

While the priests were encouraged to 'loosen up' and connect more creatively with their flock, the perception of the priest as all-powerful did not change. They were simply encouraged to abdicate responsibility for that power -- unless, that is, they were involved in leading their flock politically, which occurred more and more in the 60s and 70s, particularly in regard to what was known as "Cardinal Spellman's War" in Vietnam where Operation Phoenix became even more entrenched, costing the lives of thousands of Vietnamese civilians.

It's no wonder the clergy were confused as the leadership of the church became increasingly manipulative. Priests continued to judge harshly unwed and divorced mothers, women who sought and/or received abortions, and homosexuals...that is, publicly.

Privately, many priests were having their own illicit sex and children out of wedlock while their superiors looked the other way. Those who were not having children were practicing contraception, perhaps even abortion, while allowing their parishioners to writhe in guilt and even suffer excommunication, which for the devout Catholic only adds insult to an already unbearable situation ... particularly if those same priests, who were guilty of their own sins, were able to continue offering the sacraments and receiving them themselves.

Priests who chose to marry, on the other hand, were re-soundly drummed out of the priesthood and sometimes even forced to divorce, in spite of the Catholic teachings against it!

The House of Affirmation became a "dumping ground" for every parish troubled by "allegations of sexual abuse." At the House of Affirmation they found -- well, affirmation. And they found each other.

And there was more going on. The picture was much biger than even the Catholic Church -- which doeds not exonnerate them, by any means, it only makes them further complicit. They can claim they didn't know. They can claim they were "out of town that day." They can claim any damn thing they want. They had the power to know, they had the responsibility to know, and the obligation to do something about it. And we already know that they lie. And according to their own claims to religious dogma, a lie violates their own code of conduct. It is a sin little children must confess in catechism. We can be sure that is only the beginning of the hypocrisy.

The problematic priests at the House of Affirmation came and went as they pleased within the community of Worcester and the surrounding areas. Who knows how many people were violated, in what way, in that area, at that time?

Catholic Charities owns a large and disproportionate share of land in Worcester: in hospitals, social service centers (Catholic Charities shares caseloads with DSS), day care centers and Catholic elementary schools (Our Lady of the Angels, St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary and St. Stephens in Worcester, St. Bernard's, Holy Family and Notre Dame in Fitchburg, St. Leo's in Leominster, etc.); Catholic High Schools (Notre Dame, Holy Name Academy in Worcester, and Holy Family, Notre Dame and St. Bernard's in Fitchburg, along with many others in the surrounding towns), Catholic colleges like Anna Maria, Assumption and Holy Cross (where Clarence Thomas got his education), not to mention the Campus Ministry that exists in the remaining seven colleges in Worcester. The number of young people at risk in that area alone in those years boggles the mind.

In June, 1992 visionary Paul Della Valle wrote in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette:

"The thing you've got to love about the Roman Catholic Church is the forgiveness angle. Take the Reverend Thomas Kane, for example. Kane, you may remember, is the priest who allegedly had his fingers about two knuckles deep in the till at the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville five years ago.

"Now he's got a new gig," Della Valle goes on, "associate pastor of Sacred Heart parish in Gardner. The House of Affirmation didn't fare so well. The publicity from the Kane-sized controversy proved a heavy load, and the once-thriving non-profit corporation went belly-up in 1990. The house, which had (allegedly) provided "mental health" services for clergy at centers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, California, Mmissouri and England, was founded by Kane, Sister Anna Polcino and lay Catholic psychiatrist Conrad Baars in 1973.

"Although not part of the church, it had close ties to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester."

(Contrad Baars still has a web site run by his wife, and his daughter Sue Baars, who still promotes Affirmation Therapy, apparently.)

"KIane avoided litigation by agreeing to write the House of Affirmation a big check on October 16, 1987. Bishop Timothy J. Harrington of Worcester then sent him on sabbatical "to get rest." The next year, Harrington wrote a letter of recommendation that helped Kane get a job as director of the National Guild of Catholic Psychiatrists. In his letter, the bishop neglected to mention Kane's fiscal problem at the House of Affirmation."

Now, active, practicing pedophile Kane was the director of the National Guild of Catholic Psychiatrists! Just think of the opportunities!

"In the spring of 1991 and again this past spring, Kane taught an ethics course at Anna Maria. He also taught a course at the college's Wellesley site. For four months, Kane had been loaned by the Worcester Diocese to St. Donato's in New Haven, where he served as acting pastor.

"In May, Harrington appointed Kane as associate pastor of Sacred Heart."

The Rev. John Barrett, Worcester Diocese's director of communications, said, "He's a priest in good standing."

"Kane's problems began in October, 1986 when eleven House of Affirmation managers first made their allegations to the House of Affirmation's board of directors. They later went to Cardinal Bernard Law, then Attorney General James Shannon and the T&G because, they claimed, the board and Bishop Harrington were more interested in covering up the scandal than in correcting it.

"They alleged, among other things, that Kane illegally used the house's tax exempt numbers for private purchases, that he and Polcino put relatives and friends, including Kane's longtime sidekick "Bob" Bagheral, on the House of Affirmation crews to work on his private properties, and that he charged the House of Affirmation exorbitant rents on properties he leased to the corporation."

(There are those pesky boundary violations again!)

"It is important to note," the eleven managers wrote in a letter to Shannon, "that the foregoing abuses are believed to be only the tip of the iceberg."

Shannon's office never pursued the investigation. And it wasn't the first time such allegations had been made.

Virginia Baars (the widow of co-founder Baars) said in 1987 that her husband tried to blow the whistle on Kane and Polcino in 1975 because he suspected they were keeping "double books." Baars was fired instead and, according to House of Affirmation employees, Kane and Polcino then spread the word that he had been incompetent. Baars died five years later of a broken heart, his widwo surmises.

Then, in 1994, the Boston Globe reported:
 

WHEELING, W. VA (AP) - Two former Massachusetts altar boys are suing the Wheeling-Charleston Roman Catholic diocese, alleging that a West Virginia priest sent to Massachusetts to be treated for pedophilia molested them. The lawsuit, filed March 31 in Ohio County Circuit Court, said the late Rev. Victor A. Frobas abused the two in 1979 and 1980 while assigned to the St. Rose of Lima Church in Northborough. The men were 16 and 12 at the time. The lawsuit said Frobas, then 41, was being treated at the House of Affirmation, an alleged "treatment center" for priests in Northborough (Whitinsville). Frobas had worked at a Catholic Church in St. Albans in the 1960s.

The lawsuit is the second filed in Wheeling alleging molestations against Frobas, who left the diocese in 1983 and died in July at age 55 in a St. Louis nursing home. The other lawsuit ed by a man who said Rev. Frobas molested him in 1977 while he was teaching at Central Catholic High School in Wheeling. The man was a sophomore at the school.

Boston Globe, April 14, 1993:
 

Three men have filed lawsuits in Suffolk Superior Court against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester, charging that they were sexually abused as children by priests during the 1960s and 1970s. Mark Barry, 34, alleges that he was repeatedly sexually abused by Rev. Thomas Kane from 1968 to 1979 while Father Kane was a priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Uxbridge. Father Kane is also charged with being instrumental in having another priest, Rev. Victor A. Frobas, assigned to a parish in Northborough where he allegedly assaulted two other youths. The suit alleges that by the time Robert Malo was raped in January, 1979, Father Kane, then-Auxiliary Bishop Timothy J. Harrington and a board member of the House of Affirmation were all aware that Father Frobas had been accused of sexually molesting another boy but failed to have him removed.

They know. They have always known. What is blatantly obvious is that they just don't care.

As they say, "What would Jesus do?"

And then, in January, 1996, in the Worcester Telegram by Gary Murray, Telegram & Gazette Staff:
 

A jury yesterday rejected claims that retired Bishop Timothy J. Harrington and the Worcester Diocese were negligent in supervising a Catholic priest who four years ago took semi-nude photographs of a 10-year-old Barre boy. The Worcester Superior Court jury did agree with a claim filed on behalf of the boy, now 14, that the Rev. Donald D. Provost's negligence was a substantial contributing factor to the boy's emotional distress. However, the 14-member jury did not find that the boy suffered any objective physical manifestations of his emotional distress.

"I have felt from the beginning that the case was an unjust accusation against the diocese and certainly against Bishop Harrington, who just celebrated his 50th year as a priest," Worcester lawyer James G. Reardon said, "and it gives us all a great deal of comfort to see that a jury can sift through the issues and discern the type of testimony that was offered against the diocese and the bishop and return such a fair and just verdict."

The claim against Harrington and the diocese in the civil lawsuit was that the retired bishop and other diocesan officials knew or should have known that Provost had a propensity for such behavior and failed to take appropriate action.

In testimony, Provost and Harrington offered conflicting accounts of a 1980 meeting between the two after another priest expressed concern about photographs of young boys that Provost had in his room at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Worcester.

Provost testified that Harrington, then Auxiliary Bishop and vicar for priests, questioned him about taking nude pictures of boys and sent him to the House of Affirmation, an (alleged) treatment center for clergy.

September 26, 1987

Counseling program for Catholic clergy faces uncertain future

JEANNE PUGH, St. Petersburg Times,
RELIGION

CLEARWATER - The House of Affirmation was established in Clearwater three and a half years ago to provide psychological counseling for Catholic priests, nuns and religious brothers suffering from problems related to stress, burnout, depression and other emotional maladies.

Today the private, non-profit facility is foundering in a sea of problems that are not of its own making but the result of a scandal that has rocked the foundations of the entire chain of Massachusetts-based counseling centers known collectively as the House of Affirmation.

Spokesmen for the bishop's office in Worchester, Mass., acknowledged this week that an investigation has been under way for nearly a year into charges that the Rev. Thomas A. Kane, a Catholic priest and co-founder of the chain, used House of Affirmation finances to support personal real estate investments in Massachusetts, Maine and Florida, paid salaries from House of Affirmation funds to persons employed in his personal business enterprises and misrepresented his academic credentials. They said that suggestions that the other co-founder, Sister Anna Polcino, was wholly involved in the deceptions appear to be unfounded. But both Father Kane, 46, and Sister Polcino, in her mid-60s, are said to be the subjects of scrutiny by the Massachusetts state attorney general's office as a result of a 10-page complaint filed by 11 former professional associates of the House of Affirmation - individuals who acted as directors, administrators or counselors at the organization's various residential and outpatient centers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Missouri, California and Florida. Among their allegations is that Kane did not earn a doctorate in psychology from the University of Birmingham, England, as he has claimed.

The repercussions have shaken the office of Bishop Timothy J. Harrington of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester, who has been a member of the House of Affirmation board of directors since its founding in the early 1970s. He became president of the organization late last year after Kane was dismissed from his post and Sister Polcino went into retirement as "chairman emeritus."

The Worcester diocese's interests in the organization go much deeper than those of the other dioceses in which its centers are located. According to Sister Polcino, contacted by telephone at her present home in Seaside, N.J., the Worcester diocese subsidized the original counseling center in Worcester and helped to establish the first residential center in nearby Whitinsville.

Centers established later in other parts of the country have been independently financed, both by donations and by fees paid by dioceses and religious orders to cover the costs of psychotherapy for clergy and religious referred for care.

The Clearwater facility, Sister Polcino said, was established after a group of lay people who had heard of the work of the House of Affirmation petitioned Bishop W. Thomas Larkin of the Diocese of St. Petersburg to invite the organization to bring its services to the area. The organization, although endorsed by the diocese for its professional services, remained a private corporation with no direct financial ties to the diocese.

A message seeking comment from Kather Kane was left on his answering machine in Boston, but he did not return the call.

Sandy Tobin of Clearwater, who worked as the development director for the local facility for nearly two years, said this week that about $600,000 in cash and pledges was raised from local congregations, individuals and businesses during her tenure.

The Clearwater facility originally was located in the former rectory of St. Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church on S Belcher Road. It later moved to its present quarters, a complex of three adjoining buildings including a 16-unit apartment building near the corner of Pierce and Park streets.

The complex, once filled to capacity with resident clients and a constant flow of outpatients, is now nearly empty. The Rev. Gerald Fath, the priest and clinical psychologist who had served as director since 1984, resigned in June and is now living in Washington, D.C., where he is supervising a course in death and dying for seminarians under the auspices of Catholic University and taking courses in theology. The skeleton staff at the center - the Rev. John Walsh, psychologist Jane Bueck and a secretary - are serving only a small number of outpatients. The local advisory board and board of directors, all volunteers, have disbanded.

The enterprise has suffered similarly across the country. Centers in Montara, Calif., Middletown, Conn., and Natick, Mass., have been closed. Facilities in Whitinsville and Hopedale, Mass., and Webster Groves, Mo., are operating with reduced staff and clients. Staff members and directors, some of whom say they were fired without cause and without severance pay, are threatening to sue - although some have reached settlements with a new team of management consultants hired by Bishop Harrington and the reorganized board of directors.

Mrs. Tobin said she took a medical leave of absence from her job as development director for the Clearwater center about a year ago, before the revelations of mismanagement began to surface. She acknowledged, however, that her departure was related in part to distress caused by what she thought was a careless attitude toward finances on the part of the national office.

"If I had had any inkling that there were real improprieties - rather than just carelessness - I would have left before I did," she said. "But I did not learn until later that I was not the only one raising questions."

In recent weeks, Bishop Harrington has been fielding charges that the new board of directors is "foot-dragging" on its promise to make public a full report on the House of Affirmation's financial condition and the charges against Father Kane. But Samuel R. De Simone, a Worcester lawyer hired last May by the board, said this week that he expects to "have something ready by mid-October."

De Simone attributed the long delay to the complexity of the House of Affirmation organization and the fluid nature of events still transpiring in the wake of the departures of Father Kane and Sister Polcino.

"Many of the things that we were concerned about in the beginning are being resolved," he said. "Some of the people who had resigned have come back to us and are working again. We have worked out severance agreements with some who were fired, and we have a couple more pending."

As for what happened to money donated to the organization and apparently not accounted for, De Simone said he could not comment "at this point in time" on where the money went. But he added that the House of Affirmation, as a private corporation, is solvent and that any funds found to be missing are expected to be recovered. "If we cannot recover what I think is due, civil action will be brought," he said.

De Simone noted that there is no indication of any impropriety in the operation of the Clearwater facility.

In fact, Edward D. Geary, an officer of the management company hired to take over operation of the organization last April, said he hopes that the Clearwater facility can be either revitalized as a resident center or become the nucleus for a group of outpatient centers throughout the state of Florida.

Geary said that he and his business associate, Thomas F. Siegel Jr., plan to accompany Bishop Harrington to a meeting in West Palm Beach next week where they will present such a proposal to the Catholic bishops of Florida.

Meanwhile, people who are familiar with the Clearwater center's work seem to be in a state of mourning.

"The tragedy of all this," said Mrs. Tobin, "is that their work was excellent. So many people were helped. I saw priests and nuns come into the place with bodies physically bent over from stress - and then I saw them a few months later, walking upright, smiling and happy."

Jim David of Clearwater, who served on the local board of directors, echoed her feelings. "It was really a loss when the facility closed because it filled such a need," he said. "There's been a hurt in this for all of us. I hope that they can reorganize and keep it open."

But Father Fath, who headed the local center from its start, says he does not think he wants to return. "I was very sorry to have to leave because it was such a valuable ministry," he said in a telephone call to Washington, D.C. this week. "And I would like to go back to working in psychotherapy but not with the House of Affirmation."

The hurt, he said, has been too deep. "But I wouldn't want anyone to think that I am undervaluing the work we did there," he hastily explained. "We did a tremendous amount of good work for the priests, brothers and sisters who came to us. The only problem is that it all seems to be overshadowed by this mess."

BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO, Robin Donina, (2); BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO; House of Affirmation: 1987, (2); Caption: Entrance of the House of Affirmation in Clearwater; The 16-unit apartment complex at the House of Affirmation in Clearwater; The Rev. Gerald Fath

October 4, 1989

House of Affirmation to close// Future of outpatient mental health programs not decided

Jewel Bradstreet; Staff Reporter, Telegram & Gazette Worcester, MA

The House of Affirmation, a Hopedale-based, non-profit corporation that provides mental health care to clergy, will be closing gradually during the next year, according to the agency's lawyer, Samuel R. DeSimone.

DeSimone said that last week the House of Affirmation's board of trustees voted to close all the corporation's residential programs by Dec. 31. The disposition of House of Affirmation property and the future of its outpatient programs have yet to be decided, he said.

DeSimone said he did not believe the scandal that erupted in 1987 when the Rev. Thomas Kane, a House of Affirmation founder and former president, was accused of financial misconduct, had anything to do with the board's decision to close the agency.

However, last August, Sister Suzanne Kearney, Father Kane's replacement, said referrals to the House of Affirmation had dropped off at centers all over the country once the allegations became public. She also said she believed the scandal affected the organization's ability to attract qualified psychotherapists.

QUESTIONS REFERRED

Yesterday, Sister Kearney referred all questions to Bishop George E. Rueger, House of Affirmation board of members chairman. His office referred questions to DeSimone.

The two residential centers slated to close by the end of this year are in Northbridge and Webster Groves, Mo. A third residential center in Hopedale was converted to central administration for the corporation last year. DeSimone said that although there has been no formal vote, he expects that all operations will cease eventually.

By the closing time for the residential centers, all patients being treated in them should be finished with their programs, he said. Outpatient services would continue to be available for an as-yet undefined period of time into next year.

The corporation still has other obligations that must be taken care of before all its outpatient services can cease, he said.

"You can't just put up a sign "Closed Tomorrow,' " he said.

The organization has outpatient centers in Boston, Clearwater, Fla., and Middletown, Conn.

DECLINE

The closing was prompted by a decline in new patients in the residential programs, he said. Many of the patients in the outclient programs are getting followup help after residential treatment.

DeSimone investigated the allegations against Father Kane in 1987 for the House of Affirmation. He found at least some of the allegations to be true and recommended that the House of Affirmation seek to recover monetary damages, rather than file civil or criminal charges.

Father Kane agreed last October to pay a monetary settlement, DeSimone said, the amount of which was not disclosed under terms of the settlement. Father Kane also was barred from any association with the House of Affirmation, the agency he helped found 19 years ago.

The House of Affirmation's express mission is to help clergy who are suffering from job stress and other psychological problems. While it has focused primarily on Roman Catholic priests and nuns, the outpatient programs have been opened to lay people.

HISTORIC HOUSES

The organization owns historic houses in the Whitinsville section of Northbridge and in Hopedale. In Northbridge, where the corporation was based until last year, the residential center is housed in the Hill Street mansion once owned by industrialist Chester Lasell, who was connected to the Whitin family and the former Whitin Machine Works. The property is historically known as Oakhurst.

In Hopedale, the corporation's headquarters is located in the former home of the Draper family at 11 Williams St. The Drapers ran the former Draper Corp., the business that built Hopedale.

DeSimone said no decision has yet been made about the disposal of these historically important properties.

November 16, 1992

Book investigates cases // Sexual abuse by priests called "national disgrace'

By Kathleen A. Shaw,Staff Reporter

The House of Affirmation in Hopedale, a now-closed mental health treatment center for priests and religious, figures prominently in Jason Berry's new book about Roman Catholic priests who molest children.

The Rev. Gilbert Gauthe, a Louisiana priest in Vermilion Parish who sexually abused numerous children before he was charged with 34 counts of molestation in 1984, was sent by his bishop to Hopedale for treatment while he was awaiting trial.

The scope of Berry's investigation is presented in "Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children," which was published by Doubleday last month.

"It's a national disgrace," Berry said in a recent interview. He said he knows of 400 priests in North America who have molested children, but the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Washington, D.C., canon lawyer, said the number could be as high as 3,000 priests. "I wrote the book to put forth the voice of conscience," Berry said.

Berry said he questions how American bishops can "proclaim the sanctity of life in the womb and recycle priests who molest children?"

Gauthe was pulled from the House of Affirmation by his defense lawyer, F. Roy Mouton, who was appalled to find that the staff intended to release Gauthe so he could take an ambulance job in Gulport, Miss.

Berry said Mouton thought while flying here to meet with Gauthe that he was going "to meet Lucifer disguised as a Roman Catholic priest." Gauthe's therapist, Sister Miriam Ukeritis, described Gauthe as "like a dependent child."

"Mouton exploded: Jesus Christ, lady! Did she know that hundreds of sex crimes had made him eligible for life at hard labor in Louisiana's penitentiary. She insisted that he was making good progress," Berry writes of the encounter.

Berry said Mouton recognized the church was open to criminal negligence, if Gauthe was released, so he had Gauthe moved to a locked unit at the secular Institute of Living in Hartford.

Gauthe told Mouton, "I hated myself for what I was doing, but what I hated more was that I didn't have the power to stop it ... and I would see kids that I had had sex with come to communion, and I'd say, "How can I do that?' And then I'd see other kids I'd want."

The House of Affirmation, which Mouton told Berry was like "a country club," was founded in 1970 by then Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan of the Worcester Diocese, and priests, sisters and brothers from throughout the country were sent for treatment. The House became the center of controversy in 1987 when a co-founder, the Rev. Thomas A. Kane, was accused of financial wrongdoing. It closed in 1990, never fully recovering from the scandal.

Berry, a freelance journalist, said it is not easy writing about priests accused of molesting children, but he believes the church must be "held accountable." He is a practicing Catholic and graduate of the Jesuit-sponsored Georgetown University.

The institutional church so far has put more effort into meeting the needs of priests accused of sexually molesting children than it has in helping the victims, he said. "This has to be faced in an honest way," he said.

The church must "be more humane" and listen to the victims of priests, and the church must better "espouse the message of Christ," if it is to grow as an institution, he said.

Berry said Gauthe's superiors knew of his record of abuse, but chose to move him from parish to parish rather than remove him from situations where he would be near children.

Berry said he can better understand the pathology of priests who sexually abuse children than why church leaders would systematically cover up for these priests, knowing they would continue to abuse children.

"I had no idea of the magnitude of the problem," he said.

Priests in the Worcester diocese also have been charged with sexually abusing children. A grand jury recently indicted the Rev. Joseph A. Fredette, a former Assumptionist priest, on charges that he raped two boys in his care when he was executive director of the Come Alive program in the 1970s.

A grand jury also recently indicted the Rev. Ronald D. Provost on charges he took a dozen photographs of a 10-year-old boy in various stages of undress.

The Rev. Robert E. Kelley in 1990 was sentenced to 5 to 7 years in the state prison at Walpole after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a young girl while he was pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Gardner.

June 21, 1992

5 years later, Rev. T. Kane teaches ethics // House of Affirmation scandal

PAUL DELLA VALLE,Telegram Worcester, MA

The thing you've got to love about the Roman Catholic Church is the forgiveness angle.

Take the Rev. Thomas A. Kane, for example.

Kane, you may remember, is the priest who allegedly had his fingers about two-knuckles deep in the till at the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville five years ago.

By the time that scandal played out - allegedly the good padre siphoned off mucho dinero to support his own real estate empire - Kane had been barred from the House of Affirmation for life and several of the managers and employees who blew the whistle on him had been fired.

BREEDING BULLDOGS

Lately, Father Kane has been breeding bulldogs at his pet shop in Boston and teaching classes at Anna Maria College in Paxton. He taught ethics, once and for all proving what a wonderful and whacky world this is.

Now he's got a new gig, associate pastor of Sacred Heart parish in Gardner.

The House of Affirmation didn't fare so well. The publicity from the Kane-sized controversy proved a heavy load, and the once-thriving nonprofit corporation went belly up in 1990. The house, which had provided mental health services for clergy at centers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, California, Missouri and England, was founded by Kane, Sister Anna Polcino and lay Catholic psychiatrist Conrad Baars in 1973. Although not part of the church, it had close ties to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester.

Kane avoided litigation by agreeing to write the House of Affirmation a big check on Oct. 16, 1987. Bishop Timothy J. Harrington of the Worcester Diocese then sent him on sabbatical "to get rest."

RECOMMENDATION

The next year, Harrington wrote a letter of recommendation that helped Kane get a job as director of the National Guild of Catholic Psychiatrists. In his letter, the bishop neglected to mention Kane's fiscal problems at the House of Affirmation.

In the spring of 1991 and again this past spring, Kane, taught an ethics course at Anna Maria. He also taught a course at the college's Wellesley site. Kane is also a part-owner of "Fish on a Leash," a pet store on upscale Newbury Street in Boston, although he's usually there only on weekends, an employee said Friday. For four months recently, Kane had been loaned by the Worcester Diocese to St. Donato's in New Haven, where he served as acting pastor.

In May, Harrington appointed Kane associate pastor of Sacred Heart. He is scheduled to arrive in the Chair City later this week. Why was he appointed?

"Why not?" the Rev. John Barrett, the Worcester Diocese's director of communications, said Friday. "He's a priest in good standing."

It was never made public how much Kane allegedly embezzled because the out-of-court settlement his lawyer agreed to with the diocese's lawyer, Samuel R. DeSimone, contained a non-disclosure provision.

When the story of Kane's alleged fiscal misdeeds first broke in the Telegram & Gazette in September 1987, Kane owned an inn in Isleboro, Maine (he sold that for $650,000 before the settlement), a farm on Islesboro (he sold that to actress Kirstie Alley this spring), three condominiums in Boston in total worth more than $200,000, two condos in Florida worth more than $120,000, a home in Whitinsville worth $98,700 and at least several other properties in this and other states.

Kane also had a major interest in trusts that owned a condominium building at 398 Marlboro St., Boston, valued in 1987 at $720,000, and in properties on St. Stephen Street and Symphony Road, Boston, then with a total value of more than $700,000.

Kane, who never lost his good-standing designation with the Worcester Diocese, continues to live in his suite at 398 Marlboro St., Boston. On Friday, Babak "Bob" Bagheral, Kane's longtime sidekick, answered the phone there and said the priest was vacationing in Canada and could not be reached for a comment until Tuesday.

"When he goes on vacation," Bagheral said, "he really goes on vacation."

AT THE RECTORY

The Rev. Edmond L. Tinsley, vicar general of the diocese, said Kane, 51, will live in the rectory at Sacred Heart once he begins serving there. Tinsley would only say "he is a priest in good standing" when asked why Kane was appointed to Sacred Heart.

Kane's problems began in October 1986 when 11 HOA managers first made their allegations to the House of Affirmation's board of directors. They later went to Cardinal Bernard Law, then Attorney General James Shannon and the T&G because, they claimed, the board and Bishop Harrington were more interested in covering up the scandal than correcting it.

They alleged, among other things, that Kane illegally used the house's tax-exempt numbers for private purchases; that he and Polcino put relatives and friends, including Bagheral, on the House of Affirmation payroll although they did not work there; that Kane used House of Affirmation crews to work on his private properties; and that he charged the House of Affirmation exorbitant rents on properties he leased to the corporation.

"It is important to note," the 11 managers wrote in a letter to Shannon, "that the foregoing abuses are believed to be only the tip of the iceberg."

NEVER PURSUED

Although DeSimone, in his own investigation, found at least some of the allegations to be true, Shannon's office never pursued the investigation.

And it wasn't the first time such allegations had been made. Virginia Baars, the widow of co-founder Baars said in 1987 that her husband tried to blow the whistle on Kane and Polcino in 1975 because he suspected they were keeping "double books." Baars was fired instead and, according to House of Affirmation employees, Kane and Polcino then spread the word that he had been incompetent. Baars died five years later.

Virginia Baars said he died broken-hearted.

June 12, 1990

Where the organizations are today

By Allison K. Jones, Staff Reporter

So what's happened to the House of Affirmation and Central Massachusetts Health Care (CMHC) in the years since each was hit by allegations of internal wrongdoing?

Central Massachusetts Health Care is continuing to provide health care to area residents.

A federal grand jury in Boston is hearing testimony concerning questions about CMHC raised by a U.S. Postal Service inspector in May 1988, according to Joseph J. Klimavich, CMHC director of communications. "It's our understanding that they are not investigating CMHC."

"We believe this to be a continuation of the same investigation that was initiated following the lawsuit filed against former CMHC president, James M. Scoggins and others," he wrote in a press release. "CMHC was not charged with any wrongdoing in that suit."SELLING SITES

The House of Affirmation, on the other hand, is no longer providing a residential treatment program for Catholic clergy with mental health problems. Instead, the trustees of the House are selling its five sites.

Proceeds will be used to pay for treatment of religious professionals, said Edward Geary, a consultant with Siegel Dunn and Geary Inc. The Lexington firm is overseeing the maintenance and sale of the agency's assets.

The asking price on the 11-acre former headquarters on Hill Street in Whitinsville is $1.8 million, Geary said. It consists of the former Lasell mansion and a second building with 10 to 15 rooms.

The asking price on the 6.6 acre Hopedale site, which includes a former mansion of the Draper family and a second building, is $1.5 million, he said. The property is on Williams Street.

Interested parties have examined both sites for possible residential care facilities, Geary said. But no sale is in sight.

A site in Missouri was sold, along with a parcel in Florida. Other properties in Florida and California are still for sale.

The realtor is Clark Associates in Dedham.

 Oct. 17, 1987

Paul Della Valle, Staff Reporter, Worcester Telegram 

The Rev. Thomas A. Kane has agreed to pay monetary damages to the House of Affirmation, according to the House of Affirmation's board of directors.

Father Kane, a founder and former president and executive director of the House of Affirmation, has been accused of siphoning funds from the Whitinsville-based non-profit mental health center for the religious. Former executives and managers of the House of Affirmation have alleged that Kane used money and other House of Affirmation assets to enhance his extensive real estate holdings in Massachusetts, Maine and Florida.

Samuel R. De Simone of Worcester, lawyer for the House of Affirmation, said yesterday that he could not reveal the amount of the settlement because of a non-disclosure provision in the settlement. De Simone said no civil or criminal charges will be sought by the board of directors against Father Kane, who has been on sabbatical since last October.

Reports Confirmed

"In the last several months, independent counsel has corroborated previous reports of financial mismanagement," a four-page press release from the board of directors states yesterday. It also said, "Father Kane does not, and will not, have any further association with the House of Affirmation."

De Simone said Father Kane made one payment on the settlement by check yesterday and will pay the balance "shortly."

Last month, Father Kane sold one of his properties, an inn valued at more than $180,000, in Islesboro, Maine. Earlier this year, he sold a house he owns in Upton. Father Kane owns at least three condominiums in Boston, a farm in Islesboro, Maine, two condominiums in Broward County, Fla., and a house in Whitinsville, according to real estate records. De Simone said Kane also has interests in other properties in Massachusetts and Maine.

The House of Affirmation was founded in 1973. Its purpose is to counsel religious professionals, mainly Roman Catholic priests, who suffer from job stress and other mental health problems. Besides residential clinics in Whitinsville and Hopedale and an outpatient clinic in Boston, the House of Affirmation has centers in Missouri, Florida and Connecticut and is affiliated with a similar program in England. Centers in California and Natick have closed in the past year.

Although the House of Affirmation is independent of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester, it has close ties to the diocese. Bishop Timothy J. Harrington is the president and treasurer of the board.

April Probe

De Simone has been hired by the House of Affirmation in April to investigate charges that Father Kane had misused corporation funds and assets. The charges had previously been investigated for the board of directors by Frank Ryan, a retired certified public accountant from Paxton.

The allegations were first presented to the board of directors by 11 directors of House of Affirmation centers in October 1986. Father Kane was removed from all of his House of Affirmation responsibilities in May. Sister Anna Polcino, another co-founder, was at the same time placed in the non-functioning roles of chairman emeritus of the board. She is now retired and living in Jew Jersey.

Job Shuffling

Before she retired, Sister Polcino fired two of the disgruntled directors and one of their secretaries. Other center directors lost their jobs through a reorganization and center closings. Some resigned, although several have since withdrawn their resignations and have been rehired.

The same allegations were presented by the 11 center directors to Cardinal Bernard F. Law of the Archdiocese of Boston, the state attorney general's office and the Internal Revenue Service. The attorney general's office and IRS will not confirm whether they are investigating the charges.

Father Kane, a Worcester native, appeared before the board of directors Tuesday at Bishop Harrington's residence in Worcester. Besides Bishop Harrington, members of the board include two New York priests, the Rev. Alcuin Coyle and the Rev. Brendan P. Riordan. At that meeting, Bishop George E. Rueger, auxiliary bishop of the Worcester Diocese, and the Rev. Edmund J. Tinsley, also of Worcester, were elected to replace Father Kane and Sister Polcino on the five-member board.

Allegations Denied

Members of the "leadership," as the disgruntled center directors call themselves, have complained about Father Riordan's position on the board, saying he is a friend and business associate of Father Kane. De Simone said he could not comment on those allegations. De Simone and Bishop Harrington also denied the leadership's allegations that the board of directors and church had attempted to cover up the problems at the House of Affirmation by not expeditiously investigating the charges.

"Since this matter emerged, my focus has been, and continues to be, to ensure that justice and equity are reached. As a church leader, I ask others to forgive, to heal and to reconcile," Bishop Harrington said. "I intend to practice what I preach on both sides of this dispute."

Bishop Harrington said yesterday afternoon that Father Kane remains a priest in good standing with the diocese and will probably remain on sabbatical for six months to a year before appearing before the diocesan Priests Personnel Board. The board will then make a recommendation to Bishop Harrington.

Massive Good

"His assignment is to get rest – a Sabbath of rest and study," Bishop Harrington said. "I don't think anyone should ever forget that Father Kane and Sister Anna started a service that has done a massive amount of good in this country and various parts of the world."

De Simone said that although he found evidence of fiscal impropriety by Father Kane, he recommended that the board try to settle with the 46-year-old priest rather than initiate litigation.

"From a lawyer's standpoint, whenever you can resolve a dispute by settlement, you are always better off than going into litigation," he said.

De Simone said he investigated allegations that Father Kane collected double rents for properties he owned, that Father Kane used House of Affirmation employees to manage and work on his personal properties, and that Father Kane paid salaries to non-functioning employees.

Losses Included

De Simone would not say specifically what he and his investigators had found but said "whatever financial loss was suffered by the House of Affirmation was included in my recommended settlement."

De Simone did acknowledge he found evidence that Father Kane spent House of Affirmation money for purchases that went to his personal properties and that Father Kane paid a higher than commonly accepted real estate commission to his brother.

De Simone said he did not investigate whether Kane has misused the church's tax-exempt stamp when making private purchases, as has been alleged.

"The tax-exempt status is not for me to determine," De Simone said.

Attempts to reach Father Kane and his lawyer yesterday were unsuccessful. Neither Father Kane nor Arnold Solod of Boston returned phone calls placed to one of Father Kane's condominiums in Boston and Solod's law office yesterday afternoon.

House in Order

Bishop Harrington said the House of Affirmation, which is now being run by the professional management company of Siegel, Dunn and Geary Inc., of Lexington, is financially solvent and in good shape.

"The finances are in stable condition," the bishop said. "It's been in stable condition right along."

Edward Geary, the on-site manager of the corporation, said earlier this month that referrals to the House of Affirmation had dropped as reports of the controversy circulated earlier this year. That trends is now being reversed, according to the Board of Director's press release.

"The incident and its attendant investigation and the adopted recommendations resulted in placing the corporation in a sound administrative and financial posture," the release states.

"The board of directors may now turn its full attention to the primary mission of the House of Affirmation – this is, retreats for religious professionals who are suffering stress and other psychological problems," the release states.

The release continued, "The House is now looking forward to continuing its primary mission, after a most distressful period of time in its long history."

Bishop Harrington and Geary recently met with Florida church officials to plan the opening of two new outpatient clinics in that state.

Oct. 7, 1987

by Paul Della Valle,The Telegram Staff

The Rev. Thomas A. Kane, a Roman Catholic priest who has been accused of financial misdealing while he was president of the House of Affirmation, is scheduled to appear before the organization's board of directors next Wednesday.