Patrick McSorley

Patrick McSorley
A

andrew51

Registrant
Boston
February 25, 2004

Patrick McSorley, an outspoken victim of the clerical sex abuse scandal that rocked Boston Catholics, has died.

Mr McSorley was 29. The cause of death was not released.

His lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, who often appeared with Mr McSorley at news conferences, said police had told him of the death on Monday. "They told me he was found in an apartment in Boston," he said.

Mr McSorley was sexually abused by defrocked Boston priest John Geoghan, who was killed by a fellow inmate in prison last year.

During the long-running scandal caused by revelations of Geoghan's crimes, Mr McSorley was a vocal critic of the Catholic leadership, which he accused of covering up the abuse. He particularly attacked administrators for transferring accused priests from parish to parish, allowing them to commit further abuses.

Mr Garabedian said: "Patrick McSorley was a voice in the wilderness for many victims and he is a hero to those who have been sexually molested by priests and society as a whole."

Mr McSorley was one of 86 Geoghan victims who shared a $10 million ($A13 million) compensation payout in 2002.
 
Hi all,

I just needed to respond to this terrible news by saying that I wish we had a "survivor quilt" for all the brothers we've lost. There should be some tangible way that every man be forever remembered.

Taz
 
Patrick was 12 years old. He was out playing ball in his Boston neighbourhood when he heard his mother call for him out the window of their apartment. When he went inside, she introduced him to the Rev. John J. Geoghan, a priest and an old family friend who had just learned of McSorley's father's suicide, some years earlier. The priest offered to take him out for ice cream. Driving slowly home from Brigham's, Father Geoghan patted the youngster's leg. "I'm sorry to hear about your father's death," he said consolingly. "For a young boy like you, that's an awful loss." By the time he uttered that last word, the priest's hands were inside the child's shorts, McSorley says. Terrified, the boy said nothing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the priest fondling himself, he says. He remembers staring out the windshield for a very long time, as ice cream melted down his elbow till nothing at all was left.

It was like his life melted with that ice cream.
 
I am crying for Patrick. I am crying for me. I am crying because I truly believe that there is no God. I am crying for all of us who try every day to endure this perpetual pain. I am crying for all of us who survive and for those of us who do not.
 
Out of all of the stories and events that have happened since I came to MS, the "successful" suicides affect me the most. They bring an overwhelming sense of defeat, sadness, and empathy. When this shit becomes too much to bear, for many of us suicide seems to be the only way out. I know that there was no cause of death listed for Patrick, but whether it was suicide or an overdose or something else altogether, it still feels like the fucker that did this to him and the institution that covered it up won in the end.

I think the hardest part about this story is that he was a fighter. He fought for the men that were afraid to come forward. He took the brunt of the criticism and doubt, along with a few other key fighters that came forward up here in MA, after the church "scandal" broke. (On a side note, have you ever noticed that these abuses - these CRIMES - are always labeled "scandals"? The word itself cheapens and downplays the act and the after-effects of SA.)

I'm sorry that the world has lost Patrick.

-Sean
 
I did not know of this man, his name, or I had forgotten it. But always, to lose another survivor to the affects of their past, it is very incredibly hard.

Leosha
 
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