Latest news with #MonsignorStrahan
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
'Always felt he didn't do it.' Framingham priest, 91, cleared of sex abuse allegations
When allegations of sexual assault were levied in 2019 against St. Bridget Parish's longtime pastor, Monsignor Francis V. Strahan, parishioner Marian Grant firmly said at the time that she did not believe them. On Saturday, May 17, the Archdiocese of Boston announced that Strahan, 91, has been cleared of both civil and canonical allegations of sexual abuse of a minor — and Grant said she feels her feelings were justified. 'I feel the same as I did in 2019,' she said. 'I felt he was not guilty, and I still think he's not guilty. He is a great guy and a great monsignor, and I always felt he didn't do it.' In a press release, the Archdiocese of Boston announced it has concluded its investigation and 'found that the allegations did not have a semblance of truth, and are therefore unsubstantiated.' 'A good, loving, kind priest': St. Bridget parishoners shaken by abuse allegations Strahan, who celebrated his 60th year as a priest earlier in 2019, is allowed to return to public ministry. But according to an Archdiocese spokesman, Strahan is a senior priest, which essentially means he is retired. He will not return to his previous post at St. Bridget. 'The Archdiocese is committed to assisting Msgr Strahan who is at an advanced age and currently a senior priest,' according to the release. No one from St. Bridget would comment. A woman who answered the phone said the Archdiocese of Boston told those at St. Bridget to refer all media inquiries to the Archdiocese. However, Grant said, it was announced Sunday that Strahan would be visting St. Bridget sometime in June to see parishioners. The Archdiocese spokemsan could not confirm if and when that will occur. Strahan had been at St. Bridget in Framingham for 36 years at the time the allegations surfaced in 2019. He was removed as a priest at the church. A man, then in his 20s, claimed Strahan had assaulted him in the mid-2000s when the man was 11 to 13 years old. The boy was a student at St. Bridget School and an alter server at the Route 9 church. In November 2022, a Middlesex County grand jury indicted Strahan and charged him with one count of rape of a child and three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child younger than 14. Less than a year later, in September 2023, the Middlesex District Attorney's Office filed a nolle prosqui in Middlesex Superior Court, meaning it would not prosecute the case. In court papers, prosecutors said they were ready for trial, but the accuser told the DA's office he did not want to go forward because preparing for the trial was causing post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and he was worried that testifying would affect both his mental and physical health. Accuser won't testify: Longtime Framingham pastor's sexual assault charges dropped A superior court judge dismissed the case. The Archdiocese then announced it would resume its own investigation, and announced its findings on Saturday. 'Allegations of abuse are often complex matters that take time and require the investigative bodies to be thorough and fair to all parties involved,' the Archdiocese said in the release. 'It is during this process that allegations are weighed against the facts derived through investigation by secular law enforcement and by Archdiocesan investigators in keeping with canon law.' As for Grant, she never doubted Strahan and said she was overjoyed when the news of Strahan's reinstatement was announced Sunday during Mass at St. Bridget. 'I really can't wait to see him,' she said. Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@ For up-to-date public safety news, follow him on X @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Boston Archdiocese clears Framingham priest of sex assault allegation
Washington Post
19-05-2025
- Washington Post
Massachusetts priest returns to public ministry after child rape charges dropped against him
BOSTON — A Roman Catholic priest from Massachusetts will return to public ministry after charges that he sexually assaulted a child more than two decades ago were dropped. In 2022, Monsignor Francis Strahan was indicted on forcible child rape and indecent assault and battery charges. Strahan was accused of assaulting an altar boy when he was a priest at St. Bridget Parish in Framingham, a Boston suburb, on two occasions from 2004 until 2008 when the boy was between the ages of 11 and 13.
Associated Press
19-05-2025
- Associated Press
Massachusetts priest returns to public ministry after child rape charges dropped against him
BOSTON (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest from Massachusetts will return to public ministry after charges that he sexually assaulted a child more than two decades ago were dropped. In 2022, Monsignor Francis Strahan was indicted on forcible child rape and indecent assault and battery charges. Strahan was accused of assaulting an altar boy when he was a priest at St. Bridget Parish in Framingham, a Boston suburb, on two occasions from 2004 until 2008 when the boy was between the ages of 11 and 13. But over the weekend, the Archdiocese of Boston said Strahan, a senior priest who retired, had been cleared of civil and canonical allegations and would return to public ministry. Criminal charges were dropped in 2023, and the Archdiocese said it had completed its canonical investigation, which found that the allegations 'did not have a semblance of truth, and therefore unsubstantiated.' 'We recognize the significant impact this has had on Msgr. Strahan, his loved ones, his parishioners and many priests,' the Archdiocese of Boston said in a statement. 'Allegations of abuse are often complex matters that take time and require the investigative bodies to be thorough and fair to all parties involved. It is during this process that allegations are weighed against the facts derived through investigation by secular law enforcement and by Archdiocesan investigators in keeping with canon law.' But Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, the main group in the U.S. for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, argued Strahan 'should be permanently removed from the ministry' over the abuse case. 'Although the victim ultimately chose not to testify in 2023 due to the toll it would take on his physical and mental health, this decision in no way undermines the credibility or significance of the detailed reports he made to law enforcement,' the group said in a statement. 'The Archdiocese of Boston has provided no substantiating evidence for its claim that the allegations 'did not have a semblance of truth'.' Strahan will not be assigned to a specific parish and is no longer pastor at St. Bridget. But he will be able to officiate funerals and weddings. At the time of the charges, his lawyer, Thomas Hoopes, said his client was not guilty. 'This is a gross injustice for a man who has devoted his life to serving people and his parish.' Hoopes could not be reached for comment on Monday. Strahan was placed on administrative leave in October 2019 when the archdiocese learned of the allegations. After the charges were announced, the archdiocese said he would remain on administrative leave and unable to perform any public ministry pending the case's outcome. He resigned as pastor of St. Bridget, a position he had held since 1983. In 2002, the clergy abuse scandal was sparked by a series of stories in The Boston Globe that revealed that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, and his predecessors had transferred child-molesting priests from parish to parish without alerting parents or police. Law, who died in 2017, resigned as archbishop in 2002. Within months, Catholics around the country demanded to know whether their bishops had done the same. And the scandal quickly spread overseas, to Ireland, Belgium, Chile, Australia and beyond. The scandal was later chronicled in the Oscar-winning film 'Spotlight.'
