1 1 Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse Meets the Civil Law by Thomas P ...

of Affirmation, founded in 1970, as an outpatient counseling center in Worcester,
Massachusetts. 138 It was founded by Reverend Thomas Kane, who claimed to have a psychology
degree from the University of Birmingham, and the late Sister Anna Polcino, a Maryknoll Sister
and trained psychiatrist. 139 The organization developed an in-patient program, with several
satellite facilities throughout the United States. The facility treated numerous priests with sexual
problems until 1989. 140 Father Kane left his position two years prior to this, after several of the
center’s managers and executives brought allegations of financial improprieties. 141 After that,
the organization suffered more setbacks which came to a head in 1993, when a lawsuit was filed
against Kane that named him as an abuser. 142 While questions about the professional integrity of
several of these and other institutions commonly used by Catholic religious leaders for the
treatment of sexually abusing clerics have arisen over the years, for our purposes the most
problematic revelation to arise in recent months has concerned the bishops' responses to clinical
reports submitted to them.
These reports provide scientific proof of psychological problems that ran rampant
amongst clergy members, which Church leadership has chosen to ignore. At the conclusion of a
forced to pay millions of dollars to settle lawsuits against [former priest James] Porter.” Id.
138
See The House of Affirmation and the Worcester Diocese, Geminiwalker, at www.geminiwalker-ink.net (last
visited Oct. 24, 2003);
139
Id.; see also Andrew O’Connor, The Diocese and the D.A, Worcester Magazine Online, available at
http://www.worcestermag.com/archives/archives/03-14-02/Cover.htm (Mar. 14, 2002); Leslie Payne, Salt for their
wounds, Catholic World Report, Feb. 1997, Vol. 7, No. 2.
140
See The House of Affirmation and the Worcester Diocese, supra note 139.
141
Jason Berry, Lead Us Not Into Temptation 281 (1st ed., Doubleday 1992). “Former Worcester Magazine coeditor
Paul Della Valle reported in 1992 that Kane had embezzled a large sum of money from The House of
Affirmation, which he helped found in 1973. There was no criminal case because Kane made an out-of-court
settlement. The money that he was taking was thought to be going to support real estate investments. Among other
properties, Kane was caught owning an inn in Isleboro, ME, which he would later sell for $650,000, condominiums
in Florida and Boston, and a Newbury Street pet store in Boston reportedly called Fish on a Lease.” O’Connor,
supra note 139.
142
See Richard Nangle & Kathleen Shaw, Accused Priest in Mexico, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Feb. 7,
2002, at A1, available at www.telegram.com/crisisinthechurch/020702.html.
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