A former priest from New Jersey joined a weekly protest in front of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston Sunday, issuing a challenge to Cardinal Sean O’Malley about an alleged coverup of clerical sexual misconduct.
The six protesters focused on Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C. McCarrick, who once practiced in New Jersey, was removed from the ministry in June and resigned in July amid reports that he had sexually assaulted minors and abused seminarians.
“We’re asking him to come clean, tell us what he knows, about the allegations of sexual abuse against Cardinal McCarrick,’’ said Robert M. Hoatson, the former priest who is now the director of Road to Recovery, an organization that advocates for victims of clerical abuse. “We’re here because Cardinal O’Malley has yet to admit that he should have done something about Cardinal McCarrick.’’
Hoatson and other protesters said O’Malley should have taken action against McCarrick for his alleged offenses after 2015, when O’Malley’s office received a letter containing allegations that included his taking seminarians to his Jersey Shore beach house and giving his favorites special privileges.
The archdiocese declined to comment Sunday.
In a June statement, O’Malley said he “did not personally receive’’ the letter and that it was reviewed “at the staff level.’’
The protest followed the release this week of a Pennsylvania grand jury report into seven decades of clerical sex abuse,
The protesters said a statement from the cardinal about the abuse, which was read in churches throughout Greater Boston this weekend, was hypocritical because they believe he failed to act three years ago.
“Once again we hear each excruciating word they share,’’ O’Malley’s statement on abuse read. “We remain shamed by these egregious failures to protect children and those who are vulnerable.’’
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer who has represented many victims during the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal, said O’Malley’s statement was “disappointing,’’ “hollow,’’ and “too little too late.’’
“Although it discusses the idea of change, there is no specific description of what changes will be made,’’ Garabedian said in a statement.
Several protesters also expressed frustrations.
“The words are nice, but I’ve heard them before,’’ said Steve Sheehan, 85, who listened to the statement from his pew in St. Ignatius Church in Chestnut Hill before attending the protest. “We get words on, and on, and on. And no action.’’
Protesters pointed to the 2015 letter about McCarrick, which was written by the Rev. Boniface Ramsey, who is currently a priest in New York City. In his letter, Ramsey suggested the abuse was widely known.
“Was it not taking advantage of young men who did not know how to say no to their archbishop?’’ Ramsey wrote.
In a phone interview Sunday afternoon, Ramsey said he wrote to the Boston cardinal because O’Malley is the president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, a four-year-old institution within the church that advises the pope about clerical sex abuse.
“He was the closest thing I could think of, the closest person I could think of that might have any relationship to this kind of activity,’’ Ramsey said. “His mandate was the abuse of minors, but we didn’t have anybody for the abuse of adults.’’
As a leader in addressing the ongoing clergy abuse crisis, O’Malley is among Pope Francis’ closest American advisors.
“It was common knowledge, what McCarrick was doing,’’ Ramsey said. “You would have had to have been willfully deaf not to know.’’
Ramsey said he received a June reply from O’Malley’s secretary that said the cardinal dealt only with child protection policies and that the commission would leave individual complaints to local authorities.
In June, McCarrick was formally accused of molesting a 16-year-old altar boy nearly 50 years ago, a matter that would have fallen under O’Malley’s purview. Other allegations of abuse have been reported.
Hoatson brought a photo that O’Malley posted to his blog in September 2015 showing the Boston cardinal and McCarrick smiling at a fund-raiser three months after O’Malley’s office received Ramsey’s letter. In the photo, Mayor Martin J. Walsh and former mayor Raymond Flynn stood smiling next to the two clergymen.
On Sunday, the protesters said they believed a letter with such specific allegations about abuse would probably have at least crossed the cardinal’s desk.
“This is the cardinal’s letter,’’ said Paul Kellan, 82, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a copy. “The last line is what gets me: ‘There is no time to waste.’ What is that? I was here for 14 years every single Sunday in front of this church, and now they’re rushing?’’
Amelia Nierenberg can be reached at amelia.nierenberg@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ajnierenberg.
