A Boston Globe investigation published Monday revealed that Rev. Barry Gamache from St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Bristol, R.I. knew that a parishioner, David E. Barboza, was accused of sexually abusing young boys, yet kept him on at the church to help with their finances.
In an earlier Globe investigation this summer on Barboza, Gamache told the Globe that he was “surprised and hurt” by the revelations about Barboza’s history of abuse. The Diocese of Providence’s records obtained by the Globe shows Gamache first was informed about Barboza in 1998.
Reverend Irene Monroe and Reverend Emmett G.Price III joined Boston Public Radio for another edition of "All Revved Up" to discuss if the church will ever be able to dissociate itself from this growing legacy of abuse. Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, as well as a visiting researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology. Price is the Professor of Worship, Church & Culture and Founding Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Price was hopeful and said that one day, the Catholic church will not be defined by their sexual abuse scandals. “It will end,” Price said. “I think the challenge is that we are still uncovering [more allegations of abuse].”
Monroe did not agree. “I am not optimistic about it,” she said. “I don’t think it will end until you change doctrine. I don’t think when you have the perpetrators and enablers of this crisis to police themselves that they can do that.”
