Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law told the Vatican in 1999 that his archdiocese had assigned a priest with a past history of child sex abuse to two parishes where he had abused six more boys.
Law's admission that the archdiocese had assigned the Rev. Robert Burns to parish positions despite advice that he be kept out of jobs that would put him in contact with minors appeared in a letter that was among thousands of church documents released on Tuesday.
The documents -- personnel files on eight priests accused of sexual misconduct -- were the first of about 65 files that a Massachusetts judge ordered be made public last month as part of civil lawsuits over the archdiocese's handling of another priest, the Rev. Paul Shanley, who has been indicted on charges of raping four boys.
The release of the files marked the latest chapter in a sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the U.S. Roman Catholic church since January. It came amid reports the archdiocese may declare bankruptcy as a way of dealing with the estimated 450 lawsuits it faces from people who charge they were sexually abused by clergymen.
Lawyers for Shanley's alleged victims said the personnel files prove a central claim in their lawsuits: that the archdiocese routinely protected and reassigned priests accused of sexually abusing children.
A spokeswoman for the archdiocese was not immediately available for comment.
PRIEST'S PROBLEM 'OVERLOOKED'
In a memo to Rome dated May 6, 1999, Law explained that the archdiocese had assigned Burns to two Boston parishes even though it had been advised by a center for troubled priests that the man should not be given a job that would put him in contact with minors because of his prior record of abuse.
Burns had spent time at the center in 1981 and 1982 to "treat incidents of and a proclivity toward sexual activity with boys," according to a memo that accompanied Law's letter.
"This propensity was known to officials within the Archdiocese of Boston, but overlooked in favor of Father Burns' solemn assurance of his ability to control his impulses," according to the document sent to the Vatican.
Neither of his immediate supervisors at the parishes were told he should be kept away from children, the memo said.
At the time the memo was written, the archdiocese said it was aware of at least six young men whom Burns allegedly molested while he worked in Boston between 1982 and 1991.
The memo said the archdiocese had reached out-of-court settlements with three of the six victims for a total of $2.225 million.
Burns came to Boston from the diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, where he had also been accused of molesting boys.
In 1996, after he left the Boston church, he pleaded guilty to criminal charges that he had sexually assaulted boys in New Hampshire. He was sentenced to two consecutive four- to eight-year prison terms.
The church abuse scandal exploded earlier this year after files released in the case of another accused pedophile priest showed that Boston Cardinal Bernard Law and other church leaders knew about the man's behavior but instead chose to shuttle him from parish to parish.
Law has apologized repeatedly for his handling of alleged sexually abusive priests, but has rejected parishioners' calls that he step down from his post.