Gerald Fitzgerald (priest)

In 1916, Fitzgerald entered St. John's Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts and on May 21, 1921 was ordained for the Archdiocese of Boston in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

When Fitzgerald put out a request for a sponsor who would provide a location for him to situate his new religious order, Archbishop Edwin V. Byrne of Santa Fe was the only person who responded.

Fitzgerald's therapeutic approach was focused on spiritual healing based on his conviction that intense prayer could bring about the changes needed in the priest's behavior.

In 1957, Fitzgerald wrote of the Paracletes' intent to stop taking sexual abusers: "Experience has taught us these men are too dangerous to the children of the parish and neighborhood for us to be justified in receiving them here."

In general, it appears that bishops relied upon the advice of medical and psychological experts who asserted that treatment and return to ministry were feasible for sexually abusive priests.

[2] In a 1952 letter to Bishop Robert Dwyer of Reno, Fitzgerald wrote: I myself would be inclined to favor laicization for any priest, upon objective evidence, for tampering with the virtue of the young, my argument being, from this point onward the charity to the Mystical Body should take precedence over charity to the individual, [...] Moreover, in practice, real conversions will be found to be extremely rare [...] Hence, leaving them on duty or wandering from diocese to diocese is contributing to scandal or at least to the approximate danger of scandal.

[3] In a letter written in 1957 to Archbishop Byrne, his ecclesiastical sponsor and co-founder of the Paracletes, Fitzgerald suggested that child abusers be assigned to a life of prayer on an island away from society.

[2][4] In April 1962, Fitzgerald prepared a report at the request of the Congregation of the Holy Office discussing sexual abuse of minors, among other issues.

His follow-up letter read: "Personally I am not sanguine of the return of priests to active duty who have been addicted to abnormal practices, especially sins with the young.

However, the needs of the church must be taken into consideration and an activation of priests who have seemingly recovered in this field may be considered but is only recommended where careful guidance and supervision is possible.

Stephen J. Rossetti, president and CEO of St. Luke Institute, a facility that treats problem priests, believes Fitzgerald was ignored because he was, "A lone voice speaking out of an emotional reaction to the abuse, not from scientifically sound information."

Dominican Father Thomas Doyle, on the other hand, long a critic of the church's handling of the crisis, said Fitzgerald was ignored because the bishops preferred not to confront the problem.

"[7] Fitzgerald developed a vision for a retreat on a remote island in the Caribbean in which sexually predatory priests would be sequestered for the remainder of their lives.