Here’s an abuser I actually know, although not that well. Father Paul Tivnan is accused of abuse.
- Since the early 1980s, church officials have doled out thousands of dollars to pay for the Rev. Paul Tivnan’s housing, therapy, dental and medical costs, including a breast reduction in 1985 - despite his admission he molested two boys in the late 1970s. “The accusation is that Paul Tivnan, while stationed in (Sudbury, Needham and Marlboro), has used his office to gain sexual satisfaction with these youth,’’ according to church records.
Later on it says that Tivnan had the surgery because he suffers from Klinefelter’s syndrome, a genetic disorder.
Tivnan filled in occasionally for Masses at my parish, Immaculate Conception in Salem, Mass., a couple of years ago. My pastor, Fr. Tim Murphy, introduced me to him at the time. My impression of him was that he had an antipathy for Mother Angelica, was not impressed with the fact that I work for a strongly orthodox magazine, that he dissented from certain dogmatic Church teachings, and that he liked to play piano and sing show tunes. I’m not stereotyping. That’s what I remember.
Sometime before the Scandal broke open last January he was asked to stop celebrating Masses at Immaculate. He seemed a sad, pathetic, broken man. And he evidently did evil, disgusting things.
