13 JOIN TO SUE BOSTON ARCHDIOCESE

PFMLIT CLERGY, General, SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS IN POSITIONS OF TRUST

The late Rev. Joseph Birmingham, whose nickname was Father B, is accused of sexual abuse by a growing list of boys, including 13 who on Thursday joined in a lawsuit against the Boston archdiocese and church officials, including Cardinal Bernard Law.  The suit charges the church with covering up Birmingham's sex crimes, shuffling him among six parishes and ignoring parents who told church officials about the abuse.  Birmingham started in Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Sudbury, Mass., in 1961 before moving to Salem, Lowell and then Boston.  He passed away in 1989.  The suit said that Law tried to silence one victim who told him about Birmingham by laying hands on him and invoking the power of confession never to speak of the matter.

(Boston, Massachusetts)