"I know I sound like a broken record," according to one memo from Sister Catherine that was released in 2002, "but we need to put in church bulletins 'It has come to our attention a priest stationed here between 19XX and 19XX may have molested children - please contact . . . ' "
She said in a deposition that archdiocese leaders ignored her repeated concerns that priests accused of sexual abuse were allowed to return to parish work without the kind of supervision she had recommended.
"I expressed concern, consternation. What are we thinking of? What are you thinking of?" Sister Catherine said in a deposition released April 8, 2003, about her conversations with Bishop John McCormack, her boss who handled sexual abuse complaints involving priests as an aide to Cardinal Bernard Law, then head of the archdiocese. Law resigned in 2003. McCormack became bishop of New Hampshire in 1998.
She said in the deposition McCormack told her he was trying to address her concerns. He later said through a spokesman he was following policy, but acknowledged he made mistakes during his time in Boston.
"She really confronted the Archdiocese of Boston six years before the sexual abuse scandal broke out . . . I think that she was incredibly brave to do that," said Sheila Boyle, 60, of Malden, an editor and author who received a settlement from the church after she was abused by a now-defrocked priest.
Boyle said the nun's sensitive and compassionate handling of sexual abuse victims avoided subjecting them to additional psychological trauma.
She leaves her brother, Joseph Mulkerrin of Virginia Beach, Va.
Prayers of Final Commendation were scheduled for this morning in Motherhouse Chapel. Burial will follow at St. Patrick's Cemetery, Natick.
