Nearly all of Braley’s assignments over the last 37 years have been in Massachusetts, including chaplain to Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree (1981-86) and associate pastor at St. Peter Parish in Cambridge (1975-81), according to Kellyanne Dignan, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese.
Dignan said church officials notified the state attorney general’s office and the local district attorney’s office of the allegations, but she declined to give details of the allegation.
“To protect the privacy of the individual who came forward and to preserve the integrity of the investigation, I cannot provide any additional information about the allegation we received,’’ Dignan said.
Melissa Karpinsky, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general’s office, said she did not know whether the office had been notified of the allegation.
Cara O’Brien, a spokeswoman for Middlesex County District Attorney Gerard T. Leone, whose jurisdiction includes Cambridge, said that office is reviewing the referral from the archdiocese. She declined to comment further about the matter. David Traub, spokesman for the Norfolk district attorney’s office, which oversees Braintree, said his office had not received notification of new allegations. Nor had the Plymouth district attorney’s office or Plymouth police, according to Assistant District Attorney Bridget Norton Middleton.
Braley’s leave bars him from ministering or presenting himself publicly as a priest, Dignan said. He also can no longer live at the rectory. He will receive his full pay pending the outcome, she said.
Braley, known as Father Jim, was the third pastor at the Plymouth parish, said longtime town resident Ann Wollman, an active parishioner since its founding in 1982.
“I can’t believe it,’’ Wollman said after hearing of the news from archdiocese officials. “It’s got to be wrong. All I can say is it just doesn’t sound like the person that I know.’’
Other parishioners and parish staff declined to comment or return calls seeking comment yesterday.
