Remembering Father Ward

sounds like the same old story. i was a victim of a priest that was shuttled around from parish to parish in the 60-70-80's until he got some type of "cancer" and died.treateed in physc hospitals for his sickness and then sent back to the lambs in some new unsuspecting town. when he got sick some thought aids and the stories never really stopped.lots of young vulnerable kids being pulled into rectorys and fondled or worse.it seems like it was always the cool priest or the fun priest.let me tell you , its no fun having the man your mother thinks is a saint sticking his hand down your pants and telling you its what God wants. I hate to say it but i would say more than half of the priests from the 1920's up until the scandal broke were dirty in some way.i hope you get lots of bad stories about fr ward. the priest that got me was caught this way. some guy that was a victim back in the 60's put classified ads in the towns he had served as a priest and the stories started coming out of the woodwork.

I have just read the blog statement about Fr. Ward and the comments on file so far. The comments have to do with Fr. Birmingham and have nothing to do with Fr. Ward. I know Fr. Ward. His service to the people of St. Catherine of Genoa was generous and holy and inspired. Because I know Fr. Ward, I can tell you that he did have cancer and his remission was a blessing. Regarding the other topic: treatment for addiction - this is mandated by the diocese and was successful. There was never any child pornography on Fr. Ward's computer, let alone 'extensive child pornography.' Finally, the accusation of improper touching is just that: a single unsubstantiated accusation. Because of the U.S. BIshops' decision to implement the Zero Tolerance Act, voted on in Dallas, every priest accused of improper conduct was fired. There was no due process, no trial, no defense. If you remember, the accusation against Fr. Ward came at the time of the height of the cries from the self proclaimed victims' lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, regarding how much money he could get from the archdiocese for priest abuse in general. The stories and hatred which have followed Fr. Ward are consistent with the witch hunts of the past. They have little care for truth. If you remember Fr. Ward as a kind, intelligent, talented and insightful priest, then you do not need to spend your time following witch hunt stories. You know the truth: Fr. Ward was a great priest and his going is our loss.

i grew up going to st. denis in westwood, ma in the 80's and 90's. i think i was maybe 7 or 8 when they introduced fr. ward as the replacement of father pratt(?) who moved on somewhere. looking at father ward in church that day at that young age, a strong thought crossed my mind: he looks demonic. he had big ,wide eyes and a red mouth, pale skin and strawberry blond hair that seemed to grow straight up in almost two big masses-like horns. none of this is an exaggeration, i am truly describing him as he looked to me as a child. it was obviously an unusually memorable thing for me to remember it in such detail. he was singing a song up on stage(not sure what they call it up there). the word DEMONIC stood out in my head. and i thought he looked like The Devil.
I think I know what type of things he is accused of; intuitively i can make a pretty good guess because one of my close friends throughout childhood, her family was unusually close with him. and they were a family that often acted strangely, had strict rules and seemed hush-hush about things but i couldnt figure out why.

if i were father ward i'm sure it would hurt my feelings to know a child was thinking terrible things about him the first time i ever saw him. it's crazy that i sensed something amiss, im not prone to being suspicious of people and had no reason to be of priests or anyone else.

I also went to St. Theresa's and remember Father Ward quite well. He was my favorite priest, and many people made it a point to attend his masses so that they could listen to his incredible singing voice. He had a wonderful sense of humor and was the type of priest that could bring anyone back into the Catholic Church. What a shock when I found out about the "real" Father Ward.

Regarding the cancer, I remember that he supposedly had two bouts with it when I was in school. The first bout was with his nose (he had something cancerous removed from it). The second bout was in his bladder. I'm not entirely sure that the cancer was a lie, but you never know. Shortly after he had "surgery" to remove cancer from his bladder, he was joking around one day and kind of leaped forward. He then moaned because it supposedly "hurt" his bladder when he did that. If he never had cancer, he certainly put on a good act. Of course, he put on a good act, anyway.

Another ironic thing happened when I was in 8th grade. St. Theresa's had a day for sex education. Boys and girls were put into separate classes. Father Ward was teaching the boys' class! I also remember that he was against birth control. After he left St. Theresa's, he went to St. Denis' in Westwood. The people out there loved him, too.

After the pedophile scandal broke, I remember thinking that Father Ward was the LAST priest I would ever expect to be involved in that. I was SHOCKED when it came out in the paper. He was given two hours to gather up his things and leave. His sister was complaining that it was a witch hunt. The paper said that there was an incident in the late 1970's with a boy. That was supposed to be the only incident. Even then, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. It wasn't until later when I found out that he had downloaded excessive amounts of kiddie porn on his computer. He was lucky he didn't end up in jail for that. I hear now that there were many other stories about Father Ward, and I'm sure there will be more in the future. The last I heard, he was living with his sister. What I have learned from this is that you never really know anybody!

I was an alter boy for Fr. Ward and had a very similar experinece to you. He was a funny, fun loving guy who I remember very well. The last i heard 2005, he was selling real estate in the Brighton, Chestnut Hill area, and doing very well. My mom keeps up with him (once ever few years) and that's the last i asked. But now that i was led here, i'm going to ask her again.

I grew up in West Roxbury and got to know Father Ward fairly well from attending CCD classes, making my First Communion and routinely attending Sunday Mass. I only know Father Ward to be a kind, compassionate, intelligent, well spoken individual, priest and friend, who conducted himself in nothing but a professional manner. As a young boy, there were several instances when I was alone with Father Ward and never did he act inappropriately. I valued his advice and friendship and was and continue to be in complete shock over past reported allegations of misconduct. I only know of Father Ward being an upstanding priest and highly regarded member of our community. He was admired and loved by all who were fortunate to have the opportunity to know him. I don't know of the validity of any claims that were made against him, and it truly saddens me to see his good reputation tarnished. The Father Ward that I knew was a good, decent, respectful, honorable man and priest.