Good Shepherd Monsignor Accused Of Sexual Abuse


by on Oct 17th, 2011

Brady, with Assemblywoman Weinstein, at Good Shepherd Sports Annual Little League's opening day celebration earlier this year. (Source: assembly.state.ny.us)

A well-respected long-time monsignor at Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church (1950 Batchelder Street) in Marine Park was arrested on Friday following allegations that he attempted “inappropriate sexual contact” with teenage boys earlier in the week.

Police arrested 77-year-old Msgr. Thomas Brady, a 20-year leader of the parish who retired in 2009, after a 13-year-old boy accused him of sexual misconduct earlier in the week. According to the New York Times, the charges against Brady include endangering the welfare of a child and attempted sexual abuse. The criminal complaint has not been made public, but it has been revealed that during the diocese’s investigation, a second teenage boy also came forward to describe misconduct. The alleged attempted abuses occurred on the same day.

Brady is a highly-regarded leader known to many in the community, and has also been an FDNY chaplain for about 25 years. He retired in 2009 and is undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer, and has also suffered several strokes. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has handed over prosecution of Brady to the Staten Island DA’s office, citing a conflict-of-interest, since he and Brady are “longtime acquaintances,” according to the Times.

Meanwhile, the Daily News and Brooklyn Daily have documented the community’s disbelief at hearing the news.

From the Daily News:

“It can’t be true. Not Father Brady. No way,” said Dot Harris, 67, who has attended services at Brady’s church, Good Shepherd, in Mill Basin for 12 years. “This is all nonsense.”

“He’s a good man,” said Good Shepherd Church parishioner Jackie Hunter, 57. “I don’t believe the accusations.”

… ”He’s a trusted member of the community,” she said. “Everyone is just devastated that someone would make these allegations.”

… A parishioner who didn’t want to give his name said the allegations couldn’t possibly be true.

“He’s so sick,” the man said. “I saw him yesterday morning. He can barely move.”

From Brooklyn Daily:

“I can’t believe [Brady] could do something like this to a child … he loves kids,” explained Marine Park resident Connie Donahue outside of Good Shepherd Church on Sunday. “He put this parish together after 9-11 because we lost so many firefighters here. I’m hoping [the charges] are a mistake.”

Parishioner Pat Davis agreed. Msgr. Brady is too sick to accost anyone, she said.

“He’s almost 80 and has had numerous strokes,” she said. “If he was in a nursing home, none of this would have happened. I guess anything is possible. But I doubt this is true.”

Another parishioner, who wished not to be named, also shot down the teens’ claims, but was open to the possibility that Brady’s illness may have caused “some kind of breakdown.”

“I know him pretty well,” the woman said. “This is not him.”

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  • Anonymous

    Well, this solves the mystery of who snapped the Morning Mug photo posted earlier today.  Tudam Bum.

  • Barkingspider7

    I have family members who attended this church/school.  I knew Msgr Brady, and he seemed like a nice enough guy, but who knows.  I think that things like this would not happen if the Catholic church would allow their clergy to marry.  I think that celebacy rule for the priest is rediculous.  All human beings need love.

    • Anonymous

      Your ignorance shines through when you suggest that heterosexual intimacy in the context of marriage has anything to do with countering homosexual pedophilia.  One urge has nothing to do with the other.  Celibacy does not make one a sexual deviant, and marital sex would not prevent one from being a deviant, either.  

      • http://www.njluxurymotors.com Arthur Borko

        I think you’re not understanding why these “deviants” choose these careers. Typically it’s out of the mistaken belief that you can “wish” or “pray” their desires away. That if they live a chaste lifestyle they’ll change. Then others choose the path because they are predators and it puts them in a trusting position with their chosen prey.

        If the Catholic Church allowed Clergy to have normal relationships, physical and otherwise, then it wouldn’t be an attractive place for closet homosexuals or deviant predators to hide.

        • Anonymous

          I understand perfectly well that some individuals with deviant desires may seek out a celibate lifestyle as a way to avoid temptation, or that others intentionally choose a position that grants access to the victims of their choice….  That has nothing to do with Barkingspider’s comment, which implies that access to heterosexual intimacy would somehow prevent pedophiliac acts.  

          • http://www.njluxurymotors.com Arthur Borko

            I’m sorry you seem to be confused. He said “ I think that things like this would not happen if the Catholic church would allow their clergy to marry.  I think that celebacy rule for the priest is rediculous.  All human beings need love.”

            I’m not sure where “heterosexual intimacy” came from. What gay priests don’t exist? They don’t deserve to get married too? Everyone deserves to be happy. If you remove this magical restriction and the insane presumption that Priests don’t have desires like every one else then it’s no longer a suitable place for someone with “deviant” desires to hide.

            Access to a “normal” lifestyle period would help prevent perdophliac acts. Not all certainly but some.

  • CJ

    I love how the community immediately jump behind this man simply because he is their religious leader.  What incentive would a 13 year old boy have to lie about this man who is dying?  What could they possibly get?  This is why rampant wrongdoings will continue to go in within religious communities because everyone keeps their shit in house so as to avoid social scrutiny.  Keep covering for guys like this and your children will continue to be molested. Morons. 

    • In God we trust

      I guess our basic right to remain innocent until PROVEN guilty is just another that will bo by the wayside?    I can certainly understand some people’s frustration with the way SOME of the wrongdoings of clergy are dealt with…But, this does NOT justify a lynching without anything but an allegation.

      Vent if you must……but NOT without consideration for everyone else’s sensativities.

    • Anonymous

      We haven’t jumped behing him simply because he is our religious leader.  We’ve jumped behind him because his 52 years of service, more than 20 of which have been in our very parish, have proven his character to us over and over.  This is a man who has been alone with children for countless hours without so much of a hint at inappropriate behavior.  He’s been a personal hero to many of us.  The alleged actions of a very sick, heavily medicated man do not reflect the healthy person we once knew.  

  • Kpd

    ….in Mill Basin. God Bless the Daily News.

  • Barkingspider7

    In response to CJ re: What incentive would a 13 year old boy have to lie about this man who is dying?  A friend of mine came up with the following response, which I feel is very noteworthy:

    Perhaps the 2 teens were being punished for something by the Msgr, and were pissed off at him.  All the teens know the law when it comes to reporting a molestation, so this is what they did, knowing that the Priest would definitely be taken away by the cops, whether or not the allegations were true.  Kids word against the adult.

    Can the kids be hooked up to a lie detector?  Can the Msgr be hooked up to a lie detector?

    If the Msgr is in the bad shape that his parishoners are stating, and practically on his last leg, what could he have possibly done?  I hope to hear updates to this report in the near future.

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  • joe pionegro

    well now……………. is everybody jumping on the goddamn bandwagon??????????????? u look at a 13 yr old sideways or maybe some kid is being ignored at home and /or being abused by someone at home .  you try and help them and bingo!!!!!! somebody misquotes,misspoke, misunderstood and all of a sudden you are indicted for sex abuse?????????? I knew Father Thomas J Brady a better priest u could never find!!!!! he was a man’s man w/ a sense of humor and brought a sense of realism in my religion class that no one else has ever duplicated since! Hell he taught me how to pray!!!!! he was a helluva guy! my prayers go out to him!!!!!!!

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