The last thing they ever suspect is that a priest would be molesting their children.

They also decide to have a counselor talk to the boys to find out if the priest had been molesting them.

Mr. Shanley said that a priest molested a relative of his in Monroe, N.Y.

As the country focuses on allegations that priests have molested children, they said, Father Penzes' life represents the church's best face.

There, Mr. Severson said, the priest gave him alcohol and then molested him.

The report did not assess how many priests molested how many children or why the problems persisted.

In 1991, with Father Burns now in his second Boston parish, the archdiocese received a detailed complaint that the priest had repeatedly raped and molested a boy.

The priest molests Ignacio, but expels Enrique anyway.

In June, Cardinal Law admitted that he was notified by letter that the priest had molested seven boys in September 1984.

Michael S., now 33, was an altar boy 24 years ago in a Roman Catholic parish in Bavaria when his priest molested him.