A man wearing priestly vestments while sitting next to notorious gangster James “Whitey†Bulger in a photo released by Bulger’s lawyers was identified today as the former vice chancellor of the Boston archdiocese, Frederick J. Ryan, who was defrocked by Rome for allegedly sexually abusing teenage boys at Catholic Memorial High School in the 1980s.
Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented two former Catholic Memorial students who successfully sued the archdiocese in 2002, confirmed today that the man is Ryan.
“Given Whitey Bulger’s lack of respect for humanity, it comes as no surprise that Whitey Bulger is associated with a serial pedophile such as Fred Ryan,’’ Garabedian said.
Ryan was defrocked by the Vatican in 2006. Ryan was accused of taking two Catholic Memorial students from West Roxbury to the chancery, then located in Brighton, and molesting them. When he was defrocked, he was the highest-ranking priest to be dismissed since the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in 2002.
Ryan was ordained in 1964, and served in churches in Holliston and Hyde Park and at the chancery from 1974 to 1995, where he served under Cardinal Bernard F. Law, who was then the leader of the Boston archdiocese.
Colin A. Young can be reached at colin.young@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @ColinAYoung. John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JREbosglobe.
