Donald Matthew Osgood

(1927-   )
Dioceses:

Manchester, New Hampshire and Santa Fe, New Mexico

Current Status: unknown

Location: unknown

 

Donald Osgood, with a pleasant disposition and skills in music and cooking, was a member of homosexual networks at St. Anselm’s College and Abbey in New Hampshire and among the diocesan priests of New England. He also preyed on teenage boys, but was sheltered from prosecution by the police. His bishops made every effort to salvage Osgood, and even reassigned him to a parish (where he abused), based on report by a chiropractor that Osgood was cured. No interest was shown in helping his victims.

 

 

 

 

 

by Leon J. Podles

Published by the Crossland Foundation, March 15, 2008
© Copyright, Crossland Foundation, 2008

 

 

 

The Rev. Donald Osgood: An Affable Molester

 

 

Donald Matthew Osgood, born July 18, 1927, was the son of a Catholic mother and a non-Catholic father. He therefore needed a canonical indult to receive Holy Orders.  Ecclesiastical bureaucrats dotted their i’s and crossed their t’s in this matter,1New Hampshire Attorney General Office (henceforth NHAG), p. 4120. Letter from Rev. Thomas S. Hansberry, Chancellor to Rev. T. J. Whelan, March 18, 1954. Page numbers correspond to the page numbers of the documents from the Diocese of Manchester released to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. These documents are available at http://www.bishop-accountability.org/NH-Manchester/archives/archives.html but they showed less concern for his moral life and the effects it had on the laity.

 

Osgood was in the U.S. Navy until 1947, and then for two years studied at St. Anselm's College, which was run by the Benedictines. Osgood entered the Benedictines in 1949 and made his novitiate at St. Vincent’s Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, before returning to St. Anselm’s. His attempt to become a Benedictine did not work out; Osgood then decided to apply for the diocesan clergy in Manchester, New Hampshire. An official at the Abbey reported to Bishop Matthew Brady of Manchester that Osgood “manifested both the good and bad qualities that were observed in the novitiate.” The bad qualities were that he “did not like to study” and enjoyed the “social life” at the abbey “to the detriment of his studies.” But he spent “much time in training his musical ability and these efforts have shown much fruit.” He was willing to work “and labored well and industriously as all sorts of jobs.” All in all, Osgood was “industrious, energetic and not too pious” and “kindness itself.”2NHAG, p. 4090. Letter from Bertrand C. Dolan to Bishop Matthew F. Brady, July 4, 1952. The letter refers to “reports given to us by the Master of Novices” as enclosed, but these reports are not among the files released by the Diocese of Manchester.

 

Osgood was sent to St. Paul’s Seminary in Ottawa. His file there indicated he was “polite, deferent … well-bred, well-mannered, very nice disposition.” He was “cheerful, amiable, affable, sociable, and always ready to help and render service. He has given generously of his time for the music in the chapel” and was “an excellent organist.” His grades were acceptable. The rector thought that Osgood had a “solid and sincere piety” and most important was “always docile, obedient and submissive.”3 NHAG, pp. 4112-13. Semestrial Report on the Conduct and Dispositions of the Students, signed by J. C. Laframboise, June 19, 1953.

 

Bishop Brady ordained Osgood in June 1955 and made him music director of the cathedral. Osgood was then made chaplain of Sacred Heart Hospital and of St. Patrick’s Home, an orphanage. Immediately, he attracted the attention of police. In February 1956, police reported to the diocese that Osgood was involved “with a boy from our school (mutual masturbation)” and involved “with boy from public school (same thing).” Osgood “has charge of the choir boys.”4NHAG, pp. 3881-82. Unsigned Report, dated February 25, 1956. One former choir boy wrote: “I was a member of the St. Joseph Cathedral Boy's Choir from 1959 until 1961. Fr. Osgood was well liked by all of us, though it wasn't until years later that we could understand what had been going on. He would make the rounds of the third grade at my grammar school to scout out prospective recruits to his choir and God knows what else. I joined in the 5th grade, naive and unsuspecting of anything nefarious. Osgood had his favorites, and fortunately for me, I was not among them. He disappeared abruptly in the Spring of 1961. When my friends and I asked the other priests about his whereabouts, we were told, ‘Oh......uh, well, Father Osgood is now in New Mexico.’ Had the information contained in your story been publicized in 1961, I'm certain there would have been a revolution as well as a lynching.” (Personal communication to author.)

 

In February 1956, a boy [age redacted] reported to the diocese that Osgood, who was living at St. Patrick’s Orphanage, kept asking him to go to St. Anselm`s. The boy eventually agreed. In the car, Osgood let the boy steer. He unzipped the boy’s fly and began playing with his genitals, putting the boy’s hand on his (Osgood’s) penis, all the while the boy was driving. The boy could not believe all this had really happened with a priest, but Osgood did the same thing the next time he and the boy were alone in the car. The boy told his parents, but, the report noted, “parents and the boy stated that they would keep this in deep secrecy.”5NHAG, pp. 3881-3882. Unsigned Report, dated February 25, 1956.  

 

Shortly after receiving this report, Brady called Osgood on the carpet. Osgood was tongue-tied, but later wrote:

 

 

The file does not contain anything about Osgood’s behavior in the seminary, but Brady must have heard something about it. Osgood also protested that he had not planned the incidents: “The impression was given to me, in our talk, that I planned this episode with premeditated malice and forethought. This is NOT true. I never asked either of them to see me or ride with me.”

 

Brady ordered Osgood not to drive and to get rid of the car (a convertible). Osgood brought up the difficulty that the car was an ordination gift from his mother’s friends, and that his mother had hypertension. Selling the car would upset her, “to say nothing of my inability to get over to see her.” Osgood admitted that, “I have no one to blame for the consequences but myself.” He then turned on the piety: “You are the only one to whom I can turn, excepting God and His Blessed Mother” and “I am deeply grateful to you for your paternal understanding and hasten to assure you that I have taken to heart your advice and admonitions.”6NHAG, p. 3884. Letter from Donald M. Osgood to Bishop Matthew F. Brady, February 29, 1956. As Oscar Wilde said, “One would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.”

 

Osgood, even after he was ordained a priest for the diocese of Manchester and served as a chaplain at Sacred Heart Hospital, kept up his contacts at St. Anselm’s College and the Abbey there. In 1958, the diocese of Manchester received a report about Osgood from “official outside sources.” A Father John Burke of Springfield, Massachusetts, talked to a sophomore from St. Anselm’s College, and then consulted with Msgr. T. O’Connell, a diocesan official of the diocese of Springfield, who on September 3, 1958 reported to the diocese of Manchester that:

 

Osgood was an active homosexual; he liked young males, age 14 and up. He was sexually involved with college students at St. Anselm’s College and with Benedictines at the Abbey. There was a homosexual subculture at St. Anselm’s, and it had links to “the Boston ring.” The offhand way that church officials referred to the Boston ring implied that they were familiar with it.10Other priests in Springfield, most of them officials of the diocese, have been accused of sexual abuse. Bishop Dupré of Springfield resigned and fled within hours after he learned that he would be publicly accused of abusing teenage boys. Msgr. Richard Sniezyk of Springfield explained that some priests thought it acceptable to have sex with young men: “It was that era of the ‘60s – most of it took place from the mid-‘60s to the early-‘80s – and the whole atmosphere out there was, it was OK, it was OK to do” (“Monsignor Says Church Didn’t Recognize Damage of Abuse,” Providence Journal, February 23, 2004).

 

Osgood was subjected to what officials must have considered drastic and adequate discipline. He was:

 

This last really hurt, and Osgood protested.

 

 

 

Osgood Footnotes

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