The Boston Globe
2/24/2004
Vocal critic of abuse by clergy found dead
By Brian MacQuarrie
Patrick McSorley, a victim of defrocked priest John J. Geoghan who became one of the most visible critics of clergy sexual abuse, was discovered dead early yesterday in a North End apartment, his lawyer said yesterday.
A close friend said McSorley, 29, occasionally went to the apartment to take drugs owing to a chronic substance-abuse problem that had plagued him for several years.
“To think he had come this far and just to have it end so abruptly — it’s a tragic ending,” said the friend, Alexa MacPherson, 29,…
“I spent a lot of last summer and fall trying to help him get into a drug- rehabilitation program. He definitely was in need of some serious help,” MacPherson said. “There were days when we would spend 10, 12, 14 hours at . . . hospitals, trying to get him in. He wanted their help so badly, and we basically got turned away because he had no health insurance.”
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/02/24/vocal_critic_of_abuse_by_clergy_found_dead/
Comment: “… turned away because he had no health insurance.”
Patrick McSorley may or may not be one of the 18,000 young adults who will
die this year merely because of the lack of health insurance. It is quite possible that his disease of chemical dependency may have been lethal even if he were insured. But now we’ll never know.
Some may want to blame the victim. Others may blame clergy abuse. The issues
are complex, as they are in every instance of preventable premature death. But we can very easily eliminate the factor of being insured and move on with efforts to correct the other individual and societal problems that culminate in these tragedies. Just that first step alone would save 18,000 young adult lives.