Church knew about Padophille Priest for 30 years

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BOSTON, April 8 — High-ranking officials in the Boston Archdiocese vouched for the character of a priest when he was transferred to California and later New York, even though they knew he had been accused of sexual abuse over 30 years, according to documents released today.

The documents, provided by a lawyer representing accusers who obtained them under court order from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, paint a picture of how church officials at the highest levels knew for years about accusations of sexual abuse against the priest, the Rev. Paul Shanley, but allowed him to work as a priest and have contact with children.

In many ways the documents are more detailed and incriminating to church officials than the papers released in the case of John J. Geoghan, who was shuttled from one parish to another in the Boston area before being defrocked and convicted of indecent assault.

Church officials declined to comment today on the documents but said in a statement that "the archdiocese has learned from the painful experience of the inadequate policies and procedures of the past."

Father Shanley, now 70 and apparently living in San Diego, could not be found for comment. But diocesan documents refer to him as not disputing accusations that he had molested teenagers in at least three cases.

The case of Father Shanley extended well beyond the borders of the Boston Archdiocese. The documents released today show that Boston church officials told their counterparts in San Bernardino, Calif., that Father Stanley was a priest "in good standing" who "has no problem that would be a concern to your diocese" as he was being transferred there in 1990. In addition, the documents show that Father Shanley told Boston Archdiocese officials he was performing baptisms and leading youth retreats in his new position.

In 1995, supplying little, if any, information about the background of Father Shanley, who was still attached to the archdiocese, Boston church officials allowed him to be acting director of a Catholic guest house for students and clergy members in Manhattan. Within a few months of Father Shanley's arrival in New York, officials with the New York Archdiocese learned of the priest's background but were told by Boston officials that "Father Shanley's sexual acting out appears to have ceased in part due to a prostate condition," the documents show.

The documents, which include letters and internal archdiocese memos, show that the Boston officials received the first of about 15 complaints about Father Shanley in 1967, from another priest who provided the names and phone numbers of three boys whom he said Father Shanley had taken to a secluded cabin in the woods.

And the documents show that in the 1970's, the Boston Archdiocese received information that Father Shanley was giving public and impassioned defenses of pedophilia, including comments at what was apparently the formative meeting in Boston of the North American Man-Boy Love Association in 1979.

In another speech, in 1977, according to a letter to the archdiocese from a woman in the audience, Father Shanley, who at the time was in charge of the archdiocese's ministry to alienated youths, discussed pedophilia. In the letter, he is quoted as saying, "The adult is not the seducer — the `kid' is the seducer, and further the kid is not traumatized by the act per se, the kid is traumatized when the police and authorities `drag' the kid in for questioning."

The documents released today are the strongest indication that the Boston Archdiocese followed a pattern of inaction and secrecy in its handling of priests who were the subject of sexual abuse complaints. Many of the memos and letters were written by senior archdiocesan officials who are now bishops of their own dioceses, including Bishop John B. McCormack of New Hampshire and Bishop Robert J. Banks of Green Bay, Wis.

In January, documents released in the Geoghan case showed that church officials knew about Father Geoghan's admitted pedophilia, but allowed him to return to parish work after treatment.

Like the Geoghan files, the Shanley records portray an archdiocese that was more concerned about avoiding scandal and being compassionate toward its priests than it was in counseling or even contacting the victims.

Both Cardinal Bernard F. Law and his predecessor, Cardinal Humberto Medeiros, were aware of many of the accusations against Father Shanley, the documents suggest. Cardinal Law also received a memo in 1995 referring to an assessment that was made at the Institute for Living, a treatment center in Connecticut, two years earlier that found that Father Shanley "has a great deal of psychological pathology."

Yet as late as 1997, even after the archdiocese had settled at least one sexual abuse case against Father Shanley and had several others pending, Cardinal Law wrote a letter to Cardinal John J. O'Connor that supported Father Shanley being chosen for a permanent position at Leo House, the New York guest house.

And the documents suggest that Boston officials were well aware that California and New York was taking a a problem priest off their hands. "If he came back I do not know what we would do with him," wrote Bishop Alfred Hughes in a 1990 internal memo discussing whether Father Shanley should be allowed to return to Boston from California.

The documents were released today by Roderick MacLeish Jr., a lawyer who received them from the archdiocese as part of a lawsuit on behalf of a man, Greg Ford, 24, who said he was molested by Father Shanley from 1983 to 1989.

"All of the suffering caused by Paul Shanley over four decades didn't have to happen," Mr. MacLeish said. "This man was a monster in the Archdiocese of Boston for many years. He had beliefs about pedophilia that no rational person could defend."

Mr. Ford and another client of Mr. MacLeish, Paul Busa, also 24, say that beginning at the age of 6, they were pulled out of catechism classes by Father Shanley each week at St. John the Evangelist Church in Newton. Mr. Busa said in an interview on Friday that Father Shanley molested him in the bathroom, the rectory or the confessional, sometimes while he had Mr. Ford and another boy, Anthony Driscoll, waiting in another part of the church.

"He called it `special duties,' " Mr. Busa said. "I remember him telling me that if I told anybody, nobody would believe me."

Robert A. Sherman, Mr. MacLeish's partner in the firm Greenberg Traurig, said that in recent weeks 11 accusers of Father Shanley had come forward to the firm; added to the cases described in the diocesan records, that brings the total number of complaints against him to 26 so far.

There have been no criminal charges brought against Father Shanley, though Mr. Ford's lawyers have taken his case to the police. But the Boston Archdiocese has settled at least three abuse lawsuits involving Father Shanley, at least one of them in 1991, while he was in California and before he went to New York.

Father Shanley was a colorful and controversial priest in his early years, earning the nickname the "hippie priest" for his long hair and outspoken views, including his public rejection of the church's condemnation of homosexuality.

In 1979, after being told about Father Shanley's activity with the Man-Boy Love group, Cardinal Medeiros removed him from the alienated-youth ministry, documents show, but made him an associate pastor at the Newton church.

In 1981, a parishioner, Jacqueline Gavreau, began complaining loudly to archdiocesan officials and others that Father Shanley had groped a young man she knew, Ms. Gavreau said in an interview. One of the memos released today, dated 1982, indicates that a bishop advised another senior chancery official to pay no attention to her calls, saying, "Let her stay hanging on the phone."

In 1984, Father Shanley was promoted to pastor of St. John's. In 1986 and again in 1987, Ms. Gavreau said she confronted Cardinal Law about Father Shanley at church events.

In 1988, according to notes written by Bishop Robert Banks, a patient at a hospital where Father Shanley was chaplain complained that the priest "was coming on to him" by graphically discussing sado-masochism.

In 1989, when a decision was made to transfer Father Shanley from Newton to California, Cardinal Law wrote him a letter praising his "impressive record."

But Boston church officials did not tell California officials about Father Shanley's problems until 1993, said the Rev. Howard Lincoln, a spokesman for the San Bernardino Diocese...
 

ZiSunka

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I was shocked and horrified when I read the various accounts of Shanley's activities, one of which lead to the founding of an organization to legalize pedophilia.

I can't bring myself to call this man a priest, because there is no way he was under the influence of God.

The church needs to come down hard on this man, to break him and bring him to repentence. Justice must be done, so that injustice doesn't flourish.

And something needs to be done for the victims, such ones that are known.

There are probably thousands of young people who were damaged, directly or indirectly, but Shanley's activities and open support of pedophilia.
 
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VOW

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Do you want a PERSONAL take on all this?

Father Howard Lincoln used to be the pastor of the Church where my family attends. I don't know him on a personal level, but I think I know enough OF him to believe in his sincerity. He's the spokesman for the San Bernardino Diocese.

Before we attended St Catherine's Church (where Fr Lincoln was pastor), we were members of the congregation of St Anne's Church in San Bernardino. Fr Lawrence Grajek was the pastor at the time. And my kids were attending St Anne's school in 1990.

In our local paper, both Fr Lincoln and Fr Grajek have expressed utter horror at the past history of Fr Shanley. Shanley had transferred to the San Bernardino Diocese with a glowing letter of recommendation from Boston, and NO MENTION was ever made of any wrongdoing on his part. Further, upon arrival to the San Bernardino Diocese, Fr Shanley had to sign a sworn affidavit that he had no prior convictions or accusations of sexual misconduct or violent crimes, or drug felonies.

Am I outraged? You better believe it! However, I must take comfort in knowing that the policies of the San Bernardino Diocese apparently in place at the time of Shanley's arrival protected my family. Shanley did NOT have any contact with the school children at St Anne's Parish, AND, per diocese policy, NO PRIEST is allowed to be in an unchaperoned situation with a minor child.

The WILLFUL misrepresentation of Shanley's past conduct by the Boston Archdiocese is reprehensible. The legal term for that is FRAUD, and I do feel the perpetrators should be charged, and the Church hierarchy needs to carefully examine how it plans on (1) rectifying the situation as best as possible, and (2) find an effective means to avoid anything like this in the future.

The Federal government has a nationwide computer database for criminals; perhaps the Catholic Church could create something comparable to register all clergy and lay ministers.


Peace be with you,
~VOW
 
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LyleMetsker

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All branches of Christianity, Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal have their problems.

Priests, pastors and prophets all seem to be vulnerable to weaknesses in the big three areas of life: Food, sex and money!

Links to over 100 Christian boards at:
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Documents: Church Knew of Abuse Claims
Tue Apr 9, 4:55 AM ET
By GREG SUKIENNIK, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON (AP) - For more than two decades, the Rev. Paul Shanley built a reputation as a "street priest," establishing a ministry for runaways, drug abusers, drifters and teen-agers struggling with sexual identity.

But Shanley apparently had another side. Newly released documents indicate he had a long history of sexual misconduct allegations and publicly defended sex between men and boys.

How much Roman Catholic leaders knew of Shanley's other side is at the center of a lawsuit alleging superiors were aware of Shanley's past yet allowed him access to children in different parishes for three decades.

In 1979, then-Boston Archdiocese Cardinal Humberto Medeiros was concerned enough that he reassigned Shanley from a youth ministry. "I believe that Father Shanley is a troubled priest," he later told the Vatican (news - web sites).

Yet Shanley was allowed to continue in the priesthood for years. When he moved to California to join the San Bernardino Diocese in 1990, he served for three years without restriction on his contact with children.

"All of the suffering that has taken place at the hands of Paul Shanley, a serial child molester for four decades — three of them in Boston — none of it had to happen," said Roderick MacLeish Jr., an attorney for the family of alleged abuse victim Gregory Ford, 24.

Ford, who said he repeatedly was raped by Shanley in the 1980s, also alleges that Boston Cardinal Bernard Law allowed the priest to remain as pastor at St. John the Evangelist Parish until 1989, despite knowledge of his behavior.

The archdiocese, in a statement, said it "has learned from the painful experience of the inadequate polices and procedures of the past," but added church officials were confident that current policies "are focused in a singular way on the protection of children."

"Whatever may have occurred in the past, there were no deliberate decisions to put children at risk," said the statement from spokeswoman Donna M. Morrissey.

Shanley, 71, did not immediately return a call for comment left on his answering machine in San Diego, where he has been living for the past two years. He remains a priest, but no longer has a parish.

The Boston Archdiocese has been rocked over the past few months by a sex scandal that largely began with former priest John J. Geoghan, who has been accused of molesting more than 130 youngsters and is serving a prison sentence for groping a boy in a swimming pool. Documents released months ago show that the archdiocese knew about the child-molestation allegations against him but did little more than transfer him from parish to parish.

The case has set off child-sex allegations around the country and has led to the suspension or resignation of dozens of priests.

On Monday, MacLeish showed reporters some of the 818 church records turned over to Ford under court order. The records include 26 complaints of sex abuse against Shanley, MacLeish said. Shanley has not been criminally charged in any.

One document is a copy of a Feb. 12, 1979, issue of a publication called GaysWeek that included an article titled "Men & Boys."

The article described a meeting of 150 people in Boston on the topic of man-boy love. It said many speakers representing various religions endorsed such relationships — including Shanley, who was there as a representative of then-Cardinal Medeiros' program for outreach to sexual minorities.

The article described an anecdote Shanley shared at the conference about a boy "who was rejected by family and society but helped by a boy-lover." The relationship ended when it was discovered by the boy's parents, and the man was sent to prison.

The North American Man Boy Love Association apparently was formed at the end of the conference by 32 men and two teen-agers. There was no indication in the article that Shanley was among them.

In February 1979, the same month as the NAMBLA meeting, Medeiros sent a letter to the Vatican's Cardinal Franjo Seper, telling the cardinal that he had met with Shanley and told the priest he was "confusing people" with his teachings about homosexuality. Shanley had produced tapes for distribution called "Changing Norms of Sexuality."

The earliest document related to Shanley's alleged sex abuse dates to 1967: A priest at LaSalette Shrine in Attleboro, Mass., wrote a letter of concern to the archdiocese, relating allegations that Shanley had taken boys to a cabin and molested them.

When Shanley moved to California in 1990 after a medical leave from Boston, the Rev. Robert J. Banks wrote to San Bernardino officials to say, "I can assure you that Father Shanley has no problem that would be concern to your diocese."

In 1995, Shanley moved to New York to become assistant director of Leo House, which housed transients, clergy, people visiting the sick, students and travelers. He later was poised to become director of the organization, but was not given the job.

Two years later, Law drafted a letter to Cardinal John O'Connor of New York, telling him Shanley had done good work and was surrounded by staff aware of his situation, but acknowledging the promotion could draw publicity to him, Leo House and the church, according to the documents. O'Connor decided against the promotion and the letter was never sent.

On Feb. 29, 1996, Law wrote Shanley to inform him he was ending his sick leave status and was granting him senior priest/retirement status, effective the next day.

"For thirty years in assigned ministry you brought God's Word and His love to His people and I know that continues to be your goal despite some difficult limitations," Law said.
 
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