Bombshell details of sexual abuse revealed in documents
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http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/shanley04082002.htm
Monday, April 8, 2002
The Archdiocese of Boston was obsessed with preventing ``negative
publicity'' when it allowed a known child rapist to remain a priest in
Massachusetts, New York and California during the 1980s and 1990s, explosive
new church documents show.
The documents also show that the priest, Rev. Paul R. Shanley, spoke in
favor of sex between men and boys at a 1978 meeting in Boston where the
``Man Boy Lovers of North America,'' which later became the North American
Man-Boy Love Association, or Nambla, was founded. Shanley is now 71 and was
last known to be living in San Diego.
The documents also reveal the following:
Shanley admitted openly and repeatedly to raping and sodomizing minors when
confronted by church supervisors under two Boston archbishops, Humberto
Cardinal Medeiros and Bernard Cardinal Law. Nonetheless, he received glowing
referrals to ministries in San Bernadino, Calif., and New York City.
Internal reports from physicians who treated Shanley wrote in notes to the
church that Shanley ``admits to substance of complaints - sexual activity
with 4 adolescent males .. over the years,'' according to one memo dated
March 3, 1994. The memo goes on to describe ``oral and anal rape'' with a
youth who visited Shanley for pastoral counseling in Roxbury.
A similar memo, dated Nov. 5, 1983, also says Shanley ``doesn't dispute the
substance'' of allegations of child rape.
Shanley defended ``man-boy sex'' publicly in his role as a ``street priest''
as early as 1970, and openly associated with members of the pro-pederasty
group that became known as Nambla.
At the December 1978 convention that led to the founding of the group,
Shanley publicly told the story of a boy who ``began to fall apart'' and
experience ``psychic demise'' after his adult male sex partner was jailed
for having sex with the youth.
``We have our convictions upside down if we are truly concerned with boys,''
Shanley said at the time, according to the church documents. ``The `cure'
does far more damage.''
The ``man-boy'' conference and Shanley's quotations were reported in a gay
weekly in February 1979. Medeiros received a letter complaining about it on
April 9. On April 12, the cardinal informed Shanley that he was being
transfered to St. Jean's Parish in Newton - where multiple plaintiffs allege
he raped them, including Gregory Ford, 24, of Newton, who is currently
pursuing criminal charges against Shanley.
When the Archdiocese of Boston finally ousted Shanley from St. Jean's in
1990, it moved him to the Diocese of San Bernardino, California without
informing anyone there of Shanley's past history.
Shanley asked the Bishop William F. Murphy, who is still assigned to the
Boston Chancery, to keep his whereabouts secret in 1997 after one of
Shanley's former victims began to pursue the priest, apparently for revenge.
Murphy, who was chief personnel delegate to Law at the time, promised in a
letter to Shanley, who he knew to be a pedophile, ``that your location will
remain confidential.''
``I hope this new situation will afford you some renewed peace and
security,'' Murphy wrote to Shanley in August 1997. ``This can be the
beginning of a new chapter in your life, one in which you do not have to
live under the cloud of Stephen's relentless harassment.''
Law sent a letter to the late John Cardinal O'Connor of New York in 1997
relating to Shanley's work at Leo House, a transient residence for troubled
teens and men. In it, he spoke glowingly of the priest despite Shanley's
long history of child abuse, and said he ``would not object'' to Shanley
taking the job of executive director.
``Two conflicting issues arise in considering Father Shanley for the post,''
Law wrote. ``The first is that he has done good work and is surrounded by a
competent staff that is aware of his situation. Opposing this is the
likelihood that the role of executive director will bring with it greater
notoriety. That could draw publicity to him, Leo House and the church.''
Ford's lawyer Eric MacLeish said today the documents are disturbing.
``We're finally beginning to see the full scope of Paul Shanley's abuse in
Massachusetts,'' MacLeish said. ``An outrageous pattern is evident here.
Archdiocese officials at the highest level knew full well of Shanley's
misconduct. There's no evidence that they gave one whit of concern for the
victims; rather they went to outstanding lengths to keep Shanley's past
hidden.''
The archdiocese surrendered more than 500 personal documents to MacLeish and
the Ford family on Friday following an order issued Wednesday by Superior
Court Judge Leila Kern.
MacLeish said the documents also spell out Shanley's belief that all sexual
acts including bestiality and incest were not harmful to people.
The Fords are suing the Archdiocese for the sexual abuse Shanley allegedly
committed against Gregory Ford, now 24, while he was a boy at St. John's
Parish in Newton.
In a letter sent to Father Shanley in 1997, Cardinal Law complimented him
for his contributions to the Archdiocese.
"For 30 years in assigned ministry you brought God's word and His love to
His people and I know that that continues to be your goal despite some
difficult limitations," Law wrote. "This is an impressive record and all of
us are truly grateful for your priestly care and ministry to all whom you
have served during those years."