Duck and Recover: Recovered memories provide basis for priest's child rape convictions

Dispatches from the Fifth Circle ^ | Chris Haire

[Chris Haire]

A jury in Boston convicted former priest Paul Shanley of child rape last week. The testimony of the lone accuser to take the stand was based on repressed memories recovered only after the initial allegations against Shanley first surfaced in 2002. Three other men had earlier claimed that they too were sexually abused by Shanley, but their cases were dropped by the prosecution.

The defense only called one witness: Elizabeth Loftus, one of the nation's leaders in the fight to discredit repressed memories. Her high profile role has brought her praise and criticism. To some she is "a hired gun for the defenders of child molesters." To others, she's the clever gal who got students to recall meeting Bugs Bunny at Disney World.

During the trial, Loftus said, "I don't believe there is any credible scientific evidence for the idea that years of brutalization can be massively repressed."

Boston defense attorney James Doyle, who witnessed the trial, said there were inconsistencies to the accuser's testimony. He had this to say: ''I think [the verdict] shows that the power of memory evidence coming from an emotional and compelling witness can trump virtually any inconsistency or unlikeliness."

Shanley was at the center of the Catholic child molestation scandal, particularly the cover-up. Some of the evidence of the cover-up was based on an article in a gay newspaper in which Shanley reportedly advocated man-boy love, a 1977 letter from a woman who heard Shanley deliver a speech in New York and internal church communications which denounce his belief that homosexuality is a gift from God.

Admittedly, I don't know a whole hell of a lot about this case. In fact, I don't know what facts led to previous court verdicts, in either civil or criminal court cases. Based on my own prejudices and suspicions, I accepted many of these allegations when they first surfaced without question. However, knowing the role that repressed memories played in the Satantic ritual abuse witch hunts of the '80s does complicate matters and certainly warrants a more indepth look on my part.