Ex-Boston priest indicted again - Shanley faces 16 new counts

MSNBC NEWS BULLETIN
Ex-Boston priest indicted again
Shanley faces 16 new counts.
Details to come ...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sun bin/stories/nat-gen/2002/jun/20/062000351.html

Today: June 20, 2002 at 14:30:14 PDT

Ex-Priest Indicted on Child Rape
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.- A central figure in the church sex abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese was indicted Thursday on multiple counts of child rape and indecent assault for allegedly abusing four boys.

The allegations against the Rev. Paul Shanley span from 1979 to 1989, when he was at St. Jean's parish in Newton, a suburb of Boston. The indictment includes 10 counts of child rape and six counts of indecent assault and battery.

Shanley, 71, has been jailed since May when he was arrested and returned from California to face three counts of child rape. He has pleaded innocent and was being held on $300,000 bail.

Donna Morrissey, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said she had not yet seen the indictment and could not immediately comment.

Cardinal Bernard Law said in a letter distributed to parishes in May that he did not become aware until 1993 of sexual abuse allegations against Shanley.

If he's convicted, burning at the stake would be too good for him. May God have mercy on his black heart.

Yours in Christian Fraternity,

B-chan

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[...]Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of
grave depravity,[Cf. Gen 191-29 ; Rom 124-27 ; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10 .] tradition
has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.'
They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the
gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual
complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
--Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2357
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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/wcvb/20020620/lo/1233800_1.html

Thursday June 20 05:39 PM EDT

Additional Charges Filed Against Retired Priest

More charges of sexual abuse were filed Thursday against a retired priest who was arrested in May in California.

Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said that the Rev. Paul Shanley faces 16 charges in addition to the three counts of child rape he was arraigned on in early May. In that case, Shanley was accused of assaulting a 6-year-old boy when the boy was taking religious classes at St. Jean's parish in Newton, Mass.

"In this instance, Paul Shanley is innocent until proven guilty, but today, these victims have asked for and will receive their day in court," Coakley said.

The new charges stem from investigations into allegations made by four other men, who claim that Shanley abused them when they were boys. Greg Ford, 24, came forward earlier this year and spoke publicly about the alleged abuse. Coakley did not say whether Ford was one of the alleged victims in the new charges, but sources confirmed to NewsCenter 5 that he was.

Two of the alleged victims are now 24, one is 25, and one is in his early 30s. The two 24-year-olds were allegedly abused when they were between the ages of 6 and 11, the 25-year-old was allegedly abused between the ages of 7 and 12, and the fourth man was allegedly abused when he was between 10 and 15 years old.

"For these victims to come forward has been very difficult in some instances, and it has been a struggle," Coakley said. "They have done that on their own and with the help of their families, and particularly the help of their counsel, Eric MacLeish and Robert Sherman."

Shanley will now face 10 additional counts of rape of a child and six counts of indecent assault and battery on a child.

The new charges allege similar events as the previous case, when the alleged victim said that Shanley would remove him from his religious studies class at St. Jean's and take him to another part of the building or the rectory, where the alleged abuse would occur.

The Ford case, and the release of hundreds of pages of archdiocese documents, put the international spotlight on the crisis of abuse in the Catholic Church and spurred a summit at the Vatican (news - web sites).

Documents showed that Cardinal Bernard Law and church officials did not warn a California diocese that they had received dozens of allegations of abuse by Shanley. One of those documents described Shanley as "a very sick person."

Other documents showed that Shanley attended a founding meeting of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, an organization that advocates for sexual relationships between men and boys.

In the early days of his ministry, Shanley was known as the "street priest," who counseled troubled teens in Boston. He also advocated for greater church acceptance of homosexuals.

Allegations of abuse surrounding Shanley were made as early as 1967, according to documents released by the church. Shanley was transferred to southern California in 1990, and a letter to California church authorities signed by Bishop Robert Banks, then Law's assistant, said that Shanley's record was clean.

The first thing they need to do is stop trying to cover for their past inaction...this one is on the wires now...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sun bin/stories/nat-gen/2002/jun/20/062000245.html

Today: June 20, 2002 at 13:30:11 PDT

Some Bishops Angry at Cardinal Law
ASSOCIATED PRESS

As his archdiocese restarts negotiations with alleged sex abuse victims and works to implement a new clerical molestation policy, Boston Cardinal Bernard Law also faces discontent from fellow bishops.

Law apologized to his colleagues for his role in the national abuse crisis during a closed-door session at last week's Dallas summit. Yet some came away from the meeting saying they were disappointed with him and one prelate, Bishop Joseph Imesch of Joliet, Ill., suggested Law resign - although he says he now profoundly regrets making the statement.

In an interview with Boston's WBZ-TV on Saturday, the final day of the bishops' Dallas meeting, Imesch said he felt Law should step down.

He is believed to be the first bishop to say so publicly since January, when Law acknowledged shuffling a priest accused of molesting children from parish to parish. That admission started a crisis that has consumed the church and put every U.S. bishop under scrutiny.

"In conversation among the bishops, it was more than one that felt he (Law) should resign, but no one said that publicly but Joe Imesch," Imesch told The Associated Press on Thursday. "It was probably not good judgment on my part to say that. ... I regret having said what I said."

Imesch said what was really on his mind when he made the statement was that "I think it would be very difficult for someone to minister in that kind of a climate."

San Bernardino Bishop Gerald Barnes sought an apology from Law for transferring the Rev. Paul Shanley to California in 1990 despite a history of sex abuse allegations against the priest. Law said he was sorry in a private meeting with Barnes in Dallas, which Barnes' spokesman said "dissipated some of his anger."

Many prominent Catholics, including William Bennett and William F. Buckley, have urged Law to step down, as have The Boston Herald and The Boston Globe.

Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, would not comment on Law at the meeting, but said that in the closed-door sessions bishops generally spoke of their anger and "we asked each other some very candid, direct questions."

Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, named head of the bishops' new national commission to review how church leaders handled abuse claims, said he was "not impressed" with how Law dealt with cases in his archdiocese.

In April, the cardinal said he met with Pope John Paul II and raised the possibility of resigning, but came away determined to stay on and repair the damage to the Boston Archdiocese. Law's spokeswoman, Donna Morrissey, did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.

Only the pope can force a bishop to step down. The Rev. Thomas Doyle, a former Washington-based Vatican adviser whose outspokenness on clerical sex abuse derailed his career, said church leaders who publicly criticize Law risk their future.

"What you say, how you say it and who you line yourself up with has a lot to do with your promotional capability," said Doyle, who now works as a military chaplain and helps alleged victims sue the church.

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