BREAKING: Church uncovers [NEW!!!] file on Shanley NAMBLA activity

Church uncovers file on Shanley NAMBLA activity

by Maggie Mulvihill and Robin Washington
Thursday, April 25, 2002

In the latest example of the Boston archdiocese's chaotic record-keeping on problem priests, church officials acknowledged yesterday their discovery of new records detailing allegations of the Rev. Paul R. Shanley's involvement in NAMBLA - the North American Man-Boy Love Association.<!ENDSUMM!>

The documents, part of a larger group a judge earlier this month ordered turned over to Roderick MacLeish, a lawyer representing several alleged victims of Shanley, were located late last week by an unnamed archdiocesean staff member, the Rev. Christopher Coyne, said an archdiocesan spokesman.

``It's terribly embarrassing at this late date to come out and say this,'' Coyne said in addressing reporters on the lawn of the Brighton Chancery.

``No one knew that the files were around,'' Coyne said. ``It wasn't just one letter that was overlooked. It's another bad thing. It makes us look like we are not being honest. It's just awful.''

The Shanley file released to date - more than 800 pages of secret records - detailed the priest's long history of alleged sexual misconduct, and, on some pages, his admissions of the actions.

But more damning were numerous documents revealing that Bernard Cardinal Law, his predecessor, Humberto Cardinal Medeiros, and other archdiocesean officials were aware of Shanley's behavior as far back as 1967, but continued to assign him to posts that put him in direct contact with children.

Coyne appeared visibly angry as he revealed the discovery of the documents, saying there is no question now that there had been numerous written complaints made in past years to chancery officials about Shanley's behavior.

MacLeish, who will receive the papers today, said he was furious with the discovery.

``If they're NAMBLA materials, as they say they are, then it's absolutely appalling. I can't believe it,'' he said, adding that he intends to investigate how the documents were missed.

``We are taking the deposition of (the church officials) involved in this document retrieval. The truth will have to come out,'' he said.

In the initial document release three weeks ago, records showed that Shanley spoke in favor of sex between men and boys at a December 1978 Boston convention that led to the founding of the intergenerational sex advocacy organization.

But a Shanley supporter who organized the meeting and later co-founded NAMBLA insists that it has been mischaracterized, and that many different points of view on the subject were presented.

``It certainly was not some kind of a man-boy group,'' said the man, who goes by the pseudonym of Socrates.

``There were social workers, psychiatrists, ministers and even law enforcement personnel. At that time, these issues could be discussed in an objective forum. You can't do that now.''

More germane to the accusations of MacLeish's clients is Socrates' contention that it would have been totally out of character for Shanley to have had violent sex with a 6-year-old.

In his suit and in a criminal complaint to Newton police, Gregory Ford, 24, claims that Shanley yanked him out of CCD classes and repeatedly fondled and raped him as a child in the rectory of Newton's St. Jean's Parish for six years beginning in 1984. ``I don't believe it, based on what I know of him,'' Socrates said, insisting that the priest would never have had sex with a pre-pubescent boy. ``I don't believe he ever did anything by force.''

MacLeish vehemently disputed that, saying, ``They say he wasn't violent. That's absolute total nonsense.''

``I have a forcible rape case against Paul Shanley from 1990 involving a 13-year-old. This notion that you're either interested in pedophilia or ephebophilia (sex with teens) is absolute nonsense,'' MacLeish charged.

MacLeish also said Ford and a second alleged victim, Paul Busa, who attended the classes with Ford but hasn't seen him in years, could not have collaborated to fabricate their allegations.

``NAMBLA has as much credibility on this as Ken Lay does on suggestions to reform Enron,'' MacLeish said.

"Where could one get a membership list for NAMBLA? Is there a central office anywhere?"

I would imagine that this would be an incredibly tightly-guarded secret. If one were a highly-placed, much-respected individual, one would NOT wish his name to be made public by any means. I would suspect that they do not even keep a mailing list, but simply repsond to their members on a piece-by-piece mail system: "You mail me this, I'll mail you that, and neither of us will know more than the mailing address of the other..."

" In fact, I believe the proposol called for simply closing down all the seminaries for a year and then re-opening them with all new staffs."

Great minds... Isn't this almost word for word what I said last week? This (in my estimation) is the only sure and speedy way to deal with the evil in the seminaries. Shut them down if there is any proof that even one of their graduates is an abuser or an enabler. Keep them closed for a year.

This is a relatively brief time, and will also give sufficient time for the seminarians to either run for cover if they are flits or to apply at a more obedient seminary if they have a genuine call.

After one year, reopen them one at a time, and staff them ONLY with graduates from reliable seminaries. NO WOMEN. NO SEXUAL INDETERMINATES. If a candidate cannot certify that he is not only heterosexual but CHASTE, he should not be accepted.

At the rate of one opening a year, the staffing of these revised seminaries will be a little more easily accomplished. If a shortage of parish priests is a result of this closure, request interim priests from third-world countries. Catholics have been limping along without genuine episcopal leadership in most dioceses for the last 20 or 30 years, anyway, so losing a bishop here and there will not cause any real problems in the pews. (I know... I understand these ideas are generalizations.)

I'm sure Bernard Law has always been a charming and loyal friend to you. Ted Bundy was a charming and loyal friend to Anne Rule. She denied that he ever could have committed any of the crimes he was arrested for, and she was a cop. Illusions die hard, don't they? Do you suppose there is a reason why the Pope has not only removed Bernard Law from his post but from the United States -- and that he did all this after Law steadfastly refused to step down? I don't know how much you've studied the atrocities Geoghan perpetrated on his innocent charges. I've studied them in some depth and if Law knew even a tenth of what I know and had a conscience, he would have had the man arrested immediately.

End of transmission. You may now proceed to kill the messenger.

End of transmission. You may now proceed to kill the messenger.

I'm not gonna kill you, but last time I looked Cardinal Law is still in Boston, despite the screaming over the airwaves that he was going to try to skip town to avoid being deposed. Everyone assumes they KNOW what he's going to do; why don't they just wait and see what he does? If he were planning to skip town, would he have even COME BACK from Rome? I'm sure he would have loved to have stayed in Boston to continue the changes he had begun, but probably realized that doing so would only keep the Church in a negative spotlight. I'm sure the liberal Catholics are dancing in the streets; they've been trying to get rid of him for YEARS!

My brother in law told me a couple of weeks ago that this would probably happen, that Law would end up in Rome. But those who are thrilled that he's out of the way here may not be so happy later because he may be more trouble for them from there.

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I, too, discounted the rumors about Law's contemplated "flight" from Boston. Afterall, he's hardly another Shanley, and no one, including myself, has ever accused him of being dumb. In fact, he's a very capable man, and I'm certain that the Vatican will find good use for his talents in an area that does not expose the See to further troubles.

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