Court upholds conviction of pedophile priest

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On January 10, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts unanimously upheld Father Paul Shanley's 2005 conviction for the rape of a young boy. The ruling ended any hopes the former priest had for another trial. Shanley is currently serving a 12 to 15 year prison sentence for the crime.

The case which set a precedent for the use of repressed memories by victims of sexual abuse, marked the lowest point in the Catholic Church’s long molestation scandal, and what many believe was the beginning of the end for the church’s viability in the U.S.

In a statement, the Court concluded: "In sum, the judge's finding that the lack of scientific testing did not make unreliable the theory that an individual may experience dissociative amnesia was supported in the record, not only by expert testimony but by a wide collection of clinical observations and a survey of academic literature. ... There was no abuse of discretion in the admission of expert testimony on the subject of dissociative amnesia."

For decades, the Catholic Church shielded and protected child-molesting priests. As complaints would come pouring-in from parents threatening to involve the police, the church would simply ship the offending priest off on a sabbatical, eventually pawning them off on another unsuspecting parish where the process would begin again. That practice is nothing more than aiding and abetting known criminals. The enormous toll of lives destroyed by this disgusting and cowardly exercise by the Catholic Church will never be fully known.

In his book, Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, Leon Podles wrote: "In late 1993, Shanley was sent to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut, for evaluation. The Boston archdiocese has refused to release this evaluation, but other released files show that Shanley admitted to nine sexual encounters, of which four involved boys, and that he was diagnosed as 'narcissistic' and 'histrionic'. Shanley admitted that he was 'attracted to adolescents.’”

The Catholic Church has been forced to pay-out millions to the victims of pedophile priests. Fed up with the hypocrisy and disregard for the lives of innocent children, many Americans have fled the Church. In the Boston Archdiocese alone, 65 churches have been forced to close their doors due to a sharp decline in parishioners.

Boston was once considered the center of the American Catholic society. Catholic worshipers in that city were shocked to learn of the outrageous behavior displayed by Cardinal Bernard Law and the offending priests he protected for so many years. One of those priests that Law moved around to several different parishes was Father Paul Shanley, incredibly, he even served at Exodus House, a home for troubled youths from 1976-79.

As a result of this pedophile’s contact with so many children, the diocese secretly settled many lawsuits brought against the church by the parents of Shanley‘s victims.

As it turned out, Fr. Shanley was not only a molester, but an advocate for NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association). While Shanley was eventually convicted of child rape, Cardinal Law was rewarded by Pope John Paul II, who brought him to Rome where he now holds a prominent position within the Vatican.

 

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