Globe article: "Files Show Shanley Tried Blackmail": Letter threatened Medeiros with 'shocking' revelations; late cardinal spurned effort
By Michael Rezendes and Thomas Farragher, Globe Staff, 4/26/2002
The Rev. Paul R. Shanley, the priest who approved of sex between men and boys, tried to blackmail former Cardinal Humberto S. Medeiros into reversing his decision to end Shanley's 1970s-era street ministry, according to documents released yesterday by church lawyers acting under a court order.
Other documents released yesterday show that Thomas J. Flatley, one of the city's most prominent Catholics, wrote Medeiros criticizing Shanley's gay advocacy and his apparent support of drug use.
In his letter to Medeiros about Shanley, Flatley said, ''Already he has done a great amount of damage where he has spoken before groups, including college campuses ... Few have listened to him but he has been able to grab the headlines at the expense of family life and our Catholic philosophies.''
Flatley could not be reached for comment last night.
The letter prepared for Medeiros in which he apparently replies to a letter from Shanley was among the most provocative douments released yesterday.
''In my work, you gave me four directions,'' Shanley wrote to Medeiros. ''You forbad [sic] me to start a gay parish. You forbad me to encourage gay unions. You forbad me to continue to celebrate Mass for homosexuals. You forbad me to give my own opinion on the morality of homosexual acts. Although I agree with none of these proscriptions, I have been obediently observing them.''
... The records released yesterday also contain letters to the archdiocese asking about Shanley's appearance at a December 1978 conference in Boston that was said to have led to the founding of a group that advocated tolerance of sexual relations between adult men and boys, the North American Man-Boy Love Association.
In a 1983 letter, the Rev. Hugh Weston, pastor of Desert Christian Church in Palm Desert, Calif., asked if Shanley had represented Medeiros at the conference, which was reported in the book, ''The Homosexual Network.'' --------------------------------------------------------
I think it's safe to conclude that any liberal would have to bend over backwards to claim this article was not about homosexuals in the Church.
Curiouser and curiouser!