The Rev. Paul Shanley, 71, left the courtroom with his lawyer Frank Mondano without comment. Shanley has been jailed since May when he returned to Massachusetts from California, where he had been living in recent years. Posted on 12/11/2002 8:38:31 AM PST by RCW2001
BOSTON -- A priest at the center of the clergy sexual abuse scandal was freed Wednesday after seven months in jail when he posted $300,000 cash bail.
The Rev. Paul Shanley, 71, left the courtroom with his lawyer Frank Mondano without comment. Shanley has been jailed since May when he returned to Massachusetts from California, where he had been living in recent years.
Shanley has been charged with 10 counts of child rape and six counts of indecent assault and battery for allegedly abusing boys at a church in Newton from 1979 to 1989.
Shanley's attorney assured Judge Charles Grabau that Shanley had surrendered his passport, one of the conditions of his release. He also is forbidden to have contact with anyone under age 16, or with any of his alleged victims or witnesses in his case. He must remain in Massachusetts and provide the probation department with an address where he will be while his case is pending.
It was unclear who provided the bail money to Shanley, described as nearly broke by his own attorney. Because the bail was posted in cash, the source of the money is not public record.
Shanley is also the focus of civil lawsuits accusing church officials of reassigning him despite abuse allegations and complaints that he publicly advocated sex between men and boys.
Rodney Ford, the father of Gregory Ford, one of Shanley's alleged victims, said the news Shanley would be released horrified his now-adult son.
"He has a look on his face I haven't seen in years," Ford said. "I thought I'd never see that look again. It's back and it's scary."
Meanwhile, lawyers who represent alleged Shanley victims said they planned on Wednesday to file internal church records on up to 15 other priests. Attorney Roderick MacLeish Jr. said the files contain "significant" new revelations about misconduct.
Waves of sordid disclosures from priest personnel files over the past week have made alleged victims of clergy sex abuse feel vindicated, giving some of them greater incentive to agree to settle their cases before trial, MacLeish said Tuesday.
"As horrific as this has been, the disclosures of these documents is really giving some people affirmation that we are starting to get at the truth and that they played a significant part in that," he said.
About 400 lawsuits accuse the archdiocese of ignoring sex abuse charges by transferring pedophile priests from parish to parish, where they only abused a new group of children.
Meanwhile, state Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly said Tuesday that the Boston Archdiocese has been using "every tool and maneuver" to impede a criminal investigation by his office into the sexual abuse charges, despite giving the false impression that it is cooperating with prosecutors.
"We have to fight them for everything we get," Reilly said in an interview with The Boston Globe. "The level of cooperation is nowhere near what it should be, given the magnitude of the crimes against children, and the fact that we are dealing with a religious institution."
Cardinal Bernard F. Law, who has been under fire since the scandal erupted in January, abruptly left this weekend and traveled to the Vatican, where he has been engaged in talks with church officials about how to handle the crisis.
The trip came just days after Law received permission from the archdiocese's finance council to file for bankruptcy protection in the wake of hundreds of lawsuits that could potentially cripple the church financially.
The recent legal scuffle began after the archdiocese -- for the second time since the scandal erupted -- floated the idea of filing for Chapter 11. Within days, MacLeish filed more priest personnel files with the court, including the file of a priest who seduced girls studying to become nuns by telling them he was "the second coming of Christ."
The next day, the church's finance council approved the bankruptcy option. The following day, personnel files were released concerning the Rev. James D. Foley, who fathered at least two children and later abandoned the children's mother while she was overdosed.
Stephen J. Pope, chairman of the theology department at Boston College, said the recent revelations may have intensified pressure on Law to seriously consider bankruptcy.
"My sense is that they realize that they've had a massive public relations failure, and that the more the cases are revealed, the deeper in trouble they get. Bankruptcy would be one way to stop the bleeding," he said.
The Vatican has not detailed the purpose of Law's trip, but a senior Vatican official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Law was expected to meet with the pope later this week.
In Boston, pressure continued to mount for Law's resignation.
A group of 58 priests signed and delivered a letter to Law's Boston residence Monday calling on Law to step down.
The Rev. Robert W. Bullock, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Sharon and a leader of the Boston Priests' Forum, said he expects the organization to discuss a second letter that would be more widely circulated.
Voice of the Faithful, a lay group of Catholics, said members planned to vote Wednesday on three separate resolutions calling on Law to resign, asking Pope John Paul II to appoint another bishop, and asking the U.S. Conference of Bishops to follow through on their pledge to hold bishops accountable.
"The damage that's happened in Boston is not just local," said Jim Post, president of the group.
"It has affected confidence in bishops everywhere. The question is there now: What secrets are there in our church records?"
Bump for bail disclosure.
Here is your kind, wonderful, orthodox bishop, his soul in torment over the guilt of it all.
Did you ask Polycarp to be taken off his ping list for his "humor" thread, or did you gleefully participate?
This is hard news, and you need to see it.
<> No. I asked to be taken off your ping list because I find any attempt at "dialogue" with you counterproductive. This Advent, I have decided to permanently ignore certain folks. You are among them.<>
Did you ask Polycarp to be taken off his ping list for his "humor" thread, or did you gleefully participate?
<> I consider Polycarp an exemplary Christian<>
This is hard news, and you need to see it
<> I will limp along as best I can...:) Good- bye<>
Some do, most don't--it depends on the rule of their order. I don't think Shanley was in an order that mandates poverty. They ARE, however, required to take vows of obedience and chastity.
When did you decide that? After you you realized that giggling at Polycarp's nasty version of "humor" wasn't being seen as charitably as you hoped?
Shanley's attorney, Frank Mondano, said a "substantial number" of family, friends and supporters managed to raise the bail money for Shanley, described as nearly broke by his Mondano in previous hearings.
"There were a large number of people who were willing to put up the money to facilitate this," he said. Because the bail was posted in cash, the source of the money is not public record. Mondano declined comment on who contributed, how many contributions there were, or exactly how long they'd been raising the money.
The Boston Archdiocese has said it did not contribute to the bail. http://www.boston.com/news/daily/11/shanley.htm
I am pretty sure that is going through the Massachusetts courts. But then again,I am sure the good citizens of Massachusetts including educators,politicians, and journalists and their publishers are too busy representing and repackaging old news about the priests to focus on a fairly recent murder and sodomization of a child by known homosexuals.
I guess they think if they can focus on a multi-faceted problem in the priesthood they may be able to kill off a lot of threats to their plans;whereas,if they focus on one case which clearly eilucidates the beginning and the end,the "root cause" and the tragic outcomes,they may no longer be able to cover and protect and preserve that dangerous life style.What do you think?
April 26, 2002 Posted: 10:59 PM EDT (0259 GMT)
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BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The embattled Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston turned over more documents Thursday concerning the Rev. Paul Shanley, a now-retired priest accused of sexually abusing minors as the archdiocese shuttled him from parish to parish.
The archdiocese handed over the records -- weeks after releasing another set of files -- to attorneys representing people suing the church for doing nothing to keep Shanley away from children despite knowing of allegations he abused children, a church spokesman said.
"No one knew that these files were around," the Rev. Chris Coyne said at a news conference Wednesday. "At first they were thought to be duplicate files.
"It's terribly embarrassing to come out and say this, that at this late a date they have found files like that."
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Earlier this month, church officials followed a court order and handed over documents that indicated the archdiocese repeatedly transferred Shanley, and even recommended him to a California archdiocese, despite mounting allegations against him.
Shanley, according to these documents, belonged to the North American Man-Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA, which advocates sexual relationships between men and boys.
Church officials said they found the documents at the chancery, the office that performs secretarial services to the Boston archdiocese, earlier this week.
Coyne said he had not reviewed the approximately 800 pages of documents, but church lawyers said the files pertained to Shanley's ministry and concerns about his NAMBLA affiliation.
"They just continue to fill in the blanks that we didn't have," Coyne said.
Shanley, who worked with troubled youths while in Massachusetts, is now retired and living in San Diego, California.
Roderick MacLeish, an attorney for Greg Ford, who said Shanley molested him between the ages of 6 and 11, released the first batch of documents on April 8 after the church lost a court fight to prevent anyone from speaking about the records. MacLeish has alleged Shanley abused at least 30 young people.
The release of the documents, as well as the recent conviction of another former Boston-area priest, John Geoghan, who is accused of abusing 130 children over 30 years, has fueled calls for the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, the archdiocese leader since 1984.
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| Rodney Ford, who claims that Shanley molested his son, said he found it "hard to comprehend" the church leaders' actions. | |
On Wednesday, at the close of a meeting between Pope John Paul II and U.S. cardinals, including Law, the cardinals issued a statement saying they would seek to dismiss any "notorious" priest found guilty of "serial, predatory, sexual abuse of minors."
But the statement did not endorse a "zero-tolerance policy" -- in which no instance of molestation would be tolerated.
Rodney Ford, the father of Greg Ford, called the communiqué "insulting," saying the cardinals "really didn't accomplish much toward settling any of the cases with the victims, or even reaching out with an apology."
I have no idea where the suit is occurring, and hope there will be a judgment for zillions of dollars. Unfortunately, it won't be collectible, since the kind of guys who are deeply involved are probably broke losers, and the thing looks to have moved its website to Denmark.
Maybe the Plaintiffs in that suit can look to the tireless efforts of Shanley to start it, and the condoning nods of his superiors in chasing the Archdiocese of Boston for some of that judgment.
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