Paul Shanley

Paul Richard Shanley (January 25, 1931[1] – October 28, 2020) was an American Roman Catholic priest who became the center of a massive sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston in Massachusetts.

Beginning in 1967, the archdiocese covered up numerous allegations of child sexual assault against Shanley and facilitated his transfers to other states.

[3] In 1967, a priest at the National Shrine of our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro, Massachusetts wrote a complaint letter to the archdiocese about Shanley.

The priest relayed allegations from two boys that Shanley sexually abused them during a weekend visit to a cabin in the Blue Hills.

[5] In 1969, Shanley started his Youth Apostolate in the Roxbury section of Boston, ministering to people suffering from drug addiction and young runaways struggling with their sexuality.

He gained "the nickname the hippie priest for his long hair and outspoken views, including his public rejection of the church's condemnation of homosexuality."

Although he was not part of it, a number of conference attendants decided to form the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA)[5][7][8] During the 1980s, Shanley served as pastor for several years at St. Jean the Evangelist Parish in Newton, Massachusetts.

White opened a small bed and breakfast property in Palm Springs, California, that catered to gay men.

[11] Shanley moved to New York City in 1995 to serve as assistant director of Leo House, a Catholic residence facility in Manhattan.

In February 2005, Shanley was convicted in Massachusetts of indecent assaults and statutory rape; he received a sentence of 12 to 15 years in state prison.

[8] The Shanley case was based on recovered memories of abuse that happened 20 years earlier when the plaintiff was a young child.

The validity of recovered memory and the alleged prejudice against Shanley due to heavy media coverage formed the basis for his legal appeal.

[14] During a May 2008 hearing, Shaw argued that repressed memories of childhood rape and sexual assault by family and clergy were without general acceptance in the scientific community and were so-called "junk science".

It 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.