Father Shanley

When the Greek philosopher Socrates was convicted of corrupting the morals of
the youth of Athens, the court asked him what he thought his punishment should
be. He responded that he should get a small stipend from the state to continue
teaching. He received poison instead. Now it is Fr Paul Shanley's turn - for
his efforts on behalf of a neglected segment of society and for his
challenging the orthodoxy of church and state and for the unforgivable sin of
being the symbol of something the crowd dislikes this now frail old man will
probably receive a harsh sentence. He deserves far better.

Fr Shanley was ordained in 1960 and became well known as a "street priest"
over the next two decades. He established a ministry for runaways, drug
abusers, drifters and teen-agers struggling with sexual identity.

A priest friend of Shanley's, still at his parish post and not accused, said,
"I remember one summer all the hippie runaways headed for Boston. There were
so many overdoses, so many tragedies for all these young teens. And Paul was
there for them-- he saved at least a hundred young lives that summer." (Saving
lives seems to have been a pattern for him - shortly before he was sent back
to Massachusetts he saved the life of a neighbor.)

Shanley was well-known at the time for espousing gay rights from inside the
church, beginning in the late 1960s, as well as for working openly with
prostitutes, addicts, and other "alienated youth." He was one of the earliest
priests to support and say mass for the Catholic organization, Dignity. He
refused to stay quiet even after he was censured and moved from his urban
ministry by then Cardinal Medeiros in 1979. The Boston Globe ran countless
stories about him back then as a human rights champion.

It is no wonder that many higher-ups in the church hierarchy disapproved of Fr
Shanley for his beliefs about homosexuality just as it was no wonder that many
higher-ups in the Catholic hierarchy disapproved of and denounced the activist
priests in Central and South America who embraced Liberation Theology - both
challenged entrenched dogma and sought to give power and a voice to the
previously powerless and voiceless.

It has been widely but incorrectly reported that Fr Shanley attended the
meeting which created NAMBLA. He attended one of a series of public fora of
the Boston/Boise Committee which were held to counter an anti-gay witch-hunt
fomented to help the incumbent DA win re-election. Others who attended one or
more of these meetings were Gore Vidal and Chief Justice Bonin of the
Massachusetts Supreme Court. NAMBLA was formed at a separate meeting after
these fora were over.¹    Fr Shanley was not at this meeting.

Paul Shanley was, according to all who knew him and according to his own
public statements, a lover of adolescent boys and young men - ranging from
early teens to early twenties. He has admitted sexual relations with such
young men, all of which he insists (and the evidence is clear that he is
honest) were consensual. He also regrets these because he was not true to his
vow of celibacy. It is clear from the evidence, however, that he was NEVER
attracted to male children below puberty. The "victim" in this case claims
that the "rapes" were when he was between 6 and 9 years old. This is patently
ridiculous. The "abuse" didn't happen.

In order to bring this case to trial, so many decades after the incidents
allegedly occurred, the prosecution had to base it's case on "recovered
memory syndrome," which has been repeatedly shown to be notoriously unreliable
at best. Study after study has shown how malleable the memory can be and how
easy it is to create false memories.

The prosecution asked what Paul Busa, the sole remaining accuser in this case
(three others were dropped for credability problems), had to gain by
testifying. After all, he had already received a settlement from the church in
a civil suit. Why continue to dredge up something that may have happened
decades ago? One answer is that he gets to be a victim.

Victimhood has become our society's Holy Grail - attain it and all your
culpability, all your responsibility, all your sins are washed away. Victims
are too often showered with media attention and, what is worse, given a free
pass on any and all shortcomings. It gives failure, lack of effort, and even
criminality a tacit stamp of approval.

Victimhood has become not a problem to be solved but an identity to benurtured.
It performs the same role as religion - it can help explain and order a world which
all too often seems inexplicable and chaotic.

One thing is clear: as in similar moral panics involving day-care centers,
school teachers, and the Boy Scouts, the most lasting damage may well be the
end of affectionate care, touching, and individual relationship with children
by adults. What priest or teacher or other care-giver would dare be left alone
with a child, or be seen caressing a child who has fallen? No more hugging, no
more late-night counseling, no more one-on-one confidences, no more field
trips.

It is sad that the jury was caught up in the hysteria surrounding this case.
Fr Shanley wasn't convicted because of his acts, but because he became a
scapegoat representing all the sins of all the priests. If any person can be
convicted on such flimsy - nonexistent - evidence, then no one is safe.

Notes:
  ¹ For a more comprehensive account, read John Mitzel's book, The Boston Sex
Scandal (Boston: Glad Day Books, 1980).