Paul Shanley

Paul Richard Shanley (January 25, 1931 – 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.

Paul Shanley was born on January 25, 1931, in Boston, Massachusetts.

His father owned a bowling alley and pool room and his mother worked as a legal secretary.

Shanley attended Huntington School for Boys, working in the summer as a camp counselor.

Shanley would later claim that he was sexually abused by a priest when he was 12 years old.

After graduating from high school in 1950, Shanley entered Boston University.

However, after two years, he entered St. John’s Seminary in Boston to study for the priesthood.

Shanley was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1960.

After his ordination, Shanley was assigned as an assistant pastor at St. Patrick's Parish in Stoneham, Massachusetts.

The next year, a parent in Stoneham complained to the police that Shanley had sexually abused his 11 year old son.

The police were ready to prosecute Shanley, but the father backed off.

The mother wrote a complaint letter to Cardinal Richard Cushing, the archbishop, but heard nothing back.

There were other complaints about Shanley in Stoneham.

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

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.

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."

Shanley's writings included Changing Norms of Sexuality.

His work with youth inspired three nuns to start a similar social agency in Boston.

At a church meeting in Rochester, New York, in 1977, Shanley said that when an adult and a child have sex, '' the adult is not the seducer—the kid is the seducer.

'' In addition, he said that punishing the adult only hurts the child.

An attendee at that meeting noted his remarks and sent them to the Archdiocese of Boston.

In 1979, Shanley attended a conference in Boston on sexuality as a representative of the archdiocese.

The February 12, 1979 issue of Gaysweek contained an article about the conference titled "Men & Boys".

The article stated that Shanley defended the value of relationships between men and boys.

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

In 1990, the archdiocese arranged for Shanley to minister temporarily in the Diocese of San Bernardino in Southern California.

While working in California, Shanley was to be on paid sick leave from the archdiocese.

Bishop Robert J. Banks wrote a letter in January 1990 to the bishop of San Bernardino stating that Shanley had a clean record.

Shanley also signed an affidavit for the Diocese of San Bernardino saying that he did not have any allegations of wrongdoing in Massachusetts.

Shanley was assigned to assist the pastor at St. Anne's Parish in San Bernardino, California.

While posted at St. Anne's, Shanley and Reverend John J. White opened a small bed and breakfast property in Palm Springs, California, that catered to gay men.

In October 1993, the Diocese of San Bernardino received a letter from Reverend John B. McCormack, a deputy of Cardinal Law, that said the archdiocese had received records of past child sexual abuse allegations against Shanley.

The Diocese of San Bernardino suspended Shanley immediately.

The archdiocese in late 1993 sent Shanley to the Institute of Living, a psychiatric facility in Hartford, Connecticut, for evaluation.

Shanley was convicted of child rape and removed from the priesthood in 2004.

Shanley was incarcerated from 2005 until his release from state prison in 2017.

Shanley appealed his conviction in 2007 based on questions about the validity of repressed memories, but his conviction was upheld.

He died in 2020.