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Gold9472
02-07-2005, 06:12 PM
When charged with child molestation? Let me just say that I think Christianity is a GREAT religion for allowing such atrocities to continue within the priesthood. It's a great fucking religion in General. Let's scare people into compliance by telling them they're going to hell, and then take them for as much money as we can...

I HATE RELIGION!!!

Defrocked priest Shanley guilty of child rape
Jury unanimously validates accuser’s repressed memories

The Associated Press Updated: 5:02 p.m. ET Feb. 7, 2005

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, the most notorious figure in the sex scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese, was convicted Monday of raping and fondling a boy at his church during the 1980s.

The conviction on all four charges gives prosecutors a high-profile victory in their effort to bring pedophile priests to justice for decades of abuse at Roman Catholic parishes around the country.

Shanley, 74, could get life in prison.

The victim, now 27, put his head down as the verdicts were announced after a trial that turned on the reliability of what he claimed were recovered memories of the long-ago abuse. Shanley showed no emotion as he stood next to his attorneys.

During the trial, the accuser broke down on the stand as he testified in graphic detail that Shanley pulled him out of Sunday morning catechism classes and raped and groped him in the church bathroom, the rectory, the confessional and the pews starting when he was 6.

“It felt awful,” he testified. “He told me nobody would ever believe me if I told anybody.”

Repressed memories
The accuser said that he repressed his memories of the abuse but that they came flooding back three years ago, triggered by news coverage of the scandal that began in Boston and soon engulfed the church worldwide.

Shanley, once a long-haired, jeans-wearing “street priest” who worked with Boston’s troubled youth, sat stoically for most of the trial, listening to his accuser’s testimony with the help of a hearing aid.

The defense called just one witness — a psychologist who said that so-called recovered memories can be false, even if the accuser ardently believes they are true. A lawyer for Shanley argued that the accuser was either mistaken or concocted the story with the help of personal injury lawyers to cash in on a multimillion-dollar settlement resulting from the sex scandal.

The man, now a firefighter in suburban Boston, was one of at least two dozen men who claimed they had been molested by Shanley. The archdiocese’s own personnel records showed that church officials knew Shanley publicly advocated sex between men and boys, yet continued to transfer him from parish to parish.

‘The emotions were raw’
Prosecutors said the accuser had no financial motivation in accusing Shanley of rape in the criminal case because he received his $500,000 settlement with the archdiocese nearly a year ago. They also cited his three days on stand, during which he sobbed and begged the judge not to force him to continue testifying.

“The emotions were raw. They were real,” prosecutor Lynn Rooney said in closing arguments.

Shanley is one of the few priests prosecutors have been able to charge. Most of the priests accused in lawsuits avoided prosecution because the alleged crimes were committed so long ago that the statute of limitations had run out. But the clock stopped when Shanley moved out of Massachusetts.

He was arrested in California at the height of the scandal in May 2002 and brought back to Massachusetts in handcuffs — charged with raping four boys while a priest at St. Jean’s Parish in Newton outside Boston. All four claimed they repressed memories of the abuse, then recovered them when the scandal broke.

But the case ran into numerous problems. In July, prosecutors dropped two of the accusers in what they said was a move to strengthen their case. Then, on the day jury selection began, they dropped a third accuser because they were unable to find him after a traumatic experience on the witness stand at a hearing last fall.

Scandal reaches back to 2002
The clergy abuse scandal in Boston began in early 2002 when Cardinal Bernard Law acknowledged he shuffled a pedophile priest from parish to parish despite evidence the priest had molested children. That priest, John Geoghan, was convicted of assault and was later killed in prison.

The scandal intensified later in 2002 when the church released Shanley’s 800-page personnel file. Despite church teachings, he argued for acceptance of homosexuality and pushed for gay rights. He called himself a “sexual expert” and advertised his counseling services in the alternative press.

He resigned from parish work in 1989 and moved to California. At the time, Law, who resigned as archbishop in December 2002 at the height of the scandal, praised his “impressive record.” Boston church officials recommended him for a job in the Diocese of San Bernardino as a priest in “good standing.”

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Ophie
02-07-2005, 06:14 PM
When charged with child molestation? Let me just say that I think Christianity is a GREAT religion for allowing such atrocities to continue within the priesthood. It's a great fucking religion in General. Let's scare people into compliance by telling them they're going to hell, and then take them for as much money as we can...

I HATE RELIGION!!!
People who become priests have problems to begin with. Tell me, what kind of man in his right mind, takes a vow to give up sex for his entire life? It's completely unnatural, not to mention ridiculous.

Gold9472
02-07-2005, 06:16 PM
People who become priests have problems to begin with. Tell me, what kind of man in his right mind, takes a vow to give up sex for his entire life? It's completely unnatural, not to mention ridiculous.

I thought most priests never had sex, so they never knew what they were missing kind of thing....

Nowhereman
02-07-2005, 06:48 PM
I think many are Homosexual and think they can stop the urges by joining the Priesthood. A small percentage of these gay Priest are also Pedophiles.

Gold9472
02-07-2005, 07:15 PM
I think many are Homosexual and think they can stop the urges by joining the Priesthood. A small percentage of these gay Priest are also Pedophiles.

It must be larger than a small percentage because we certainly hear about it enough... :mad:

Ophie
02-07-2005, 07:56 PM
I think many are Homosexual and think they can stop the urges by joining the Priesthood. A small percentage of these gay Priest are also Pedophiles.
That's what I was getting at. :)

ScottyAH
02-07-2005, 07:59 PM
That fuckin' scumbag better get raped in prison , tortured , then killed.

But don't blame religion on social disorders. This is the shit that happens when you give people too much . Look at Saturday morning cartoons . now the kids have twenty 24 hour cartoon channels and saturday morning is for nothing but another day for liberals to let children go out and get in trouble.
You let the fags get married and now the mormons want to let everybody marry more then one person. This pedophile shit isn't a church problem as much as it is a social problem

Gold9472
02-07-2005, 08:06 PM
That fuckin' scumbag better get raped in prison , tortured , then killed.

But don't blame religion on social disorders. This is the shit that happens when you give people too much . Look at Saturday morning cartoons . now the kids have twenty 24 hour cartoon channels and saturday morning is for nothing but another day for liberals to let children go out and get in trouble.
You let the fags get married and now the mormons want to let everybody marry more then one person. This pedophile shit isn't a church problem as much as it is a social problem

It's a result of the fact that abstenance from sex is "unnatural" as Ophie pointed out, and because the priesthood is a safe haven for homosexuals who are ashamed of themselves...

If the Church decreed that Priests could marry, I think that would change a lot of things.

Remember, the Bible said "Be Fruitful & Multiply"...

somebigguy
02-07-2005, 08:42 PM
Those people are repressed for 50 years in some cases, then they finally snap and start screwing anything with a hole. Those priests should buy a hooker every couple of weeks like the rest of us and they'd be perfectly normal like us.

Gold9472
02-07-2005, 08:49 PM
Those people are repressed for 50 years in some cases, then they finally snap and start screwing anything with a hole. Those priests should buy a hooker every couple of weeks like the rest of us and they'd be perfectly normal like us.

Damn straight. :D

somebigguy
02-07-2005, 08:52 PM
Damn straight. :D
I'll tell you, given the choice between a four year old and some hot bitch with big knockers, I'm going with the hot bitch with big knockers. You'd think the priest would have the sense that God gave them to pick the hot chick with big knockers too.

Gold9472
02-07-2005, 08:55 PM
I'll tell you, given the choice between a four year old and some hot bitch with big knockers, I'm going with the hot bitch with big knockers. You'd think the priest would have the sense that God gave them to pick the hot chick with big knockers too.

No, that would be BAD... VERY BAD. :confused:

somebigguy
02-07-2005, 08:58 PM
No, that would be BAD... VERY BAD. :confused:
What do you mean? You don't actually pay the hooker, you have your way with her and then kill her. See, everybody wins.

Gold9472
02-07-2005, 09:11 PM
What do you mean? You don't actually pay the hooker, you have your way with her and then kill her. See, everybody wins.

I have notified the authorities. Your IP address has been submitted to the FBI.

ScottyAH
02-07-2005, 09:47 PM
The answer to your question is NO. unless they're black. NO NEVER :confused:

danceyogamom
02-07-2005, 10:53 PM
I thought most priests never had sex, so they never knew what they were missing kind of thing....

my uncle is a priest. (and no, he's not gay or into children)

he was in the army for 5 years, had a career and was engaged prior to being ordained.

the church doesn't want to ordain men who aren't truly comitted, so they encourage them to experience life before entering the seminary

Gold9472
02-07-2005, 10:59 PM
my uncle is a priest. (and no, he's not gay or into children)

he was in the army for 5 years, had a career and was engaged prior to being ordained.

the church doesn't want to ordain men who aren't truly comitted, so they encourage them to experience life before entering the seminary

I don't mean any disrespect towards your uncle as a person, but I don't believe in religion.

danceyogamom
02-07-2005, 11:02 PM
I don't mean any disrespect towards your uncle as a person, but I don't believe in religion.

I didn't take it as such ... and I don't expect anyone else to believe in religion ...

I was just trying to give it a slightly more personal perspective.

religion (like many other things) is often best when looked at on a very small scale ...

Gold9472
02-07-2005, 11:06 PM
I didn't take it as such ... and I don't expect anyone else to believe in religion ...

I was just trying to give it a slightly more personal perspective.

religion (like many other things) is often best when looked at on a very small scale ...

Well... a few people in my family teach Hebrew... they would kill me if they knew what I was saying...

I respect religion, but I don't approve of people saying one thing, and doing another, etc... VERY few individuals practice what they preach.

Where's Ophie when I need her... she had an amazing Ghandi quote that would fit perfectly with this.

Gold9472
02-07-2005, 11:07 PM
I think it went something like this...

"I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians. Your Christians are nothing like your Christ."...

danceyogamom
02-07-2005, 11:10 PM
Well... a few people in my family teach Hebrew... they would kill me if they knew what I was saying...

I respect religion, but I don't approve of people saying one thing, and doing another, etc... VERY few individuals practice what they preach.

Where's Ophie when I need her... she had an amazing Ghandi quote that would fit perfectly with this.

people saying one thing and doing another is rampant through out humanity ...

I try to think of it not in terms of religion, but in trying to treat others well. when you look at the dogma of catholicism, I'm not a very good Catholic ...

where is Ophie?

Ophie
02-08-2005, 02:36 PM
Well... a few people in my family teach Hebrew... they would kill me if they knew what I was saying...

I respect religion, but I don't approve of people saying one thing, and doing another, etc... VERY few individuals practice what they preach.

Where's Ophie when I need her... she had an amazing Ghandi quote that would fit perfectly with this.
"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
-Mahatma Ghandi

princesskittypoo
02-08-2005, 03:54 PM
I thought most priests never had sex, so they never knew what they were missing kind of thing....
just because you've never had sex with someone doesn't mean you don't know what your missing... i know what i'm missing i'm just waiting for the right person and the right time to come along...

Ophie
02-08-2005, 04:15 PM
I thought most priests never had sex, so they never knew what they were missing kind of thing....
Human beings are sexual by nature. Most children before the age of at least 8, have explored their genitals, thereby exploring their sexuality. It's completely natural. What is unnatural, is to deny yourself the experience of sexual pleasure.

somebigguy
02-08-2005, 04:21 PM
Human beings are sexual by nature. Most children before the age of at least 8, have explored their genitals, thereby exploring their sexuality. It's completely natural. What is unnatural, is to deny yourself the experience of sexual pleasure.
Unfortunately, it is usually women that deny Gold the experience of sexual pleasure.

Ophie
02-08-2005, 04:29 PM
Unfortunately, it is usually women that deny Gold the experience of sexual pleasure.
LOL! :D

Ophie
02-08-2005, 04:30 PM
"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
-Mahatma Ghandi
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
-Jesus Christ