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Alleged Victim Awaits Release Of Priest Documents

Court Papers Contain Allegations Against Fr. Paul Shanley

POSTED: 6:40 a.m. EDT April 8, 2002
UPDATED: 7:51 a.m. EDT April 8, 2002

On Monday, more court documents outlining details of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of a priest will be released by a man who claims he was abused by a former Newton, Mass., priest, Fr. Paul Shanley.

Alleged victim Gregory Ford, 24, is suing Shanley for abuse. Another alleged victim, who wants to remain unidentified, says the priest was also involved with an organization that promotes sex between men and boys, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, also called NAMBLA.

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that Ford's attorney will release the documents, which include some 1,000 pages of accusations, around noon Monday. The documents outline the history of Shanley's career in the Boston archdiocese, where he was apparently moved around repeatedly, until he was eventually transferred to a parish in San Bernadino, Calif.

Shanley, now 71, is living in San Diego.

The other alleged victim, who wishes only to be known as Bill, came forward Sunday saying he met Shanley when he was 15 years old. He is now 40. He says he met with the priest after a talking with a Dorchester man who belonged to NAMBLA.

"He suggested I see a priest named Fr. Paul Shanley. He said he was a Catholic priest who counseled gays trying to deal with their homosexuality," Bill said.

Bill, who is now openly gay, said he went to Shanley's Back Bay apartment.

"I was really tense and he asked me if I wanted to play a game of strip poker and he put his arm around mine and he said, 'You're a boy and I'm a man. Someday you'll be a man. This is a beautiful thing and sex between boys and men is a beautiful thing. He did have NAMBLA pamphlets in his apartment. He would show me. I would go there every week that first summer I met him, and he would show me pictures of young boys, naked, pornographic pictures of young boys and men in their 20s and he would ask me if that turned me on," he said, claiming he was abused for approximately eight years.


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