Notorious pedophile and convicted rapist Paul Shanley was released from Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater, Massachusetts on Friday, July 28, 2017, after serving 12 years of his 12 – 15 year sentence.
Shanley was convicted in 2005 of rape and indecent assault and battery for molesting a boy under 14. While those were the only criminal charges he was convicted for, the Archdiocese of Boston settled dozens of civil sex abuse claims by his victims.
Ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1960, Shanley allegedly abused children and adults throughout his 44-years as a priest. He certainly had access to minors as a self-proclaimed street preacher who worked with runaway youth, drug addicts, and street hustlers.
While Shanley never admitted his alleged crimes against youth, he was quite open about his opinion that so-called “man-boy love” was okay. And his superiors at the Archdiocese of Boston knew about his views. In 2002, just as the Boston priest scandal was breaking, the Associated Press wrote:
The Archdiocese of Boston knew that one of its priests, now accused of rape, spoke in favor of sex between men and boys at a 1979 meeting that apparently led to the founding of a national group advocating the practice, according to court documents released Monday.
Shanley’s words at the meeting are still posted on the North American Man/Boy Love Association website. The NAMBLA group has advocated for eliminating most laws prohibiting sex with minors since its inception, and Shanley has supported the movement.
Given Shanley’s open and staunch support of America’s most notorious child molester advocacy group, coupled with Shanley’s long history of the sexual abuse of minors, why was he eligible for early release? His release is nothing more than a slap in the face to survivors of sexual abuse.