Word: priestly
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Paul Shanley was a media darling, a nationally known "hippie priest" who busted out of the Catholic stereotype at a time when the country was craving just such a novelty. "There was something highly seductive about him," says Bullock, who attended seminary with Shanley. In the 1970s Shanley grew thick sideburns and wore overalls. He gave irreverent lectures about the foolishness of the drug war and the normalcy of bisexuality. And most of all, he made it his lifetime pursuit to help wayward children, running a special ministry for teenagers who had run away or were confused about their sexuality...
...first document accusing Shanley of molestation is dated 1967. A priest at another church near Shanley's wrote that a boy had told him he had been abused by Shanley at a cabin in the woods. In 1983, according to two lawsuits recently filed against Law, Shanley began repeatedly molesting two 6-year-old boys in his parish, St. John the Evangelist, in Newton, Mass. Gregory Ford and Paul Busa both say Shanley would regularly pull them out of catechism class and make them play the card game War. Whoever lost had to perform a sexual act, says Busa...
...that Father Shanley has no problem that would be a concern to your diocese," he wrote. There were no restrictions placed on his access to minors. Shanley wrote that he handled all baptisms and youth retreats at St. Anne's in San Bernadino. On the side, he and another priest also owned a hotel for gay guests in Palm Springs, Calif. Last week San Bernadino officials said that there had been no problems with Shanley, but that they would never have allowed him to come had they known of his past...
...Publishers have signed up at least two books about the current crisis affecting the Catholic Church. The reporters at the Boston Globe who first broke the story of the abusive-priest cases will be writing a book for Little, Brown. Jimmy Breslin will be writing a book for Crown. According to PW, "Breslin will travel widely, talking to church officials and victims alike about the dimensions of the problem; he will even go to the Vatican. He has made it clear in his columns that he believes the doctrine of priestly celibacy is at the heart of the crisis...
...Slam ED MCMAHON Carson sidekick's house infected with toxic mold. McMahon said he would never have known the mold was toxic from the way it tasted MICHAEL OVITZ Hollywood talent czar loses his best account: Robin Williams. His second-best account: Father Hands-to-Himself, the non-molesting priest...