New Allegations in Clerical Abuse Case

Retired priest Paul Shanley procured underage sex partners for other men in exchange for money and raped young male parishioners who came to him for counseling, according to allegations contained in court documents filed Monday.

The allegations were included in more than 300 pages of motions filed by attorneys representing Gregory Ford, 23, and his parents, Paula and Rodney Ford, in a civil suit against Cardinal Bernard Law and the Archdiocese of Boston. The Fords contend church officials failed to stop Shanley from abusing children, including Gregory.

The documents, laying out dozens of examples of alleged wrongdoing by Shanley and his superiors, were filed hours after the state attorney general confirmed that no criminal charges would be brought against Law -- and days before Law’s successor, Bishop Sean Patrick O’Malley, was scheduled to be installed as archbishop of Boston.

“Even though people have heard or seen bits and pieces about individual priests, no one until now has put it together so the judge and the jury can spot the patterns and policies that resulted in so much harm to children,” said Ford attorney Roderick MacLeish Jr., who described the documents as a road map for the pending civil case.

Shanley, 72, has been free on bail since December as he awaits criminal prosecution on child rape charges. Gregory Ford is one of four alleged victims in the criminal case. No dates have been set for the criminal or civil cases, but Shanley has pleaded not guilty.

On Wednesday, Massachusetts Atty. Gen. Tom Reilly will issue a long-awaited report summarizing a 16-month grand-jury investigation of the church pedophilia scandal here.

An archdiocesan spokesman, Father Christopher Coyne, said Monday that he was unable to comment because he had not seen the attorney general’s report or the new court documents. A call Monday to the Rogers Law Firm, which represents the archdiocese, was not returned.

Law resigned under mounting pressure in December and was reassigned to work as a chaplain at a Maryland convent.

The documents filed Monday include affidavits from 21 other alleged clerical-abuse victims. The filing names 25 priests in addition to Shanley who worked in Boston as early as 1960. They were protected by church officials who covered up their alleged abuse of children, the documents contend.

The Archdiocese of Boston alone faces about 500 civil suits from alleged abuse victims, and it has settled hundreds more.

Robert Sherman, another lawyer working on the Ford case, called the filing’s timing -- on the eve of the release of the attorney general’s report and the installation July 30 of the archbishop -- “a complete coincidence.”

The material filed in court Monday attempts to rebut attacks on Gregory Ford’s memory by church lawyers. Among other allegations, the documents assert that Shanley sometimes paid for sex with teenagers.