Church sues itself in sex abuse scandal
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Your support makes all the difference.The sex abuse scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church took a bizarre twist yesterday when a diocese in California filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Boston – the first time the church has attacked itself in the two years that the recriminations and legal liabilities have grown.
The diocese of San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles, argued in its suit it was deliberately misled on the character of Paul Shanley, a priest who moved from Boston to California with a warm letter of recommendation that made no mention of multiple accusations of child sex abuse.
The suit contended that the Boston archdiocese should pay for all legal costs and liabilities arising from further acts of abuse ascribed to Father Shanley after he moved to the West Coast.
With millions of dollars at stake, church leaders have apparently lost their inhibitions about criticising each other in public. "It seems the gloves are finally coming off," Richard Sipe, a former priest who has testified against the Church in sex abuse cases, told The Washington Post. He added that "the niceties of a gentleman's agreement between dioceses have been dropped".
Father Shanley, now 71, is on bail awaiting trial for the abuse of four boys in his Massachusetts parish in the 1970s and 1980s. He has also been accused of encouraging his charges to participate in gay orgiesat a resort in the southern Californian desert.
His case has prompted multiple lawsuits against the Boston archdiocese, which saw no reason to keep him away from children and young people in numerous assignments over a 20-year period. In the letter of recommendation, Boston's Cardinal, Archbishop Bernard Law, described him as "a priest in good standing".
Howard Lincoln, a church spokesman in San Bernardino, said: "We would never have accepted him if we had been told that he was accused of child sexual abuse."
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