The Sad Case of Paul Shanley

So. Paul Shanley is guilty. Of doing very bad things. To a young boy. Things that are sure to earn him his own special room in hell.

This is a man who, now, at 74, could spend the rest of his life in prison. Barring his winning on appeal, that prospect seems very likely. If you ask me (or even if you don't!) he's getting off easy.

I freely admit that I am not a Catholic. Frankly, I simply disagree with too many tenets of their faith. But I respect their right to their beliefs, just as I respect the beliefs of any religion (except those snake-handling people--those people are just plain nuts!)

But frankly, I think it's time for the Catholic Church to move into the 21st century. Just about every other religion in the world not only allows its clergy to marry and have children, but in most cases encourages it. Most of them also allow women clergy. As a consequence, while there may be some deviant behavior among them, it obviously doesn't reach the level that it did in the Catholic church in the past century.

I don't want to condemn a whole barrel because of a few rotten apples. I'm sure that 99.9% of all Catholic clergymen are good, honest, decent, God-fearing men who would never think of engaging in indecent behavior with children. But those few who do deserve to be hounded out of the church, and out of the company of decent human beings, period. There is no excuse. It is a vile crime that can traumatize its victims, mentally and physically, often for life. If there is any doubt as to the veracity of that claim, please keep in mind that there were originally four witnesses against Shanley, but three were dropped from the case due to various mental health problems, most of them caused by their previous victimizations.

I give great credit to the lone remaining accuser for standing strong in the face of a vicious attack on his credibility by Shanley's attorney, and for being able to fight back the demons that obviously were too powerful for Shanley's other victims to overcome.

And I take issue with the officials of the Catholic Church who were well aware of Shanley's proclivities but simply shuffled him to other parishes. Bad behavior that is not severely punished simply invites more of the same. Any parent will tell you that!

At any rate, finally some justice has been done. Nothing will ever erase the stain on the Church that this whole sorry mess has caused, but it might in some small way give the healing process a little boost.