Judge Orders Access to Priest’s File

The Boston Archdiocese was ordered Monday to hand over the psychiatric and medical records of Father Paul Shanley, the retired priest accused of child rape.

Middlesex Superior Court Justice Janet Sanders ruled that by turning his records over to the archdiocese, Shanley had waived the right to keep them private. A hearing today will determine whether the documents will be made public.

On the same day Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law heatedly denied that he had been negligent in failing to keep Father John J. Geoghan--another priest accused of sexual abuse--away from children.

“You could see it in his eyes that he was getting a little bit temperamental,” said 27-year-old Patrick McSorley, one of 86 plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit against Law and the archdiocese for allegedly covering up abuse by Geoghan, a convicted pedophile. McSorley and Mark Keane, another plaintiff, were allowed to sit in on the third day of Law’s deposition.

Law “seemed kind of frazzled,” added Keane, 33, who has claimed that Geoghan abused him as well. “I think Cardinal Law is accustomed to being in complete control. Today he wasn’t.”

Law’s testimony was taken at the chancery of Boston’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

Now-defrocked, Geoghan, 66, is serving a nine- to 10-year sentence for fondling a boy at a community swimming pool. His trial and conviction in January ignited a sweeping scandal over clerical sexual abuse that has included shocking disclosures about Shanley. The 71-year-old retired priest, arrested this month in California, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of child rape.

Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna M. Morrissey had no comment on the cardinal’s testimony Monday, or on the court order in the Shanley case. Shanley’s attorney, Frank Mondano, did not return a call seeking comment.

Shanley is a central figure in the sex abuse scandal that has led to calls for Law’s resignation.

Nearly 1,600 pages of church documents released last month showed that archdiocese officials knew of sexual abuse allegations against Shanley as early as 1967.

Church officials also were aware that Shanley attended an organizational meeting of a group that later became the North American Man-Boy Love Assn.

Still, Shanley was repeatedly assigned to parish work with children. The Middlesex County district attorney’s office has charged that Shanley sexually abused at least one child, sometimes in the church confessional.

According to public documents, Boston church officials recommended Shanley as a priest “in good standing” when he was transferred to Southern California in 1990.

His medical and psychiatric records were sought by the family of Gregory Ford, 24, who says Shanley repeatedly raped him over six years, beginning when he was 6 years old. Ford and his parents have filed a civil lawsuit against Law, accusing the cardinal of negligence in failing to protect Ford.

An archdiocese review board assessed Shanley’s “aberrant sexual conduct” and his request to receive permanent medical disability payments, Sanders said Monday.

Roderick MacLeish Jr., the Fords’ lawyer, said late Monday that the archdiocese had failed to produce the files. “I was really stunned” by the order, he said.

MacLeish said in an interview Monday that “we believe these records are just the tip of the iceberg, and there is much, much more to come. [But] the iceberg is melting.”

Archdiocese officials in Boston have turned over the names of close to 100 priests suspected of sexual misconduct. More than 100 priests around the country have been suspended or have resigned since the crisis erupted in January.

Law repeatedly has rebuffed suggestions that he step down. In April, he secretly visited the Vatican to discuss his status with Pope John Paul II.

Mitchell Garabedian, attorney for the 86 plaintiffs suing Law in the Geoghan case, said he expects to depose at least two more bishops who were once assigned to the Boston Archdiocese. He also said he plans to continue Law’s deposition.

Garabedian has asked for a court date to bring a breach of contract claim against the archdiocese, which reneged this month on a $15-million to $30-million settlement with his clients.

Keane said Law volunteered during the deposition that in 1997, the archdiocese paid $36,000 in legal fees for Geoghan. “But if it had been a molested child seeking restitution, I doubt they would have given it to him.”