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CNN Saturday Morning News

Massachusetts Priest to Face Rape Charges

Aired May 04, 2002 - 07:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the priest sex abuse scandal. The Archdiocese of Boston has backed out of a settlement deal with dozens of people who accused a priest of child molestation. And one of the most notorious figures in the sex scandal is expected to return to Massachusetts next week to face rape charges.

CNN national correspondent Gary Tuchman has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He is accused of raping a small child.

FRED SMALL, PUBLIC DEFENDER: Mr. Shanley has chosen to waive any extradition proceedings and proceed back to Middlesex, Massachusetts, to take care of this matter.

TUCHMAN: And now former priest Paul Shanley, who has still not publicly responded to charges against him, will be flown, perhaps as early as next week, from California to Massachusetts, where he was once a very popular priest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FATHER PAUL SHANLEY (singing): Let me call you sweetheart, I'm in love with you...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: This home video shows a church talent show in the 1980s. The man crooning is Father Paul Shanley.

According to the criminal complaint, in the same time period this video was shot, Shanley was allegedly periodically raping Paul Busa.

PAUL BUSA, ALLEGED VICTIM: He used to tell me nobody would ever believe me, and at 6 years old, you don't know what he's doing is wrong.

TUCHMAN: Busa is now 24, and this is him as a child in Catholic school during the time when he says he was being raped in the bathroom, the church rectory, and the confessional by the man in the picture, Father Shanley.

Sources close to the case say Busa is the victim in the criminal allegation.

BUSA: I don't know I didn't like it, but he's a priest, he's not going to do anything he's not supposed to.

TUCHMAN: Hundreds of pages of documents from the archdiocese of Boston indicate officials knew of Shanley's problems for many years. But church officials continued to shuffle him from parish to parish, state to state.

And now Cardinal Bernard Law and his archdiocese have another problem to contend with.

MITCHELL GARABEDIAN, PLAINTIFFS' ATTORNEY: Those who believe that the cardinal is a despicable human being now have reason, more reason to believe that he's a despicable human being.

TUCHMAN: The archdiocese has decided to back out of a financial settlement deal. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian represents 86 victims of defrocked priest John Geoghan, who was recently convicted criminally of molesting a child. On Friday, archdiocese officials voted to renege on an agreement to pay those victims between $15 and $30 million.

Officials say they won't have enough money to pay all the rapidly growing number of victims saying they were molested by priests. "The proposed settlement," said the archdiocese, "would consume substantially all of the resources of the archdiocese that can reasonably be made available."

GARABEDIAN: This is a disgrace. Are these people inhuman?

TUCHMAN: According to the archdiocese statement, Cardinal Bernard Law wanted to still pay the settlement but was outvoted. There is still no sign of any plans for the cardinal to step down.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Boston.

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