Fr. Paul R. Shanley
Ordained: 1960
Assignments:
- 1960-1967: St. Patrick Parish, Stoneham, MA (BO)
- 1967-1969: St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Braintree, MA (BO)
- 1969: St. Clare Parish, Braintree, MA (BO); St. Anthony Parish, Allston, MA (BO)
- 1969-1970: Star of the Sea Parish, Squantum, MA (BO); Boston State College, Roxbury, MA (BO)
- 1969-1976: Warwick House, St. Phillips, Roxbury, MA (BO)
- 1970-1979: Exodus Center, St. Phillips, Milton, MA (BO)
- 1979-1990: St. John Evangelist, Newton, MA (BO)
- 1990-1996: Absent on Sick Leave (BO)
- 1996-2005: Retired (BO)
- 2005-2017: Old Colony Correctional Center, Bridgewater, MA (BO)
- 2017-2019: Unknown
Fr. Shanley worked with vulnerable youth throughout his career, and reportedly abused at least 20 children over a period of four decades in the Archdiocese of Boston. According to Fr. Shanley’s priest personnel file, he was appointed the Executive Director of Leo House in New York, New York in approximately 1995. Fr. Shanley was convicted in 2005 of multiple counts of child sexual abuse occurring from approximately 1963 to 1994. More than 1,600 pages of documents related to Fr. Shanley were released by the Archdiocese of Boston during the course of the litigation of a Suffolk County civil suit, filed by multiple survivors in 1993. Fr. Shanley was named in the Archdiocese of Boston’s 2018 list of “Clergy Credibly Accused of Child Sexual Abuse.” Fr. Shanley was also named on the Diocese of San Bernardino’s list of “Clergy Credibly Accused of Child Sexual Abuse,” under the subsection “Cases Previously in the Public Domain, 1978-2002.” He was arrested in May of 2002 and charged with abusing two minor boys. Upon conviction in 2005, he received a sentence of 12 to 15 years in prison. He was released after serving the minimum amount of time, 12 years, on good behavior in July of 2017. Fr. Shanley is currently registered as a level three sex offender and resides in Ware, Massachusetts. He was laicized in 2004, and ordered to have no contact with children for 10 years after his release from prison, as a condition of his probation. Whether Fr. Shanley has access to children is unknown.