Who would you believe?
Cambridge, Massachusetts -
It's hard to feel anything but compassion and admiration for the 27-year-old Newton firefighter with courage enough to confront the man he says raped him over a period of years when he was a young boy. It's hard to feel anything but contempt for the man accused.
But in a court of law, one is innocent until proven guilty. Who would you believe if you were on the jury?
The young man says he repressed the memories of sexual abuse until two years ago when three other men -- who were parishioners of St. Jean's Parish in Newton between 1979 and 1989 just as he was -- filed charges that they were molested by the Rev. Paul Shanley.
He heard their stories, and a torrent of memories flooded in -- memories of being pulled from CCD classes and sexually abused in church pews, the bathroom and the confessional. He was 6 years old the first time it happened. It continued for six years.
Read the article at TownOnline.com - Shrewsbury Chronicle - Opinion & Letters dated Thursday, February 10, 2005
Search the web for this article
It's hard to feel anything but compassion and admiration for the 27-year-old Newton firefighter with courage enough to confront the man he says raped him over a period of years when he was a young boy. It's hard to feel anything but contempt for the man accused.
But in a court of law, one is innocent until proven guilty. Who would you believe if you were on the jury?
The young man says he repressed the memories of sexual abuse until two years ago when three other men -- who were parishioners of St. Jean's Parish in Newton between 1979 and 1989 just as he was -- filed charges that they were molested by the Rev. Paul Shanley.
He heard their stories, and a torrent of memories flooded in -- memories of being pulled from CCD classes and sexually abused in church pews, the bathroom and the confessional. He was 6 years old the first time it happened. It continued for six years.
Read the article at TownOnline.com - Shrewsbury Chronicle - Opinion & Letters dated Thursday, February 10, 2005
posted by God Almighty Himself at 11:28 AM
Translate this post:
Spanish | Italian | French | German | Portuguese | Chinese | Korean | Japanese
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home