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	One Man's Burden By Eileen McNamara Boston Globe [Boston MA] January 12, 2005 Even though Paul Shanley would walk, his accuser should feel free to walk away. It is a terrible burden to expect one man to do what so many other, more powerful men would not do, but that is just what the criminal justice system is asking of the last man standing in the criminal case against the notorious former Roman Catholic priest. All of those PowerPoint presentations of Shanley's career trajectory, those 800 pages of secret church files enumerating the long-ignored complaints against him, even the money paid by the church to settle the civil claims against him, will not yield a criminal conviction against the defrocked priest. For that, prosecutors need one young man to testify about his memories of the popular and charismatic priest allegedy pulling him out of religious education classes years ago in order to rape him. Yesterday, he was willing to go forward with the trial that is scheduled to begin next week. Tomorrow? No one is placing any bets. It was never going to be easy to convict Shanley of crimes said to have occurred between 1979 and 1989. Only a quirk of Massachusetts law made it possible to prosecute him at all; the statute of limitations that normally would have applied was suspended because Shanley had moved out of state. But rape and sexual assault are notoriously difficult to prove under the best of circumstances, and these circumstances were among the worst. Shanley's alleged victims were children at the time of the assaults. Many did not remember them until years later, some only when news of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in Boston broke in 2002. Many of those who sought counsel from the church or justice from civil lawyers trying to hold the hierarchy accountable for the coverup that allowed predatory priests to molest children with impunity are emotionally vulnerable or psychologically damaged. As committed as they might have been at a press conference microphone three years ago, they are not strong candidates for a defense lawyer's vigorous cross-examination in 2005. A case that began with four accusers has dwindled to two, one of whom cannot even be located only days before the trial is set to begin. The charges that stem from his allegations are likely to be dropped next week, leaving one man to shoulder the criminal case against Shanley. It is a lot to ask, maybe too much. He was so unnerved by the possibility that he might be identified in press accounts of the trial that he asked a judge to bar the media from naming him. The judge wisely refused, preferring to rely on media discretion than to subvert the First Amendment. But that does not make the alleged victim's burden any easier. The challenge this accuser faces is little different from the challenge facing any alleged victim in a rape case. It is difficult to relive such a crime, embarrassing to recount the details, humiliating to be subjected to the questions of defense counsel. But that is how the system works, how it has to work if the rights of defendants are to be protected. What is different for this young man is that he is being asked to carry the rage and frustration of an entire community that still feels cheated, that wants someone to go to jail for the sins of the Catholic Church in Boston. That fury was responsible for the unprecedentedly high bail on which Shanley was originally held, for the bulletproof vest he has to wear in court, for an atmosphere that has more to do with vengeance than justice. Paul Shanley could be the most unsympathetic defendant ever to appear in Middlesex Superior Court. Once a cocky young priest who publicly advocated sex between men and boys, who intimidated his superiors into silence with threats to tell all he knew about sexual misconduct among the clergy, he is now a remorseless 73-year-old criminal defendant waiting to see whether his accuser walks away. It is not our call.
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