California diocese asks Boston to pay lawsuit damages
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Roman Catholic diocese in California has demanded that Boston church officials pay any damages resulting from the transfer of a priest accused of rape.
San Bernardino church officials say the Archdiocese of Boston assured them the Rev. Paul Shanley was in good standing when he transferred from Boston in 1990.
Church documents have since revealed that Boston archdiocese officials had received allegations about Shanley dating to the 1960s and knew about public statements he had made advocating sex between men and boys.
He was charged in May with raping four boys at a Newton, Massachusetts, church from 1979 to 1989. He has pleaded innocent and is free on bail awaiting trial.
A lawsuit filed in January also accuses him of having sex with a 17-year-old boy in San Bernardino in 1990 and of persuading the teenager to have sex with other men. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
In a counter-complaint filed by the Diocese of San Bernardino on Tuesday in response to the lawsuit, church officials argued they should not be held accountable for any damages awarded to the plaintiff in their diocese. Instead, the diocese argued, the Boston archdiocese should pay.
"We have no responsibility in the actions that caused this lawsuit so we do not believe our parishioners should have to bear its financial burden," said the Rev. Howard Lincoln, a diocese spokesman.
Church officials said Tuesday they believed it was the first time a Roman Catholic diocese had taken legal action to force another diocese to pay damages.
No date has been scheduled for the lawsuit.
The Archdiocese of Boston had not seen the filing and could not comment, said spokeswoman Donna Morrissey.
Lincoln said the diocese, which has 1.1 million parishioners, is too poor to pay a potential multimillion-dollar damage award. It has only about $1.1 million in financial reserves, he said.
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