RETIRED priest Paul Shanley, a key figure in the sexual abuse scandal that has swept the Catholic Church, has pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of child rape and assault.
Ignoring the stares of some of his alleged victims' relatives, Father Shanley declared himself not guilty of charges that between 1979 and 1989 he molested four boys aged six to 15. The incidents allegedly occurred in a Massachusetts church and rectory.
Once a celebrated "street priest", Father Shanley, 71, was arrested on May 2 in San Diego and extradited to Massachusetts.
He will continue to be held on $300,000 bail. A tentative trial date was set for November 5.
Graphic descriptions of the former priest's alleged assaults, as well as reports of his advocacy of "man-boy love," vaulted Father Shanley to the centre of the clerical abuse scandal that arose in January.
Nearly 250 priests have been removed from their positions or have resigned since, following accusations of child molestation that in some cases date back 40 years.
In court on Wednesday, the parents of Gregory Ford, one of Father Shanley's alleged victims, faced their former parish priest for the first time since their son reported his accusations to them.
Gregory Ford, 24, claims he was six when Father Shanley began abusing him, and that he had a troubled adolescence that included at least one suicide attempt. Mr Ford, who is also a plaintiff in a civil suit against the archdiocese, was not in court.
Meanwhile, insurance has become a concern for the Catholic Church as premiums skyrocket.
In 1990, two Minnesota dioceses were hit with a civil judgment of more than $1 million over the sexual abuse of a minor by a priest in the 1970s.
Their insurance companies refused compensation, arguing that because the priest had a 15-year history of repeated abuse, Church officials should have known that he would abuse again. After a six-year appeal, the insurance companies prevailed and the dioceses had to pay the judgment themselves.
Now that it is facing dozens of such cases, the Catholic Church finds itself increasingly at odds with its insurers over public liability compensation.
-- LOS ANGELES TIMES and THE WASHINGTON POST
