{"id":200,"date":"2009-09-11T22:43:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-11T22:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/shanley-challenges-his-abuse-conviction-and-repressed-memory.html"},"modified":"2009-09-11T22:43:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-11T22:43:00","slug":"shanley-challenges-his-abuse-conviction-and-repressed-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/shanley-challenges-his-abuse-conviction-and-repressed-memory.html","title":{"rendered":"Shanley challenges his abuse conviction and &#8220;repressed memory&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A priest at the heart of the clergy abuse scandal that rocked the American Church is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/09\/11\/us\/11priest.html?_r=1&amp;pagewanted=print\">back in court<\/a>, challenging a key part of the case that convicted him: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>  <a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SqsMN2CJoWI\/AAAAAAAAGKU\/YvKeHomvqTk\/s1600-h\/priest_190.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;float: left;cursor: pointer;width: 190px;height: 256px\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SqsMN2CJoWI\/AAAAAAAAGKU\/YvKeHomvqTk\/s320\/priest_190.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>Paul R. Shanley was convicted in 2005 of raping and assaulting a 6-year-old boy while serving as a priest in suburban Boston, in a case that hinged on memories of abuse the accuser said he had repressed and recovered decades later.<\/p>\n<p>Now Mr. Shanley, 78, a defrocked Roman Catholic priest at the center of the clergy abuse crisis here, is challenging his conviction, the accuser\u2019s recollections and the science of repressed memory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have prominent scientists, psychologists and psychiatrists saying this is not generally accepted. So why allow it in a court of law in a criminal proceeding?\u201d Mr. Shanley\u2019s lawyer, Robert F. Shaw Jr., asked the state\u2019s highest court Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The debate over repressed memory \u2014 the idea that some memories, particularly traumatic ones, can be inaccessible for years \u2014 has simmered since the 1980s, when some patients in therapy described long-past scenes of sexual abuse. Some of those experiences turned into high-profile legal cases. The scientific controversy boiled over in the 1990s \u2014 as experts raised questions about many claims \u2014 and then died down.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, scientists have begun to spar again over the theory. New studies suggest, and many scientists argue, that what people call repression may just be ordinary forgetting; memory is not \u201cblocked.\u201d Others say the process is more complex and may involve a desire to forget.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> You can find more details about the Shanley case at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/09\/11\/us\/11priest.html?_r=1&amp;pagewanted=print\">the link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A priest at the heart of the clergy abuse scandal that rocked the American Church is back in court, challenging a key part of the case that convicted him: Paul R. Shanley was convicted in 2005 of raping and assaulting a 6-year-old boy while serving as a priest in suburban Boston, in a case that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Shanley challenges his abuse conviction and &quot;repressed memory&quot; - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/shanley-challenges-his-abuse-conviction-and-repressed-memory.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shanley challenges his abuse conviction and &quot;repressed memory&quot; - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A priest at the heart of the clergy abuse scandal that rocked the American Church is back in court, challenging a key part of the case that convicted him: Paul R. Shanley was convicted in 2005 of raping and assaulting a 6-year-old boy while serving as a priest in suburban Boston, in a case that&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/shanley-challenges-his-abuse-conviction-and-repressed-memory.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-11T22:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SqsMN2CJoWI\/AAAAAAAAGKU\/YvKeHomvqTk\/s320\/priest_190.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Shanley challenges his abuse conviction and \"repressed memory\" - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/shanley-challenges-his-abuse-conviction-and-repressed-memory.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Shanley challenges his abuse conviction and \"repressed memory\" - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"A priest at the heart of the clergy abuse scandal that rocked the American Church is back in court, challenging a key part of the case that convicted him: Paul R. Shanley was convicted in 2005 of raping and assaulting a 6-year-old boy while serving as a priest in suburban Boston, in a case that&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/shanley-challenges-his-abuse-conviction-and-repressed-memory.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon&#039;s Bench","article_published_time":"2009-09-11T22:43:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SqsMN2CJoWI\/AAAAAAAAGKU\/YvKeHomvqTk\/s320\/priest_190.jpg"}],"author":"deacon greg kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/shanley-challenges-his-abuse-conviction-and-repressed-memory.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/shanley-challenges-his-abuse-conviction-and-repressed-memory.html","name":"Shanley challenges his abuse conviction and \"repressed memory\" - The 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