In Plain Sight

Courtesy Attorney Roderick Macleish/AP
The Rev. Paul Shanley, right, shakes hands with then Archbishop Bernard Law in an undated photo

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Banks, now the Bishop of Green Bay, Wis., expressed little remorse for his letter in an interview with TIME last week. He said he had never heard of any abuse allegations, and he doesn't remember if he ever looked in Shanley's file. "If the priest had an assignment in the diocese, my presumption was that he was in good standing, and everything was fine. And that's the way I operate still."

In 1996, when Law granted Shanley's retirement, he wrote, "For 30 years in assigned ministry you brought God's Word and His Love to His people and I know that that continues to be your goal despite some difficult limitations." The next year, after the Church had settled multiple cases filed against Shanley, Law said he had no objection to the priest's bid to become head of a New York City Catholic guest house--which occasionally housed children and teenagers. Shanley, who had already worked there for two years, didn't get the job. After he returned to California in 1997, he joined the San Diego police department's voluntary senior patrol. Fellow volunteers and neighbors told Time recently that he never mentioned he was a priest. They said they have not seen Shanley for weeks. He has not responded to interview requests.

Twenty-eight years ago this month, Shanley lectured at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass. According to a local newspaper account, he railed against the chasm between church teachings and practices. "The sexual morality of the Catholic Church is a shambles," he said. His legacy makes it even more so.