Paul Shanley Sentenced to Living Death

Paul Shanley: defrocked and now sentenced to 12 to 15 in Massachusetts State Prison for pedophilia. Shanley is one of a few priests criminally charged for his crimes; most have gone through civil proceedings.

No one knows - lest they have been through it - how twisted up one's life can get as the result of childhood sexual abuse. Love. Pleasure. Trust. Faith. All damaged.

One of my abusers murdered the other. When I sat with the convicted murderer many years later I thanked her for killing him and for serving her time. That was about all I could think to say.

Perhaps now that Shanley has been sentenced, the specter of the RCC scandal will fade and the media reminders diminish. It hasn't been easy to hear and read about abuse nearly every day since the scandal broke.

Certainly, Shanley will be tormented in state prison. Pedophiles are reviled in the prison world. John Geoghan, another convicted priest, was murdered in prison. But his prison torment will almost match the torment his victims suffered, and that seems fitting.

These priests and other pedophiles kill a lot of people. Some of their victims commit suicide. Worse, is the living death.

I'm just saying.