BOSTON, May 7 (UPI) -- Pope John Paul II has defrocked two Massachusetts priests who figured prominently in sex abuse cases, it was reported Friday.
The Boston Archdiocese identified them as Paul R. Shanley, former Newton priest accused of child rape and advocating sex between men and boys, and Ronald H. Paquin, former Salem priest serving a prison sentence for raping an altar boy.
Shanley, one of the central figures in the Boston clergy sex-abuse scandal, was told in a May 3 letter from Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley that he was permanently barred from priestly duties by the Vatican in February, the Boston Globe said.
Shanley is awaiting trial in Middlesex Superior Court on charges he sexually assaulted four boys in the 1980s. Earlier this month, the church settled a series of lawsuits related to Shanley's alleged assaults.
Paquin was sentenced Dec. 31, 2002, to 12 to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to raping an altar boy in the 1980s and early 1990s.
