Repressed Memory: A Bad Memory or a Recurring Nightmare?

There is reason to think that the ex-priest Shanley molested one or more children somewhere sometime.

There is also good reason to think that the claim of Shanley's principal accuser in the current criminal case that he, the accuser, recovered memories of abuse that had been lost to him for up to twenty years is bogus.

For some details about this case and trial see Joanna Weiss, Shanley Case Goes to the Jury, boston.com news (Feb. 4, 2005).

The avenging angels of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts seem to have learned little from the ill-begotten repressed memory prosecutions of the 1980s. Perhaps the jury in the Shanley case will have more common sense. (I'm betting that the jury will acquit.)

Massachusetts, you folks may recall, is the state that allowed a woman to sue her cousin for molestation that allegedly took place 47 years before. See Time and Justice in Massachusetts