THE US: The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston knew in the early 1990s that a priest facing charges of child rape was psychologically damaged "beyond repair", but still approved his work at a church-affiliated hostel.
Medical and psychiatric records released in connection with a civil suit show that archdiocesan officials and doctors exchanged correspondence about Father Paul Shanley, expressing concern that he might cause further harm.
In another document, Father Shanley writes that he himself was sexually abused by a priest while a teenager and a seminarian.
The documents provide the latest revelations in the child sex-abuse scandal which erupted in January, after court files showed Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law knew about sexual-abuse allegations against clerics but allowed them to keep working.
The documents were sought in a civil suit brought by Mr Gregory Ford (24) against Cardinal Law. He accuses the cardinal of negligence for allowing Father Shanley to keep working as a priest, even though Dr Law knew he had been accused of paedophilia.
Father Shanley is being held on $300,000 bail while he awaits trial on criminal charges that he repeatedly raped a child. Mr Ford's lawyer said the new material shows the diocese had extensive knowledge of the priest's illness.
"Father Shanley is so personally damaged that his pathology is beyond repair. It cannot be reversed," reads a 1994 memorandum by Father John McCormack, the archdiocese's secretary for ministerial personnel. "What is important is that he does not practise as a priest."