Molest chapter unsettles church
Religion: O.C. Catholics express disgrace and doubt over allegations against cleric.
August 22, 2001
By JEFF COLLINS,
TIFFANY MONTGOMERY
and GREG HARDESTY
The Orange County Register
A priest asked worshippers at a Tuesday evening Mass not to lose faith in God.
The distraught mother of a Lake Forest youth minister called her daughter for reassurance.
And Catholics throughout Orange County experienced a jolt as they got news Tuesday that their church paid $5.2 million to settle a lawsuit accusing a prominent clergyman, Monsignor Michael Harris, of molesting a former student.
"I feel sorry that the church had to pay so much money," said Nancy Phan, 41, of Santa Ana, a postal employee who was attending the Mass at St. John the Baptist Church in Costa Mesa.
"My heart sinks (because of) this," said Burr McKeehan of Dana Point, a Harris supporter whose three children had Harris as a principal at Catholic high schools.
"It's demoralizing," said the Rev. John Paul Hopping of St. John the Baptist. "It makes us all look bad."
Yet some Orange County Catholics interviewed Tuesday said they took the news in stride, saying they still don't know whether to believe the accusations against Harris.
Others defended the church, saying its clergy aren't the only ones accused of sexual misconduct, and such incidents are rare.
They supported the decision by the Diocese of Orange and Archdiocese of Los Angeles to adopt a code of conduct designed to curb sexual improprieties by priests and employees.
"It helps both sides," Sam Collins, 41, a track coach at Mater Dei High School, said of a new policy forbidding priests and employees from being alone with minors.
"Now, as a coach I can tell someone, 'No, I can't take you home after a game.' I can say, 'These are the rules.'"
Harris, 56, the former principal of Mater Dei and Santa Margarita Catholic high schools, resigned his academic position in 1994 and was suspended from priestly duties amid molestation accusations from several students.
Harris has never been charged criminally and continued this week through his attorney to deny the accusations, though he agreed to resign from the priesthood.
But this month, the Diocese of Orange and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay former student Ryan DiMaria a settlement believed to be one of the largest ever paid by a U.S. Catholic Church - and the largest it ever paid before trial.
The dioceses also agreed to impose a zero-tolerance list of guidelines on all Los Angeles and Orange county priests, though church officials say most already are followed informally.
DiMaria, 28, of Laguna Hills, sued Harris and the two dioceses in 1997, saying the priest molested him in 1991 when he was a Santa Margarita High School junior.
Standing before television news cameras Tuesday, DiMaria said he would mail to bishops nationwide the new code of conduct mandated by the settlement. He said he hopes other churches voluntarily adopt what his attorneys, Kathy Freberg and John Manly, dubbed "Ryan's Law."
"I know firsthand the feelings of pain and shame that others must feel from molestation,'' said DiMaria, surrounded by relatives, supporters and two other alleged victims of Harris - Mark Curran and Larry Raheb.
In all, four men and DiMaria had come forward with similar allegations dating back to the 1970s.
Harris had charisma and exuded authority. He was famous for his bear hugs. His 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame was a familiar sight at mixers.
Despite Harris' professed innocence, court documents reveal a more nuanced picture of the priest.
A medical report in court records reveal a priest with a calm, confident façade who on the inside was beset by anxiety, uncertainty and torment.
Harris "did not deny nor affirm the charges'' made by DiMaria when Harris spoke with officials at Saint Luke Institute in Maryland, where he was sent for treatment in 1994, the report said.
But Saint Luke officials concluded "there is substance to the allegations,'' court records show.
Harris told doctors his first sexual relationship was a yearlong tryst with another boy when both were 13 or 14, according to the report. He told doctors that his sexual fantasies continued to be homosexually oriented, the report said.
Harris now serves as president of Caritas Corporation, a nonprofit that owns and operates mobile-home parks.
His board of directors includes William Lyon, chairman and chief executive officer of William Lyon Homes, one of the nation's largest homebuilders; Roger Kirwan, chairman of the Orange County Performing Arts Center; and John Trotter, a retired justice of the 4th District Court of Appeals.
McKeehan, a retired podiatrist, also sits on the Caritas board.
"Until he tells me this is true, I don't believe (the allegations)," McKeehan said.
Some Catholics interviewed said that, even if the accusations are true, they prove only that priests are human.
Father Hopping quoted the Rev. Billy Graham during Mass at St. John the Baptist.
"Don't you ever, ever put your faith in a priest," he said. "Put your faith in Jesus Christ."
"In any population, you're going to see this kind of thing happen," added Joanne Lambert, youth minister at Santiago de Compostela Church in Lake Forest.
"There's nothing quite like a priest in a collar to (represent) the holy and chaste," said Lambert, who was consoling her mother Tuesday. "(But) priests are human beings. They sin just like all other persons."
Register news researcher Eugene Balk contributed to this report.
The LA Times story is here: