Go Jeff Go
Dioceses Settle Case of Man Accusing Priest of Molestation
By GUSTAV NIEBUHR
In an unusually public move, two Roman Catholic dioceses have announced the
settlement of a case in which a Southern California man accused a priest of
molesting him when he was a student in a parochial high school a decade
ago.
The settlement by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Orange
is not remarkable for its size ó $5.2 million to the former student, Ryan
DiMaria ó but because it specified steps the jurisdictions would take to
prevent molestation and to help victims report it.
Both dioceses, for example, agreed to establish a toll-free number and a
Web site for people to report allegations anonymously. And seminarians will
be interviewed at graduation to screen against potential abusers becoming
priests.
But whether the settlement, announced yesterday and first reported by The
Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register, represents evidence of a
nationwide improvement in how Catholic officials handle such accusations is
a matter of disagreement between church officials and those who speak for
victims of sexual abuse.
The church has never had a uniform policy on investigating and resolving
such reports of abuse, because each diocese is autonomous.
But Msgr. Francis Maniscalco, spokesman for the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops, said the nation's 188 dioceses had established
procedures. "They even have revised them one or two times," Monsignor
Maniscalco said.
"I think dioceses are manifesting their pastoral concerns for anybody
injured through abuse," he said.
But some advocates for abuse victims say that while some progress has been
made in how reports are handled, the response by dioceses is inconsistent.
"These days, it is easier for a survivor to be believed, both by parents
and family members, and church officials," said David Clohessy, national
director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a nonprofit
organization.
"And it's generally easier for him or her to get therapy paid by church
officials," Mr. Clohessy said. "Over the last decade, church leaders have
become far more savvy about and committed to keeping allegations out of the
courts ó and wisely so."
Jeff Anderson, a lawyer in St. Paul who has represented people who have
claimed they had been abused by clergy as children, said that bishops "have
only done better because they have been dragged into the courtrooms, and
the courts of public opinion, and effectively shamed into doing better." He
called the California settlement
spectacular in pushing church officials "closer to where they need to be."
Mr. Anderson also said the number of such cases had declined since the
mid-1990's, a development he said was logical, after many victims had
stepped forward years earlier, when more attention was focused on the
subject.
Catholic dioceses began dealing with the accusations in the mid-1980's,
after charges were made against a priest in southern Louisiana. Other cases
emerged, as people stepped forward to report having been molested as
children or adolescents.
The accusations provoked something of a crisis within the church in the
early 1990's, with national attention given to reports that a former priest
in Fall River, Mass., had molested more than two dozen children years
earlier. The former priest, James Porter,
pleaded guilty to 41 counts of sexual abuse and is serving an 18- to
20-year prison sentence.
In the wake of that case, the bishops established a committee that
recommended all dioceses respond promptly to any allegations, comply with
civil laws regarding abuse and deal openly with the public when such
incidents arose.
But the committee recommendations did not reduce the attention directed
toward the issue. In 1997, a Dallas jury awarded $120 million after
deciding that the local diocese ignored and then tried to cover up evidence
that a priest was abusing boys.
Although a judge reduced the award and the case was settled out of court,
it also created a more adversarial legal environment with which Catholic
authorities have had to contend, said Mark Chopko, general counsel for the
bishops' conference.
"It made it more difficult for the dioceses and victims to work things out
in a mediated way," Mr. Chopko said. "Because it raised the cost of doing
business. The verdict was so out of bounds and out of scale to anything
that happened before or after."
In the California suit, filed in 1997, Mr. DiMaria accused Msgr. Michael
Harris of molesting him in 1991, when Mr. DiMaria was 17.
Monsignor Harris's lawyer, Michael Trotter, released a statement saying
the priest had left active ministry in 1994. He said the priest had not
been charged with a crime and was "deeply saddened" by the accusations.
In a statement, the archdiocese said sexual abuse was "a serious sin."
"It devastates its victims physically, emotionally and spiritually," the
statement read. "Such activity simply will not be tolerated in our church."
As part of the settlement, the Los Angeles archdiocese agreed to
distribute a pamphlet, "It's Never O.K.; Ministry Never Includes Sex," to
parishes and schools.
But Tod Tamberg, the archdiocese's spokesman, said nothing in the
agreement represented a major change for the archdiocese. "They are
additional aspects in what is already a comprehensive policy," Mr. Tamberg
said, adding that the pamphlet was in the works before the settlement was
reached.
The archdiocese has had a "no fraternatization" policy since 1987, which
forbids priests from having minors in their rooms or permitting minors to
stay overnight in a rectory. The Orange diocese has a similar policy, said
Maria Rullo Schinderle, its human resources director.
Assessing the situation within dioceses since the mid-1990's, Mr. Chopko,
the bishops' counsel, said, "It's a fairly standard procedure, across the
United States, to have in place personnel who are responsible to receive,
review and evaluate claims of clergy misconduct."