Archdiocese in Los Angeles Settles Claims of Sex Abuse
The New York Times
Published: December 2, 2006
CINDY CHANG
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 1 — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to a $60 million settlement of claims by 45 people against clergymen who had sexually abused them as children, the archdiocese announced Friday.
The average payment of about $1.3 million to each plaintiff is among the highest in a sexual abuse settlement involving clergy members. In October, the archdiocese settled seven other claims for a total of $10 million.
The archdiocese will pay $40 million of the settlement from its central operations fund with the rest coming from insurance money and the religious orders of the 25 accused clergymen. The money will not be taken from individual parishes, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the head of the archdiocese, said in a telephone interview.
Over 500 sexual abuse lawsuits are still pending against the archdiocese, the country’s largest. Payouts in those cases would come mostly from insurance, but the archdiocese may have to sell property or reduce ministry services to make up the difference, Cardinal Mahony said.
“Is it going to hurt? Oh sure, we could have used the money for other pastoral works,” he said. “BUT IT'S ALSO AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND A RECOGNITION OF OUR RESPONSIBILITY, THAT THE CHURCH FAILED THESE PEOPLE. THE CHURCH ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY, AND I ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY." [Caps added by AndersonsInfo]
The settlement also involves the release of some documents related to the abuse cases, in a manner to be determined by a judge.
Raymond P. Boucher, a lawyer for 31 of the plaintiffs, criticized the archdiocese for announcing the settlement before the details were final, but he did not dispute its general terms. Payments to individual plaintiffs range from about $500,000 to as much as $3.5 million, Mr. Boucher said.
“You look at the 45 victims, and you see that almost all of them would have lived normal lives and normal healthy lives and had wonderful childhoods if the church had taken responsibility to stop these priests from molesting these children,” Mr. Boucher said. “It’s a clear indictment of the church and the pattern of cover-up they’ve engaged in for years and years.”
The earliest of the accusations dates from the 1940s and the most recent from the late 1990s. Many of the accused were repeat offenders, Mr. Boucher said, including Michael Wempe, a retired priest who was sentenced in May to three years in prison for molesting a boy.
Another accused priest in the settlement, according to Mr. Boucher, was the Rev. Michael Baker, who confessed to then-Archbishop Mahony in 1986 that he had had a sexual relationship with two young boys. After undergoing counseling, Father Baker was assigned to parishes where he still had access to young boys, according to files released by the archdiocese.
Prosecutors have charged Mr. Baker, who was removed from the priesthood in 2000, with sexually abusing a boy for 12 years beginning in 1984 when the victim was 7.
“Many years ago, we really believed that these offenders could be cured and we acted on that information,” Cardinal Mahony said in the interview. “We found out in the early 1990s that that was not true.”
Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the archdiocese made “a business decision” to avoid the expense of going to trial. She said of the victims, “I don’t believe any amount of money can restore their shattered childhoods, the innocence that was destroyed or the emotional scars that haunt them today.”
L.A. Archdiocese Settles Claims & ADMITS RESPONSIBILITY-NYTimes
by AndersonsInfo 11 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
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AndersonsInfo
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sf
Yea, it's been all over the network news .
As some of the victims state in interviews on camera, "it isn't about the money...no amount can heal...".
Five hundred to go!!!
sKally
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johnny cip
maybe the molested jw's need this lawyer? let's hope thisw case makes a president and the wt will follow in being made to make cash payment's and admit fault. but the wt will never admit to fault will they. john
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Scully
maybe the molested jw's need this lawyer? let's hope thisw case makes a president and the wt will follow in being made to make cash payment's and admit fault. but the wt will never admit to fault will they. john
It isn't so much that molested JWs need the lawyer, but the legal precedent. This is where it will come back to bite the WTS in the butt. All along they have claimed that they are not responsible for the activity of molesters in their group, and these legal cases have put the wheels in motion to show that the WTS, as a corporation, has a fiduciary duty toward its members (and children of its members) to protect them from other members who commit sexual crimes against children. Simply disfellowshipping molesters when they are caught, and when there are two corroborating eye-witnesses, is not sufficiently upholding that fiduciary duty, particularly when they allow molesters to be reinstated, and then grant them unsupervised access to children at Circuit Assemblies and District Conventions and in local congregations. Why is it ok for someone to have a reputation as an adulterer or fornicator among JWs, but not ok for a child molester to be known as a child molester??
What I find so ironic is the WTS's refusal to even consider that they have a fiduciary duty toward molested children of JWs, while at the same time they slam the Catholic Church in it's most recent tract "The End Of False Religion Is Near!" - yet it is the Catholic Church that has consistently sought to settle molestation by priest cases - with the goal of helping these traumatized people to heal. To me, the WTS's position is far more reprehensible.
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Nathan Natas
Action against the Roman Catholic Church serves as a prototype of what will face the WTB&TS: remember that actions against the RCC have been in progress for years longer than those against the WTB&TS.
I know a person who has been involved in the legal/money end of some actions against an RCC archdiocese in a large state. My friend has had conversations with the archbishop himself about the cases, and it is interesting to "compare and contrast" the sentiments of the RCC with those demonstrated by the WTB&TS.
For example, the RCC has stated that they have a pastoral mission to perform and that they will not be distracted from that mission by lengthy battles with some of the claimants whose claims are more than likely bogus. The RCC has not hesitated to sell property to raise the cash to make the settlements, even selling the archbishop's residence. The RCC puts no conditions or gag orders on settlements.
The WTB&TS collects money for "the world wide work" and uses it to pay their army of non-JW professional, pay-by-the-hour lawyers to resist the claims of the victims. The WTB&TS has not (yet!) paid a settlement to any claimant regarding child seexual abuse. In the past, when the WTB&TS has made payments to claimants (the case brought by Joel Faxon) the settlement was sealed and confidentiality was a requirement.
Who then, is the faithful and discreet slave that the master has appointed over all his belongings?
Personally, I don't believe either is, but it is clear to me that the RCC has claimed the moral high ground.
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belbab
Is it going to hurt? Oh sure, we could have used the money for other pastoral works,” he said. “BUT IT'S ALSO AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND A RECOGNITION OF OUR RESPONSIBILITY, THAT THE CHURCH FAILED THESE PEOPLE. THE CHURCH ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY, AND I ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY." [Caps added by AndersonsInfo]
The Catholic Church is accepting responsibility, and the money is an acknowledgement of their acceptance.
To date the Watchtower has given no inkling whatsoever that they are responsible. Rather they are adamant in their position, trusting in Jah to deliver them for the sake of His name.
They are storing up far greater wrath that will come upon them. It will be far worse for them than for the Catholic Church. Once the precedent is in place, it will be open season on the Watchtower with no holds barred.
belbab
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fullofdoubtnow
If I were on the governing body, or high up in the jw hierachy, I would be very nervous after reading this article. As another poster said, once a precedent is set, it will be open season on the wts, with the door opened for hundreds, if not thousands of damaging, and financially draining law suits to be brought against them.
The religion has been spiritually bankrupt since its beginning, their attitude to paedophiles in their congregations shows them to be morally bankrupt, and the potential knock - on effect of this article could leave them financially bankrupt as well. It might also help wake up some of their members to the fact that, far from being part of the only true religion, they have merely allowed themselves to be brainwashed into a cult.
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blondie
This is the result of the hard work of people in the SNAP group. You might note that the head of this group said that the Archdiocese settled to avoid having the archbishop/bishop have to testify in court or be deposed.
NEWS OF THE DAY - Fri., Dec. 1, 2006
"She can't forgive Mahony's inaction"
"Mahony's Speaking, But He's Still Silent"
* * *"Texas Bishop Apologizes for Priest Abuse, But Not for Cover-Ups"
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4373705.html
David Clohessy, national director for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said he was happy for the accusers who were part of the settlement but remained angry at Mahony and other church leaders.
"We recognize it for what it is, which is a purely business move designed to keep Mahony out of depositions and off the witness stand. That's what every bishop fears the most, and that's why they settled," Clohessy said.
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truthsetsonefree
I wonder what the WT will say about this. Can't criticize it. Hopefully they will learn something.
tsof
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Quandary
This is EXCELLENT NEWS!!
Bttt