An anonymous good friend of many here found this in the New York Times, Nov 25 issue. It is not about JW's but it is very good and possibly useful.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/25/national/25ABUS.html?ex=1070776079&ei=1&en=4c09a80d232d7068
Lawyer for Church Says He Hid His Own Sexual Abuse by Priest
November 25, 2003
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
For five years, Robert P. Scamardo defended the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Galveston-Houston against lawsuits by
people who claimed to have been sexually abused by priests.
As general counsel, he vigorously resisted accusers, he
said, fending off their lawsuits and collaborating with
church officials to send them away quietly, with as little
money as possible.
He said he felt good about his job until one negotiating
session with a gray-haired woman who said, through tears,
that the molesting she suffered long ago was still causing
her depression, marital strife and sexual problems. "You
can't possibly understand," she insisted.
Mr. Scamardo said he desperately wanted to tell her, "Yes,
I do."
Of the thousands of people who have fought the church over
sexual abuse charges, Mr. Scamardo is the only one known to
have fought from both sides.
While representing the church as a trusted insider, Mr.
Scamardo said, he was secretly struggling to cope with his
own sexual abuse as a teenager by a priest and a lay youth
minister. The conflict between his inner and outer selves
brought anguish, thoughts of suicide and finally a
confrontation with the diocese. When he sought compensation
from the church as an abuse victim this year, he came up
against a bishop and lawyers aggressively guarding church
assets.
In an interview in Houston, Mr. Scamardo provided a window
into how church lawyers worked to deter lawsuits, minimize
the church's payouts, limit coverage for therapy and keep
any settlements secret.
It was always the church, he said, that insisted on
inserting confidentiality clauses in the settlements -
never the victims, as many bishops have contended. He said
that while the eruption of the scandal last year had made
bishops more likely to express compassion toward victims,
the church's lawyers were still playing hardball behind the
scenes.
And he said he was certain there were many more abusive
priests and victims than have become public.
Mr. Scamardo said he left his post when the dissonance
between his past and his present became so unbearable he
began to think of suicide. Three weeks ago, after months of
wrangling, he signed a financial settlement with the
Diocese of Austin, where he said the abuse occurred.
"If they're playing the game with me like that this year,
then nothing has changed," Mr. Scamardo said.
Bishop Gregory M. Aymond of Austin declined to give an
interview, but said in a statement: "I deeply regret any
pain Mr. Scamardo may have suffered and pray that he will
know God's healing. While we cannot change the past, the
diocese has established extensive programs to prevent
sexual abuse in our parishes and schools in the future."
The statement said the diocese had paid for "extensive
counseling for Mr. Scamardo."
In the Diocese of Galveston-Houston, where Mr. Scamardo
worked, Msgr. Frank H. Rossi, the chancellor who hired him,
and Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza declined to comment, saying
they wanted to protect his confidentiality as a former
employee.
Annette Gonzales Taylor, the director of communications for
the diocese, said that she had worked with Mr. Scamardo and
considered him a friend but that she and others had no idea
he was carrying such a burden until soon before he left.
"Robert is a very good man, and he was a very valued
employee here," she said. "We were heartbroken, devastated
when we learned from him what had happened."
Mr. Scamardo, 44, said he still struggled not to feel
ashamed about what happened when he was 15 and the newly
elected president of the Catholic Youth Organization for
the Diocese of Austin.
He was invited to a convention of the Texas Catholic
Conference in San Antonio and, he said, did not raise
questions when the Rev. Dan Delaney, director for youth
ministry for the Austin Diocese, arranged for them to share
a hotel room. That night, Mr. Scamardo said, he awoke to
find Father Delaney on top of him, masturbating him. Mr.
Scamardo said he ran into the hallway. The priest never
mentioned the matter, he said.
Mr. Scamardo said he soon told James Reese, the lay youth
minister at Sacred Heart Parish in Austin, who listened
sympathetically - then sexually abused him on several
occasions.
The Diocese of Austin said neither of the men accused of
abuse was now in ministry. Reached by telephone in Houston,
Mr. Delaney said he remembered Mr. Scamardo "vaguely."
Asked whether he had sexually abused him, Mr. Delaney said,
"I don't have any comment on that, thank you," and hung up.
In a letter to Mr. Scamardo in March, Bishop Aymond wrote
that Mr. Delaney had been laicized by the Vatican in 1987.
Mr. Reese was enrolled as a seminarian for the Diocese of
Austin as recently as September 2002. But he was dismissed
immediately after Mr. Scamardo identified him as one of his
abusers, the bishop said.
Mr. Reese, reached by phone in Austin on Saturday, said,
"While it may be true we did have a relationship, I don't
think it's the way he says."
He added of Mr. Scamardo: "I hope he heals, I really do.
I've been praying a lot for him. But any explanation I
might give might deter from that healing because I don't
remember the events the way he does."
For 27 years, Mr. Scamardo said, he went into "shutdown"
about the abuse, telling no one else. Instead, he studied
to be a priest at the Pontifical Gregorian University in
Rome, but dropped out a year before ordination when he
became aware he could never be celibate. He worked on
Capitol Hill, married and had three children but never told
his wife about the abuse. He went to law school, was hired
by a firm in Houston and was headed for partner, he said.
In 1997, Monsignor Rossi, an old seminary classmate,
recruited him to work as general counsel in the
Galveston-Houston diocese. Mr. Scamardo said he was
idealistic about serving the church but blind to "something
unhealthy" about his decision.
Church lawyers at that time, he said, were reeling from a
recent jury decision in Dallas to award $119.5 million to
11 plaintiffs who had been sexually abused by a priest,
Rudolph Kos. The lesson for the church's lawyers, Mr.
Scamardo said, was "these are not the sort of cases you
want to get in front of a jury."
So, he said, he devoted about half of his time as general
counsel to negotiating with sexual abuse victims,
investigating their claims and finding ways to limit the
church's liability. He estimated that he handled cases
involving 20 to 30 victims but said he dealt only with
those who retained lawyers and sued. There were more
victims who contacted the chancery without intending to
sue, he said.
The Diocese of Galveston-Houston has not made public how
many of its priests have been accused, said Mrs. Gonzales
Taylor, the director of communications. Research published
in The New York Times in January found five accused priests
in that diocese, but Mr. Scamardo said he was aware of
more.
This is true for many dioceses, said some church officials
who were unwilling to be named but who knew partial results
of a survey the bishops have commissioned to assess the
extent of the abuse. That report is to be released in
February.
Mr. Scamardo said that throughout the 1990's, Bishop
Fiorenza consistently removed priests credibly accused of
abuse. But, Mr. Scamardo said, the bishop told parishes
only that priests were leaving for "personal reasons" or
"medical leave of absence."
"They assume that all sorts of people are going to
fabricate claims, as if everyone wants to be known as a
sexual abuse victim," Mr. Scamardo said.
Most victims' cases were beyond the statute of limitations,
so the diocese could offer little to settle a case, perhaps
just the cost of a short course of therapy, he said. If
that failed, he said, church lawyers would petition to have
cases dismissed on First Amendment grounds, arguing that
the government must not meddle in church matters.
The settlements always had a confidentiality clause. Like
other diocesan lawyers, Mr. Scamardo said, he often added a
clause specifying how much the victim would have to pay the
church for breaking confidentiality.
The standard approach was to offer to pay only for the
victims' counseling, and even this came with strings
attached, he said. The diocese kept a list of preferred
therapists and limited the number of sessions it would pay
for. A year of counseling was considered generous, Mr.
Scamardo said. He said he found that unfair, saying it had
taken three years of counseling before he began to talk
about his sexual abuse.
And yet, by all accounts, Mr. Scamardo was an aggressive
and successful advocate for the diocese.
George E. Cire, a Houston lawyer who represented a family
that sued the church in 2000, said: "Certainly he was not
overly sympathetic to the victims. Not that he was overly
confrontational with them, but he just didn't give in."
"My guess is he took such a hard stance just to cover up
any sympathy he may have been feeling for the victims," Mr.
Cire said.
Mr. Scamardo said his anguish built gradually. First there
was the gray-haired woman. Then a victim he had met
committed suicide. In June 2002, with the scandal in Boston
propelling victims forward, Mr. Scamardo said he got an
e-mail message from a man who said he had been abused by
Dan Delaney - the priest in the hotel room.
Mr. Scamardo said it dawned on him then: a man abused by a
priest as a teenage boy had spent most of his legal career
defending priests who abused teenage boys.
By August 2002, Mr. Scamardo said, he was thinking about
suicide. A victim walked out of a mediation session, and
Mr. Scamardo said he felt "like the enemy."
In September, he wrote long letters to Bishops Fiorenza and
Aymond revealing his abuse. He asked Bishop Aymond to help
pay for a month at a residential treatment center north of
Dallas. He stayed nearly three months, which cost the
Austin diocese $33,443.
He went back to work, but felt awkward, he said . While he
had been a frequent visitor to Bishop Fiorenza's office,
now he could not get in, he said. He declared his intention
to resign, and asked for a little time.
Meanwhile, regarding it as a friendly negotiation, Mr.
Scamardo wrote the bishop of Austin suggesting a settlement
of $437,500 to cover medical bills for him and his family,
lost income, pain and suffering.
In a March 25 response, which Mr. Scamardo shared with The
Times, Bishop Aymond, who began serving in Austin in 2001,
apologized profusely and said he wanted to help. He
reminded Mr. Scamardo that his claim was beyond the statute
of limitations, and countered with $50,000 plus medical
expenses for 12 months.
Since insurance would not cover it, the bishop warned, "any
financial settlement would be taken from the money that is
given by the parishioners on Sunday in the collection."
Mr. Scamardo, angry and offended, began looking for a
lawyer. Within 10 days, the Diocese of Galveston-Houston
hired a new general counsel. Mr. Scamardo quit in May.
On Oct. 29, he signed a settlement with the Diocese of
Austin for $250,000. He has opened his own law practice in
Houston. He says he does not think he can emotionally
handle sexual abuse cases but may serve as an expert
witness in trials.
He said he prayed and believed in God "more than ever." But
the last time he went to church was on the Feast of the
Pentecost in June. "I have a lot of grief because my whole
belief system in the church is just gone," he said.
Jst2