XPost: tor.general, calgary.general, can.politics
XPost: edm.general
From: TopPoster@Poster.com.,.
The cost to the U.S. Roman Catholic Church of sexual predators in the
priesthood has climbed past $1 billion, according to tallies by American
bishops and an Associated Press review of known settlements.
And the figure is guaranteed to rise, probably by tens of millions of
dollars, because hundreds more claims are pending.
Dioceses around the country have spent at least $1.06 billion on settlements
with victims, verdicts, legal fees, counseling and other expenses since
1950, the AP found. A $120 million compensation fund announced last week by
the Diocese of Covington, Ky., pushed the figure past the billion-dollar
mark.
A large share of the costs - at least $378 million - have been incurred in
just the past three years, when the crisis erupted in the Boston Archdiocese
and spread nationwide.
The Rev. Thomas Doyle, who left a promising career with the church to help
represent victims, had warned the bishops in 1985 that abuse costs could
eventually exceed $1 billion.
"Nobody believed us," said Doyle, a canon lawyer. "I remember one archbishop
telling me, `My feeling about this, Tom, is no one's ever going to sue the
Catholic Church."
Asked about the figure, a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops, Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, said church leaders believe the
payouts "should be just to all sides." He said victims deserve compensation,
but the church must also have enough money to continue serving parishioners.
The bishops are set to meet in Chicago next week to review their plan for
protecting youngsters.
The exact financial effect on the church is hard to determine, since each
diocese owns property separately and settles cases on its own. Insurance
policies cover some costs, but policies differ across the country. And in
many places, the coverage has run out.
Also, many dioceses already had money problems before the scandal hit,
because of rising labor costs, maintenance for old churches and other
expenses, said Charles Zech, an economics professor at Villanova University
who studies church finances.
However, the church avoided one financial hit: A feared widespread boycott
by donors never happened, Zech said. The number of donors has fallen in the
past few years, but the amount contributed overall has held steady, he said.
Still, some of the damage is plain.
The Boston Archdiocese and several others have agreed to sell property to
cover their multimillion-dollar settlements. Three dioceses - Portland,
Ore., Tucson, Ariz., and Spokane, Wash. - have filed for bankruptcy, and
more are expected to follow.
The billion-dollar cost to the church does not come close to other major
legal settlements in recent years. The tobacco industry, for example, has
agreed to hundreds of billions of dollars in payouts.
The AP calculated the price from settlement announcements by dioceses and
from reports commissioned by the nation's bishops, including a study by the
John Jay College of Criminal Justice of claims from 1950 to 2002. Victims'
groups believe the church reports have underestimated the total cost.
Among religious groups confronting abuse, the Catholic Church is the only
one to release settlement figures covering decades. But experts believe that
Catholics have paid more to victims than any other denomination. Researchers
commissioned by the bishops found more than 11,500 abuse claims against
priests since 1950.
Catholics disagree over whether the church is being forced to pay too much
for its failures.
Barbara Blaine, founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,
noted that most recent agreements have been reached before trial - a sign,
she said, that bishops know the true scope of the wrongdoing and are trying
to minimize the cost.
"That the settlements could go that high shows us the seriousness of the
harm and the cover-up," Blaine said.
But defense attorneys say public opinion has moved so far against the church
that the bishops have little choice. Several states extended the statutes of
limitation for suing over the abuse; California abolished the time
restriction for one year, leading to hundreds of new claims that have yet to
be resolved.
Patrick Schiltz, an attorney who has defended many dioceses in abuse cases,
agreed that bishops have a moral obligation to pay victims but said the size
of the settlements is "getting out of hand."
The Covington fund is the biggest settlement so far. Last December, the
Diocese of Orange, Calif., agreed to pay $100 million to 87 victims. In
2003, the Boston Archdiocese settled with 552 victims for $85 million.
"It's because of the media coverage," said Schiltz, a professor at the
University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. "The thumb is heavily
on the scale against the church."
Schiltz said he disagreed with Catholics who contend that many of the newer
claims are fake. But he said weaker cases that once would have been thrown
out of court are probably succeeding.
Despite the rising cost to the church, advocates say the majority of victims
never sue.
"Victims want to feel as though their experience is valued, helping the
church understand the problem so that it will never happen again," said Sue
Archibald, head of the victim advocacy group The Linkup. "With lawsuits
it's, `Here's your money, now go away.'"
--
Socrates taught his students that the pursuit of truth can only begin once
they start to question and analyze every belief that they ever held dear. If
a certain belief passes the tests of evidence, deduction, and logic, it
should be kept. If it doesn't, the belief should not only be discarded, but
the thinker must also then question why he was led to believe the erroneous
Sundance wrote in message
news:d8c9po$cb8$1@utornnr1pp.grouptelecom.net...
> Eggman ! wrote:
> > Lianne Kaos wrote in message:
> > news:
> >
> >> No, that's just killing. Killings done in self defence, or with
> >> state sanction (f'rex, capital punishment or war) aren't murder.
> >
> > Apparently people like Greg Carr and John Lauzon support people like
> > James Kopp, a man who hid in the bushes on Dr. Barnett A. Slepian's
> > property and shot him in front of his wife and children. An act of
> > homicide.
> >
> > Where in the Bible are the approvals for actions of Homicide like
> > that?
>
> ...more lies, but it's to be expected from those who think the unborn
> child in NOT a human being and murdering them for any reason is
> justified, because a corrupt immoral Liberal government took away the
> unborn child's 'right' to protection.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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