$300m lawsuit claims Catholic bishop covered up for paedophile priests

The Guardian ^ | Oliver Burkeman

[scripter]

Roman Catholic church leaders in New York covered up for 13 paedophile priests in scores of instances of child abuse spanning three decades, and set up a secret bank account to be used to buy victims' silence, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

Thomas Daily, the Bishop of Brooklyn, is the most senior official named in the $300m (£190m) suit, which accuses diocesan leaders of shuffling priests from parish to parish without informing their new congregations of the allegations against them.

The amount of money demanded makes it the second-largest lawsuit filed in the child abuse scandal engulfing the Catholic church throughout the US, exceeded only by a legal action in Boston, the centre of the crisis.

The latest lawsuit details allegations from 43 children - all now adults, one of whom has died. The abuse allegedly took place between 1960 and 1984 in Brooklyn, home to 1.8m Catholics.

One priest, James Smith, is accused of 26 incidents of molestation in church buildings, a church school and during a baseball game.

"This kind of abuse would have been impossible without the knowing silence of people high in authority," Michael Dowd, the lawyer leading the case, said. "They allowed other children to be raped and sodomised over decades."

Mr Dowd alleged that the diocese established a secret bank account, the Good Shepherd Fund, for paying victims to avoid further controversy. But it was not clear if the account was used.

He said Bishop Daily's predecessor, the late Francis Mugavero, failed to take action against the accused priests because he was gay and feared that his relationships with adult males might be exposed.

Yesterday the Brooklyn diocese seemed more eager to address the claim that Bishop Mugavero had been gay than to respond to the allegations of abuse. "I'm sure it's not true," a spokesman, Frank de Rosa, was quoted as saying of the homosexuality claim.

But in a statement he said details of Mr Dowd's lawsuit had not yet been received. "The diocese follows its policy of cooperating with civil authorities, and has turned over complaints of abuse to the district attorneys ... for allegations going back 20 years," Mr De Rosa said.

It is not the first time that Bishop Daily has been implicated in the escalating abuse crisis. Before coming to Brooklyn, he worked as a deputy to Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston, where, according to court documents filed there, he allegedly covered the tracks of the priest who sparked the current crisis, John Geoghan.

Geoghan - now accused of abusing at least 150 children - was sentenced earlier this year to nine to 10 years in jail on one specimen charge. He and the archdiocese of Boston face numerous other proceedings.

In a deposition connected with the Geoghan case, Bishop Daily said: "I'm not a policeman. I am a shepherd. I am a pastor who has to go after the Lord's sheep and bring them back to the fold, and give them the kind of guidance, and discipline them in such a way that they come back." But, in hindsight, "I profoundly regret certain decisions".

[scripter]

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[mfreddy]

Stunning.. And the vatican thinks they are too firm in their policy of dealing with these perverts.

[kimosabe31]

There apparently is no end in sight on this thing. The roman catholic in the US and probably abroad also is nothing more than a privileged sanctuary for pervs of every persuasion and particularly sodomizers of little boys. The pervs are too far up the chain of command for the church to reform itself.

[Pern]

Q: How do you get a nun pregnant?

A: Dress her up as an alter boy!

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the post.

I have been for the Catholic Church and its lay people working this out.

However, if they don't work it out, the trial lawyers will own every thing the Catholic Church owns before this decade is over.

[RJayneJ]

I don't see this problem being dealt with properly. The church is going to have to face the fact that the charges are true and the hierarchy still doesn't get it. They can't have priests preying on little kids, and their superiors cover for them, and then pass them off to another community so they can molest and rape a whole new bunch of victims.

[Grampa Dave]

As an Episcopalian, I can tell you that a few big lawsuits got the attention of our Bishops on this issue. Those Bishops know that they could lose everything they own as well as the church losing. We are approaching a zero tolerance with any accused sexual predator in our church. A couple of big civil law suits, including a couple in California got their attention and changes have been made.

Civil law suits in America are the great leveling ground for the common person against big money and situations like this. Remember even the killer OJ got whacked in Civil Court.

[Caipirabob]

Thanks for the ping! I weep for the Catholics. Their Church has been corrupted by a minority of perverts, but then again, this is just what God told us that the enemy would do. Fortunately most Catholics recognize this as well. While I'm not one, I stand by them and continue to pray and hope that we'll be able to find our victory together over the enemy.

[sobieski]

Well, I can't see how you can sue for more money, on the grounds that you already received money.

[RJayneJ]

I'm not a lawyer, but if I had to guess that it may be possible to sue because it was being offered as hush money to cover up illegal and predatory acts.

[sobieski]

It's clear your not a lawyer. These people chose money over pressing charges, and now want to blame the church for the "coverup" they participated willingly in. WHat's their beef: the money we freely accepted wasn't enough? We now don't like the confidentiality agreement that was the key to our settlements? IT seems like now, they think they settled for too little, nothing more than that.

[kimosabe31]

"As an Episcopalian, I can tell you that a few big lawsuits got the attention of our Bishops on this issue."

If it requires the threat of lawsuits to get bishops acting to prevent child molestation, I would still be somewhat concerned about the moral condition of these bishops Grampa.

I much prefer the approach of at least one Greek Orthodox Archbishop (who shall remain un named), who advised the priests of his Archdiocese that if any were accused of pedophilia, they could expect a bullet in the head. This is as it should be where child molestation is concerned and my idea of attacking the root cause rather than cosmetically "powdering" over the sympton as the RC church does by buying silence.

[Grampa Dave]

Often the enertia of monolithic bureaucrats needs to be shaken to get them to see reality.

That happens in churches, schools, corporations and any organization that has been around a long time. The status quo enertia gains control of the organization. If that is not shaken off every once in a while, those organizations can end up going the way of the dodo bird.

Often leaders who want to act on bad things are forced into not moving to get rid of the bad behavior by their peers and their immediate leader.

I can tell you that several Bishops including our Bishop have not tolerated sexual predator behavior by their priests regardless if if it was homosexual or heterosexual when they found out about it in their areas of responsibility. There was no transferring of the bad priest with no action. The priests in question were suspended from all duties, and the bishops worked with the police and those making charges to get to the bottom of the charges.

Zero tolerance has to be the Golden Rule with our churches in these case. Innocent priests/pastors need to be cleared of bad charges. The guilty priests/pastors need to be fire and sent to jail.

[kimosabe31]

"Often the enertia of monolithic bureaucrats needs to be shaken to get them to see reality."

Grampa...you're too kind to the point of blindness here. We're not dealing simply with monolithic bureaucrats. The problem is the Roman Catholic Church has been TARGETED by the homosexual "sub human" community as a privileged sanctuary where they could "bore in", engage in predatory practices against children and be nurtured and protected from civil authorities for life. And that is exactly what is taking place even under the so-called revised policy provisions of the US bishops. The RC hierarch is rotten from top to bottom and cannot be reformed from within. Only dedicated RC laymen in concert with the criminal justice system can "fix" the problem.

[Grampa Dave]

You need to go back and reread my replies. I'm an Episcopalian, and my comments were about our Bishops coming around after a few law suits got their attention.

The Catholics must work this out themselves. However, their decades old trick of burying sexual assualt charges in the sand will no longer work.

Episcopal Churches are seeing a lot of Catholic families voting with their feet by leaving the Catholic church and coming to Episcopal Churches.

I hope that the Catholics can get this situation handled properly, if not they will not be much of a church after this decade. Their members will leave and go to other churches, their contributions will go down, and the lawyers will own most of the church's assets. The choice is theirs.

[kimosabe31]

Sorry if I misunderstood your comments. I think we're in agreement.