Settlement Reached In Boston Clergy Abuse Cases ($85 Million)

POSTED: 10:03 a.m. EDT September 9, 2003 UPDATED: 5:14 p.m. EDT September 9, 2003

BOSTON -- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston agreed Tuesday to pay $85 million to settle more than 500 lawsuits from people who claim priests abused them, a lead attorney in the cases told The Associated Press. It's the largest known payout by a U.S. diocese to settle molestation charges.

The deal, finalized after months of negotiations, marks a major step toward quieting the crisis that has torn at the fabric of America's fourth-largest archdiocese for nearly two years and spread throughout the country and beyond.

Under the agreement, victims will receive awards ranging from $80,000 to $300,000, said attorney Roderick MacLeish Jr., whose firm represents nearly half of the alleged victims.

Key provisions of the settlement reached between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and 552 people who said they or their children were sexually abused include:

Victims have 37 days to opt in to the settlement. Their cases will then go to arbitration, where the amount of individual awards will be decided by a mediator based on type and duration of abuse and injury suffered. Victims will receive no less than $80,000 and no more than $300,000. Parents who said their children were abused will receive a flat $20,000. The total settlement pool will be reduced proportionately based on the percentage of victims who do not participate. For example, if 10 percent of victims opt out of the settlement, the total payout will be reduced by 10 percent. The archdiocese will pay for psychological counseling for victims for as long as they want treatment. An undetermined number of victims will be named to advisory boards to the church, including a board that reviews complaints against priests.

"The deal has been signed. The deal has been done," Marcia Brier, a spokeswoman for MacLeish's firm called out to reporters awaiting word on a settlement at Suffolk Superior Court.

The pact comes about a month after the archdiocese put a $55 million offer on the table, leading to intensified talks among a small group of lawyers who were negotiating on behalf of the 552 alleged victims.

Many of the final details of the deal were worked out during a closed-door meeting Sunday night among lawyers -- attended by Archbishop Sean O'Malley -- that went into early Monday morning.

"There's no way that you can possibly compensate people for what has been taken away from them. But this, for some, will be recognition by the archdiocese that terrible, horrific mistakes were made by church leadership, and this is a form of repentance by the church," MacLeish said.

A resolution had been elusive since the scandal exploded in January 2002 with the release of court documents in the case of the Rev. John Geoghan, who church leaders moved from parish to parish despite evidence he had molested children.

Allegations against dozens of other priests soon came to light, and hundreds of lawsuits were filed against the archdiocese.

Priest personnel files, made public because of the Boston lawsuits, held sordid and shocking allegations: that a priest pulled boys out of religious classes and raped them in a confessional; that another fathered two children and left the children's mother alone as she overdosed; that another seduced girls studying to become nuns by telling them he was "the second coming of Christ."

Because of molestation claims, at least 325 of America's 46,000 priests were removed from duty or resigned in the year following the Geoghan case. And Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as Boston archbishop in December, giving up his post as spiritual leader to 2.1 million Catholics because of his mishandling of abuse cases.

The appointment of O'Malley, a Capuchin Franciscan friar known for helping other dioceses recover from sex-abuse scandals, brought new hope in July. He was credited with restoring the faith in the Fall River Diocese, which was rocked by scandal in the early 1990s.

The $85 million settlement is by far the biggest publicly disclosed payout made by the U.S. church, although the amount of compensation per person may be smaller than what some individuals have received in other cases.

The most comparable deal came in June, when the Archdiocese of Louisville, Ky., agreed to pay $25.7 million to 243 people.

A jury awarded nearly $120 million to 11 victims of former Dallas priest Rudy Kos, but the victims agreed in 1998 to a reduced settlement of about $31 million. And a jury in California awarded $30 million to two brothers molested in the Diocese of Stockton, but that award was later cut to $13 million.

Criminal charges were filed against some priests as a result of the Boston scandal, but Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly said no church leaders could be charged for supervisory lapses under weak child-protection laws in effect at the time.

Reilly, in a report issued in July after a 16-month investigation, estimated that more than 1,000 children were likely victimized by more than 235 priests from 1940 to 2000 as church officials shifted priests around the archdiocese, rather than removing them from ministry.

He said the abuse was allowed to continue because of an "institutional acceptance" and a "massive, inexcusable failure" by church leaders to do anything about it.

In September 2002, the Boston Archdiocese agreed to a $10 million settlement for 86 victims of Geoghan, who was ousted from the priesthood and sentenced to prison for child molestation.

Geoghan, 68, was killed last month in prison, allegedly by another inmate who authorities say plotted the attack for more than a month.

It is amazing that our Catholic school teachers are on strike and they find 85 million for this. Boston joins La., RI. and a bunch of other places paying off victims. Teachers do not get the pay they deserve in our Catholic schools. The checkbook is in the desk until the money drain is closed.

Homosexuality costs. And costs. And costs.

This bears repeating again and again and again until the liberal modernist Sodomite-priest-sympathasizers finally get it. And far far worse than the dollar cost is the cost in destroyed souls.

"Under the agreement, victims will receive awards ranging from $80,000 to $300,000, said attorney Roderick MacLeish Jr., whose firm represents nearly half of the alleged victims."

I would like to see reported how much the lawyers got.

"Victims will receive no less than $80,000 and no more than $300,000. Parents who said their children were abused will receive a flat $20,000"

$80,000 for hug. $300,000 for plug.

Sodomy is strangling the Church. It's "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" that no one wants to come right out and just say it. The American Church is being bankrupted by bishops who don't want to ban sodomites from the sanctuary. This is a crisis that never had to happen. They are still gutting the Church and no one in charge apparently has enough guts to face them down. It's a farce.

I mentioned this problem as threatening one institution with banal calamity to a senior member of a well-known religious order in...1983!!! It's not like they weren't warned. 20 years ago!!! They're still there!!!

A swipe at bad taste:

Boy, the Boston Archdiocese sure is paying out the rear for this one, eh?

My apologies. Perhaps while reeling from my tastelessness, someone can explain to me how justice is served by forking over dough. At least the great liberal panacea of "psychological counseling" will be offered also.

Well, the kids paid in the rear; it's only fair.

As for justice being served by paying money: you can't undo the years of suffering, particularly for those victims who developed SSAD themselves as a result of the molestation, but justice requires that *something* be done for them, and that something be done *to* the perps.

I wonder if some of the victims wouldn't rather see a very public and prolonged humiliation of the perps than get money, but some of the perps are dead, and some are still being protected.

Making A give money to B at least establishes that a wrong was done, and who did wrong to whom. That can be very important.

These lavendar mafia perps need to be lined up and SHOT! Their sickening protectors and sodophiles need to be excommunicated YESTERDAY.

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