Cardinal avoids testifying in U.S. sex abuse lawsuits

Ecumenical News International

 

Los Angeles
The archdiocese of Los Angeles’agreement to a $660 million US clergy abuse settlement will amount to$1.3 million for each plaintiff, and it prevents Roger CardinalMahoney, the archbishop of the Roman Catholic diocese, from having totestify on the issue.

News reports said Cardinal Mahoney wouldnot have to disclose whether diocesan leaders had covered up theincidents of abuse as they occurred.

However, the settlement,which includes more than 500 plaintiffs, and effectively avoids 15upcoming pedophilia trials against the Los Angeles archdiocese, alsocalls for the release of confidential personnel files of priestsinvolved in alleged abuses from the 1940s to the 1990s.

Archdiocesan attorney Michael Hennigan told the Washington Post he was glad an agreement had finally been reached.

“Ithink for those of us who have been involved in this for more than fiveyears, it’s a huge relief,” he said. “But it’s a disappointment that wedidn’t get it done much earlier than this.”

David Clohessy,national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,told the BBC News that “this represents a tremendous achievement bythese brave survivors, who somehow found the strength to come forward,report the crimes, get legal help, expose the predators and ultimatelyendure a pretty long, gruelling legal process.”

The settlementbrings the total paid out by U.S. dioceses to $2 billion since 1950.Los Angeles, the most populous Catholic diocese in the United States,with more than three million parishioners, will have paid out about onequarter of that and now faces financial ruin.

According tochurch documents, the diocese will pay $250 million in cash, while therest will be covered by insurance and by several different religiousorders.

The Los Angeles archdiocese, its insurers and variousRoman Catholic orders already have paid more than $114 million tosettle 86 earlier claims.

Several months ago, Cardinal Mahoneyannounced that the church would sell its 12-storey administrativebuilding, and consider selling 50 other non-essential properties toraise funds.

More than 500 other lawsuits against thearchdiocese remain unresolved. Since 2002 nearly 1,000 people havefiled abuse claims against the Roman Catholic church in Californiaalone.