Church in
Crisis
Victims vow to keep cases in news
By JOE FEUERHERD
Louisville, Ky.
Buoyed by a “seismic shift in public opinion” toward
their cause, victims of clerical sexual abuse should use their newfound
credibility to hit the church where it hurts -- the pocketbook and the media.
That message was forcefully delivered and enthusiastically received at the Feb.
21-23 meeting of Linkup, a 3,000-member advocacy group for victims of clerical
sexual abuse.
Attended by approximately 160 victims and their supporters, the
11th annual gathering was equal parts strategy session (how best to stay on the
offensive after a year in which their cause dominated national headlines) and
group therapy.
Victims and their families were clearly comforted and occasionally
emboldened by an assembly that accepted their stories and intuitively
understood the ongoing trauma suffered by victims of clerical sexual abuse.
Discussions dealt with such topics as “Healing and Recovery,” while
“secondary victims” -- the spouses, parents, family and friends of
abuse survivors -- met to discuss their concerns. Prominent speakers --
psychotherapist Richard Sipe (NCR, Jan. 10) and author Jason Berry
(Lead Us Not Into Temptation) -- were heard from. “Celebrate
Survival” was the theme of the Saturday night social.
The most applause, however, was reserved for the advocates and
attorneys who offered a road map designed to keep the institutional church on
the legal, financial and public relations defensive.
Top priority for this year: Change state laws that restrict
criminal punishment and limit civil damages because crimes were committed 10,
20 or 30 years ago.
“We have initiatives breaking out everywhere” that would
overturn state statute of limitations provisions related to abuse of a minor,
said Minnesota lawyer Jeffrey Anderson, the lead attorney over the past two
decades in abuse cases that have resulted in awards and settlements totaling
more than $20 million.
Those initiatives are based largely on a 1994 California law that
allowed prosecutors to bring charges against alleged abusers well after the
abuse was said to have occurred. In addition, late last year California
legislators suspended, for one year, the statute of limitations on civil cases.
As a result, if they are unable to settle with those claiming abuse at the
hands of a California clergy member, dioceses throughout the state could face
liabilities in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Legislators in at least eight states, and the list is growing
according to Anderson, are considering measures that would allow victims of
long-ago abuse to sue for damages (see related stories, Page 4).
“Public opinion is behind us and lawmakers follow public
opinion, so the time is now,” said Anderson. The strategy: “As we
lobby the legislatures and develop public policy we want them to know that we
are trying to protect all children and vulnerable adults, not just those abused
by clergy,” said Anderson. “We don’t have to traffic in the
clergy issue anymore. If we talk about protecting all children from predators
and cultures that protect [the predators], and we just don’t make it about
the churches … we get a lot more response.” Anderson said he would
like to see a “survivors network” developed in every state.
In Kentucky, said attorney Bill McMurry, “a generous
ruling” from a state court voided the state’s statute of limitations
restrictions because the church was found to have covered up abuse cases. As a
result, the Louisville archdiocese faces more than 200 lawsuits against priests
and church workers who allegedly molested children in their care. McMurry urged
Kentucky victims to file lawsuits before the extension of the statute of
limitations expires in April.
Meanwhile, Voice of the Faithful activist and Survivors First
founder Paul Baier told the abuse victims to shine a light on lawmakers who
withhold support for such measures. Victims and their supporters, said Baier,
should publicly question why lawmakers who oppose the bills are “soft on
pedophiles.”
Another priority, said Baier, is to “crack Los Angeles and
greater New York.” High-profile revelations in the nation’s two major
media centers, said Baier, is “how we get another year” of press
attention focused on clerical sexual abuse. Further, said Baier, victims and
their supporters need new approaches -- the “summer camp angle,” the
“monastery angle,” and revelations of abusive clergy living outside
the country -- to keep the story on the front pages.
These messages were warmly received by conference participants,
many of whom likened their physical abuse to the response they received when
reporting such claims to the dioceses that employed the molesters. Litigation,
they said, is one of the few means to hold a recalcitrant church
accountable.
Frustrated and embittered by diocesan officials more interested in
covering up the problem than solving it, said abuse victim Peter Saracino,
“99 percent of the people I know finally sued because the only thing [the
church] understands is money and bad publicity, and lawsuits do both.”
“The lawsuits will help because it makes it too expensive for
these priest perpetrators to continue,” said Ray Higgins, a 70-year-old
retired businessman whose son was molested by two priests at a California high
school seminary more than a decade ago. “But they have to get hit a lot
harder than they have been hit so far because the insurance companies have
[until now] paid most of the claims. It won’t get better until
they’re forced into it, until they are on their knees,” said
Higgins.
Higgins sees the church’s response -- establishment of a
lay-run commission to investigate the causes of the crisis and new policies to
ensure that children are protected -- as just so much window dressing.
“They’re not interested in the victims. They’re only interested
in their power. They have no interest in us at all except that we’re
pecking away at their power.”
Fr. Gary Hayes, a priest of the Owensboro, Ky., diocese and a
childhood victim of clerical sexual abuse, said the situation has gotten worse
since the U.S. bishops met in Washington last November. At that meeting,
bishops’ conference president Wilton Gregory warned that the bishops would
oppose those who sought to use the crisis to advance their version of church
reform.
Said Hayes: “They’re vulnerable because of what they
have not done, because they have failed to provide any kind of leadership in
any of this. They’re not being victimized.”
The ambiguity of Gregory’s statement -- was he including
victims of clerical sexual abuse in his critique? -- was appalling, said Hayes.
“What we need now is truth and clarity: Say what you mean and mean what
you say, so that there is no mistake. And we’re not hearing that from the
bishops.”
Further, said Hayes, New York Cardinal Edward Egan’s recent
snub of the lay review board investigating the scandals (NCR, Jan. 24)
was indicative of the broader problem. Said Hayes, “He probably spoke for
a good many other bishops.”
Meanwhile, Minnesota attorney Anderson recalled his first case
against the Catholic church. The year was 1983. In the years since, the U.S.
Catholic church has paid, according to conservative estimates, $350 million in
settlements and damages to abuse victims. Twenty years ago there was no road
map, no one had ever forced church officials to justify, under oath, how they
dealt with the clerical child molesters.
The 1983 case was significant, said Anderson, because the client
refused a $500,000 settlement that was offered with the contingency that the
agreement be kept confidential; the client, said Anderson, refused to
“keep their secret.”
“And since that time,” he continued, “we have been
suing the s--- out of them.”
The conference attendees applauded and cheered. “Go get
’em,” yelled one.
Joe Feuerherd is NCR Washington correspondent. His
e-mail address is jfeuerherd@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, March 7,
2003
|
