By Catholic News Service
The Tidings
July 20, 2007
http://www.the-tidings.com/2007/072007/settlemain.htm
Los Angeles — The Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced July 15 the largest church settlement of sexual abuse lawsuits to date, agreeing to pay more than 500 alleged victims a total of $660 million.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz approved the settlement the next day, calling it "the right result." He said settling the cases was "the right thing to do."
Cardinal Roger Mahony again offered his personal apology to every victim of sexual abuse by a priest, religious, deacon or layperson in the archdiocese.
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| Cardinal Roger Mahony speaks during a July 15 news conference at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Photo by Mario Anzuoni |
"It is the shared hope of everyone in our local church that these victims, many of whom suffered in silence for decades, may find a measure of healing and some sense of closure with today's announcement," he said in a statement July 15.
"Although financial compensation in itself is inadequate to make up for the harm done to the victims and their families, still this compensation does provide a meaningful outreach to assist the victims to rebuild their lives and to move forward," he said.
The settlement —- reached by attorneys for the archdiocese and 508 people suing the archdiocese —- came the weekend before the first of 15 civil trials in Los Angeles County courts was to begin July 16. With the agreement in hand, Cardinal Mahony and attorneys for both sides instead appeared in court to present the formal settlement to Fromholz for approval.
Following Fromholz's action, Cardinal Mahony repeated his apology and his offer to meet privately with any victim of abuse who asks. "This particular day is a day for the victims to speak," he said, adding that he would spend the rest of the day in prayer.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said July 17 that the settlement "understandably has garnered great attention both because of the number of cases involved as well as for the figure of the settlement."
"But, as Cardinal Mahony said —- in line with what John Paul II and Benedict XVI said many times —- the church obviously is pained mainly by the suffering of the victims and their families because of the profound wounds caused by the serious and inexcusable behavior of some of its members," Father Lombardi said.
He said the settlement agreement, "with the sacrifices it requires," is also a sign of the seriousness with which the church "has committed itself to doing everything possible to avoid a repetition of such wicked acts."
During the hearing, Ray Boucher, lead attorney for the victims, thanked his clients for their resolve and courage, asking them to stand. "I think they deserve a tremendous debt of gratitude," Boucher said, fighting back tears.
"I know it's hard for most of the victims whose scars are very deep … and I know many will never forgive the cardinal," he said. "But he took steps that I think only he could take," adding that a settlement might not have been reached "if left to the lawyers and others in the church."
In the last six months, he said, the cardinal himself pressed for a conclusion. "When I stopped by the defense counsel's office," Boucher said in an interview with The New York Times, "the cardinal would be down the hallway on the phone with the religious orders trying to get them to participate" in the settlement.
Michael Hennigan, attorney for the archdiocese, said in the courtroom that his views of clergy sex abuse had changed over the years he spent on the cases, largely through his private meetings with plaintiffs.
"I'd like to say that the church would have been reformed without these cases, but I don't know that's true," he said. "These cases have forever reformed the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It will never be the same."
Margaret Graf, general counsel for the archdiocese, acknowledged county courts personnel for their role in helping to bring about a settlement through mediation.
"This was the courts at their best," Graf told The Tidings. "We appreciate the enormous efforts of our Superior Courts in Los Angeles to deal with this very complex and sensitive litigation and the fact that they made the resources of the courts available."
She thanked in particular Judges Charles McCoy, Peter Lichtman and Fromholz, as well as the hundreds of attorneys and other legal professionals who represented the defendants and the victims.
Teresa Kettelkamp, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection, told Catholic News Service that the Los Angeles settlement is a watershed for the number of victims it includes. She said she hopes the settlement is the key to enabling the victims to achieve greater healing.
Reaching a court settlement for damages "is just one of the tools of healing," she said. "Hopefully time will tell whether it makes a difference."
In addition to the monetary settlement, the Los Angeles Archdiocese is trying to facilitate a pastoral response toward the victims of clergy sexual abuse when possible.
For more than a year, Cardinal Mahony has been meeting with victims and their families individually, and hopes to continue meeting with victims, said Graf. To date the cardinal has met with more than 70 victims. McCoy, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, participated in most of the meetings —- sometimes lasting as along as three hours.
"Judge McCoy facilitated it so that there could be pastoral outreach and victims could tell the cardinal their story in a noncourt environment," she said.
Boucher also praised the cardinal for meeting personally with abuse victims.
"He gave them a chance to yell and scream and vent and question," Boucher explained in his interview with The New York Times. "There were intensely emotional, personal meetings, and I believe it changes the perspective of some of the clients that met with him, and I'm certain that it changed him."
The archdiocese also has paid for therapy and counseling for victims, regardless of whether they are involved in litigation, said Graf. To date, 182 victims have accepted assistance from the archdiocese for counseling.
The settlement —- which involves cases going as far back as 1931 —- also calls for the release of confidential priest personnel files after they are reviewed by retired California Supreme Court Justice Edward Panelli.
Panelli will review the files "to protect the privacy of persons who are mentioned in the files who are not relevant really to any of the events like witnesses and third parties," said Don Woods, an attorney for the archdiocese. "He will also review them because the accused have certain rights of privacy. Their medical files are protected and this has been recognized by the courts."
Other than protecting certain privacy rights, the documents will then be released to the plaintiffs, he added.
Last December, the archdiocese announced the settlement of 45 lawsuits for $60 million.
Under the latest agreement, the archdiocese will pay $250 million, insurance companies will pay a combined $227 million and several religious orders will pay $60 million. Most of the remaining $123 million will come from continued litigation with religious orders that chose not to participate in the deal, with the archdiocese guaranteeing the average of $1.3 million per plaintiff, said Woods.
Individual payouts will vary depending on the severity and duration of the abuse, and most of the money will be paid to the victims by Dec. 1. For their work, plaintiffs' attorneys can expect to receive up to 40 percent of the settlement money.
According to a tally prepared by the Los Angeles Times, the previous largest settlement of abuse cases in the United States since 2002 was the $157 million the Boston Archdiocese agreed to pay to 983 claimants in several different settlement agreements. The Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., agreed to pay $129 million to 315 claimants; the Diocese of Orange, Calif., agreed to pay $100 million to 90 claimants, and the Diocese of Covington, Ky., settled with 350 claimants for $85 million.
Most of the lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles were filed after a California law suspended the statue of limitations for reporting sexual abuse, giving victims one year to file suits in 2003.
Cardinal Mahony said the new settlement and the one for $60 million announced in November "will have very serious and painful consequences for the archdiocese." He said the archdiocese will re-evaluate all ministries and services, "since we will not be able to offer them at the same levels as in the past."
The archdiocese will sell "nonessential properties" to fund its portion of the settlement, he said, adding that no parish properties or schools would be affected.
In May Cardinal Mahony said the archdiocese would sell its chancery building to help finance the settlements. Archdiocesan functions would either move to rented space elsewhere or the archdiocese would lease back space in its current building, he said.
About 50 properties have been identified as available to sell to cover the settlement costs, and the archdiocese expects to use some of its invested funds as well as borrow money.
Among those services not expected to be impacted by the settlement is the archdiocesan commitment to provide quality education to students from low-income families through the Catholic Education Foundation. Some 7,000 students, Pre-K through high school, will receive partial tuition awards totaling $8.3 million for the next school year.
"We raise money separately for the tuition awards," said Rob Smith, president of the foundation. "The people that support us have been very generous this year. I think going forward we'll hopefully get the continuing response we get from our donors. We're very hopeful."
Also essential to archdiocesan ministries are the many procedures and policies put in place to prevent or to deal with suspected child sexual abuse —- including criminal background checks and fingerprinting for church employees and volunteers working alone with children.
Every parish has a Safeguard the Children Parish Committee to ensure the safe environment of parishes and schools, and more than 40,000 people —- clergy, principals, directors of religious education, youth ministers, teachers, catechists, employees, parents and volunteers —- have participated in abuse prevention training sessions.
More than 350,000 children and youth have been trained in age-appropriate programs to teach them to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior and how to report inappropriate behavior to a parent, guardian or an adult they trust. Procedures are in place so that complaints of child abuse are reported swiftly to civil authorities.
"Throughout our archdiocese, in our parishes and schools, our priests and lay people have worked hard over the past several years to create safe environments for our children," said Cardinal Mahony in a July 17 letter written to the Catholic faithful following the settlement.
He acknowledged that even after the settlement the emotional pain of the victims remains "intense," adding at the conclusion of his letter, "I invite you to join me in fervent prayer for the healing of all victims of sexual abuse and for reconciliation across the archdiocese."
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