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	L.A. Abuse-Case Settlement Must Give Catholics Pause By Donald P. Russo Morning Call July 21, 2007 http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/all-russocolumn-jul21,0,4229106.column Los Angeles — Tradition is powerful in our lives. We continue following certain behaviors and routines because they are what we were taught to do. Catholics continue going to Mass on Sunday, despite overwhelming evidence that the church has been involved in some monstrous misdeeds. Last week, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $660 million to 500 victims of sexual abuse dating back as far as the 1940s. It was the largest compensation of its kind ever recorded. The settlement means victims will receive more than $1 million each. We are getting used to hearing about financial compensation being paid by the church to those who have been abused by priests. The case that led to the huge settlement was scheduled to go to trial last week in Los Angeles Superior Court. The suit was filed by 12 plaintiffs who accused former priest Clinton Hagenbach of molesting them. Hagenbach died in the 1980s. Had the case gone to trial, lawyers would have been able to place Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, in the untenable position of having to testify about the church's cover-up of abuses dating from the 1940s to the 1990s. The Los Angeles Times has estimated that the Los Angeles Archdiocese has real estate holdings worth more than $4 billion. The archdiocese in Boston has also been involved in large settlement payouts for victims of sexual abuse. "Though it has always been the position of the Archdiocese that the insurance companies must honor their responsibility to fund a major share of future settlements, the Archdiocese must also be prepared to fund its share of these coming settlements," Cardinal Mahony said in a May statement. According to the cardinal, "this will require the Archdiocese to begin to dispose of nonessential real estate properties in order to raise funds for coming settlements, and to reevaluate some of the services and ministries it provides to parishes." Basically, the archdiocese is attempting to argue that these settlement proceeds are not coming out of the weekly collection baskets of parishioners. That argument is a weak one. First, if there is enough cash on hand to make these settlements, one has to wonder why the Sunday collection basket is still being passed around so avidly. Parishioners who make donations to the church do so out of a desire to enhance the church's ability to do God's work on earth. They do not do so out of a desire to advance the cause of an organization that appears determined to cover up criminal activity. And, there is no doubt that the sexual abuse of a minor constitutes felonious conduct. Assisting in the cover-up of that activity is a crime, plain and simple. Covering up a crime or conspiring to cover up a crime makes one a conspirator. I was raised as a Roman Catholic, but I have not been able to attend Mass for quite some time now. I find it hard to fathom the notion that Catholics are supposed to merely shrug their shoulders over acts that have been perpetrated by the clergy that were nothing short of monstrous. There is nothing worse than the sexual abuse of a child by an adult authority figure. Feelings of respect for authority and fear of adults on the part of the child serve as the weapon of choice for the abuser. The abuser easily has his way, because the child feels that it is his or her obligation to "obey." I shudder to think of what I would want to do to any member of the clergy who had abused any child of mine. Yes, we have heard the "few bad eggs" defense from the church. In other words, we are to believe that these acts of child abuse are being perpetrated solely by a few, and therefore we should not judge the church harshly. But this is only where the wrongdoing begins. It is the cover-up of the activity that becomes the worst crime of all. Moreover, these acts are being perpetrated by men in collars who are supposed to be men of God. The Catholic Church has a history of encouraging sexual repression, in the name of all that is good and holy. At the same time, however, it has harbored, succored and given comfort and support to sexual predators who have permanently destroyed thousands of young lives. The victims will continue to suffer until the day that they die. Despite all of this, and despite all the evidence that the Church has been running a child abuse cover-up cartel for generations, Catholics still flock to Mass every Sunday. While that is certainly every Catholic's choice to make, he or she must have to wonder where their monetary contributions are going. Donald P. Russo is an attorney with offices in Bethlehem. His e-mail address is dprusso1@verizon.net.
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