By Michael Sweatt
Portland Press Herald
October 9, 2008
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=214771&ac=PHedi
In a very real sense, Maine's 200,000 Catholics have joined together to deny fair and just reparation for the trauma, harms and injuries inflicted upon a victim of priest sexual abuse.
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| Lawyers for Bishop Richard Malone argue that the diosese should be immune from a lawsuits filed by sexual abuse victims. Photo by John Ewing |
Catholic parishioners are complicit in their silence. They stand by disengaged and silent while their bishop unleashes the church's legal team against a single victim of child sex abuse.
Bishop Richard Malone is hiding behind the doctrine of charitable immunity, a civil law technicality that, in the bishop's mind, gives him permission to avoid his moral and ethical obligation to gospel values such as truth, responsibility and accountability.
A Maine Supreme Judicial Court justice recently argued that if there is no charitable immunity, entities like the Grange could be out of business. However, in a different case involving the same priest abuser, the Court ruled in 2005 that the protections of church leaders are limited when weighed against the welfare of children.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine's revenues are $70 million per year. The church's net assets are valued at $80 million. In fact, during the past two fiscal years, church revenues exceeded expenses by almost $20 million.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that, at the same time that Bishop Malone is claiming that the church cannot afford reparation for the victim's injuries, he is living by himself in a 7,000-square-foot mansion that includes six bedrooms and four full baths and is assessed at $1 million.
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