BishopAccountability.org

Despite Syracuse diocese claim, parishioners will help pay sex abuse victims' settlements

By Patrick Lohmann
Syracuse.com
March 12, 2018

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2018/03/post_1212.html

The diocese of Syracuse program compensating victims of clergy sexual abuse will be funded by donations to the diocese that are paid as premiums to the church's liability insurance fund. Pictured is a view from the back of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception downtown in September.
Photo by Mike Greenlar

[with video]

In announcing a program to compensate victims of clergy sexual abuse, Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse officials said payments to victims would not come from parishioners' donations.

Instead, they said, the money would come from the diocese's general liability insurance fund.

In reality, however, money collected from church members each Sunday will be used to help pay the victims.

That's because the diocese is self-insured. It doesn't buy insurance from a third party like an insurance company.

That means the diocese acts as its own insurance company, taking some of the money collected at each church and putting it aside into a fund to cover costs that normally would be paid by an insurance company, said spokeswoman Danielle Cummings.

It is out of that insurance fund's reserves that the diocese will pay abuse victims, she said.

The diocese announced earlier last month that it would be launching the program, sending letters to 76 people who have made allegations of abuse against the local diocese. Two mediators will review their cases and recommend a compensation amount, and the diocese has promised to honor whatever recommendation the mediators make.

This is how the diocese explained where the money would come from in its news release Feb. 14:

"The total cost of the program will be paid from the Diocese of Syracuse's general liability insurance program," the diocese said in a news release. "The diocese will not use any money given by the people of the diocese to support parishes, schools, the annual Hope Appeal, the Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese, the Cathedral Restoration Fund, Catholic Charities or any other charitable fund in the diocese."

Cummings said the diocese meant that no funds given for the "specific use" of parishes or schools would be used to pay victims. Also, it meant that the diocese would not come back to parishioners asking for more money, she said.

The statement that the diocese will not use money given by people to support parishes was not meant to mislead people, Cummings said.

"... None of those dollars that you're giving as donations to support various charitable causes, including things in your own parish, we're not touching those." she said. "What we're using is this insurance fund, which has to exist anyway."

Cummings said less than 2 percent of a parish's total revenue goes toward the insurance fund, she said.

Parishes would need to pay for insurance whether it is through the diocese self-insurance program or whether they bought it from an insurance company, Cummings said. Parishes are required by law to have insurance, she said. 

"We are using the insurance for its intended purposes," she said. "The point is we are not taking funds from parishes or other charitable funds to fund the (program)."

Katelyn Kriesel, a local Catholic, came away from the diocese's statements announcing the program thinking none of her family's donations to the church would be used to pay victims. She and her family are regular churchgoers and her daughter, Alianna, 7, will make her first Communion this year.

Kriesel said she does not have a problem necessarily with the diocese using her family's donations for the program, but she feels misled. 

"I do believe that the victims should be ... compensated, and if the church is going to use funds from donors to do so, either directly or indirectly, then they should disclose that," Kriesel said. 

She said her family will continue to donate to the church.

The fund for compensating victims differs from a similar program in New York City. There, the diocese took out a $100 million mortgage to pay hundreds of people who alleged clergy sexual abuse. 

The diocese represents more than 235,000 Catholics living in seven counties in Central New York.

Contact: plohmann@syracuse.com




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