BishopAccountability.org

Erie bishop picks firm for victims’ fund, urges hope

By Ed Palattella
ERIE (PA)
November 25, 2018

http://www.goerie.com/news/20181125/erie-bishop-picks-firm-for-victims-fund-urges-hope

Persico says lawyer who handled 9/11 victims’ fund will administer Catholic Diocese of Erie’s program for abuse victims. Persico also comments on abuse crisis, Trautman.

Erie Catholic Bishop Lawrence Persico is again turning to outside experts as he navigates the Diocese of Erie through the clergy sex-abuse crisis.

Persico in 2016 hired a law firm from Pittsburgh, K&L Gates, to launch a sweeping internal investigation that led the diocese in April to release an unprecedented list of clergy and laypeople credibly accused of child sexual abuse and other misconduct with minors since the 1940s.

Persico is now hiring another outside expert to administer the diocese’s victims’ compensation fund, a response to the August statewide grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.

The diocese, Persico said, will retain the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Ken Feinberg, one of the nation’s most prominent authorities on compensation funds. Feinberg and co-administrator Camille Biros handled the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, set up following the terrorist attacks, and compensation funds for theater shooting victims in Aurora, Colorado, and the victims of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil-spill disaster.

Other Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania have also retained Feinberg, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on Tuesday said it is setting aside $25 million to start paying claims. Persico said he will set the amount for the Diocese of Erie after consulting with the diocese’s finance board.

The diocese previously paid out about $750,000 to victims and has spent more than $4 million on its internal investigation. Persico said all that money has come from budget surpluses and investment income at the diocesan level.

Persico said he continues to work on details of the compensation fund, which he said he hopes to have in place around the beginning of 2019.

“I have a meeting after Thanksgiving with the Diocesan Finance Council, and I basically got to get their permission because of the amounts, because I can’t just arbitrarily move money like that,” Persico said.

He also said he continues to favor a compensation fund rather than having the Pennsylvania General Assembly pass legislation, now stalled, that would give victims of clergy sexual abuse as minors a two-year window to sue, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred or what the statute of limitations was at the time. Persico said he fears that large court judgments would bankrupt the diocese and that court cases could be tied up for years, delaying compensation for victims.

“I have two groups to worry about: victims and the man and woman in the pew,” Persico said. “I have to make sure that I am able to continue the good works that go on in the diocese. If we end up bankrupt ... then we have to shut it down.”

“I have a victim who’s 87 years old. How much time does he have?” Persico said. “I hope he has a long time, but you have to take those factors into consideration because some of these cases are so old and the victims are older now, too. I think it’s at a point where a lot of victims just want to say, ‘You know, this is enough. I just want to end this’ ” with a compensation fund.

Persico, 68, the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Erie since October 2012, commented on the compensation fund in a wide-ranging, 40-minute interview with the Erie Times-News this past week.

Persico spoke about investigations. He cooperated with the Pennsylvania attorney general’s investigation and said he also will cooperate with the federal grand jury investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. He said he has received a subpoena to appear before the federal grand jury, whose investigation was disclosed in October, but said the date for his testimony has not been set.

Persico also spoke about the abuse crisis; the recent three-day national meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which included an order from the Vatican that American bishops delay a vote on reforms to monitor bishops; and comments that Persico’s predecessor as bishop of Erie, Donald W. Trautman, now retired, made at the meeting. Trautman was critical of the Pennsylvania attorney general’s grand jury report and the news media.

And Persico spoke about his advice to Catholics in the 13-county, 220,000-member diocese who are struggling with the abuse crisis, especially the contents of the Pennsylvania grand jury report.

“We have to move forward,” he said, “and we have to be a people of faith because that’s what the church is about: faith and hope.”

The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

The bishops’ conference

The American bishops still discussed reforms at the national meeting, in Baltimore, from Nov. 12-14. The Vatican asked the bishops to delay a vote until Pope Francis holds a global meeting on the clergy abuse crisis that is scheduled at the Vatican in February.

Question: Were you frustrated by the Vatican’s demand that the American bishops wait on a vote?

Answer: ”I was disappointed. We were sort of befuddled because we weren’t quite sure what was going to happen (before the bishops decided to discuss the reforms nonetheless). We had a lot of discussion and, in hindsight, I think the vote was not taken because a lot of the recommendations needed fleshed out. I surmise that was a concern that Rome had because there would be some changes canonically that would have to come about. So naturally they’re going to say, Well, let’s get the details first before you have something to vote on.

“And I thought we had an excellent discussion under three areas. There was a great push for a lay board to review (conduct of bishops). Also a code of conduct for bishops, which was good. And also how do you deal with bishops who have been removed or emeriti (retired bishops) who have either allegations brought against them or have failed to report or carry out an investigation or handle a complaint correctly.

“We have to realize Rome thinks in centuries. The United States thinks in days. We want this done yesterday and Rome just is a little slower. They’ve been working at trying to speed up their processes.”

Bishop Trautman’s comments

As a retired bishop, Donald Trautman had voice at the bishops’ conference — he was allowed to speak — but he had no vote. Trautman, 82, the Catholic bishop of Erie from 1990 to 2012, spoke at the conference on Nov. 13, its second day, during a debate about the proposed reforms for monitoring bishops.

He questioned the accuracy of the Pennsylvania grand jury report, which was critical of him, and a recent report that the Boston Globe and the Philadelphia Inquirer published about bishops accused of mishandling the abuse crisis. Trautman, who still has an office at the diocese’s St. Mark Catholic Center in Erie, was not named in that report.

Q: What did you think of Bishop Trautman’s comments?

A: ”Bishop Trautman, he speaks his mind and he was giving his opinion,” Persico said. “So that was his opinion. I wouldn’t have gone down that road, but then that’s Bishop Trautman.”

Q: Was there a tension at the conference between the active bishops and the retired bishops?

A: “I know a lot of the bishops were not happy, but they (the retired bishops) have voice, so there’s not much you can do about that.”

Reforms for bishops

The bishops at the conference focused on how to hold themselves accountable for failing to properly handle complaints of child sexual abuse. Bishops are responsible for policing priest behavior, but the bishops are developing rules on how to police themselves.

In addition to discussing the creation of a review panel, which would include laypeople, and the creation of a code of conduct, the bishops also discussed the creation of a hotline for bishop complaints. Information from the hotline would go to the apostolic nuncio, which is the Vatican’s embassy in Washington, D.C., and then the Vatican, where the pope has the final say over bishops.

Persico said he favors all the reforms and said he also favors having what is known as a metropolitan bishop, or a bishop who presides over provincial meetings, get the complaints and recommendations from the review board. The archbishop of Philadelphia is the metropolitan who presides over the Catholic province of Philadelphia, which covers the entire state.

Q: If you were in charge, what would you like to see happen regarding the monitoring of the bishops?

A: “I’d have a lay review board, the hotline number. Also, a manager or a person who takes the call, does the investigation, submits it to the review board and then have the review board make the recommendation either to the nuncio or the metropolitan, provided that there’s a check and balance between the metropolitan and the review board.”

Q: And would that recommendation be public?

A: “I don’t see why not. Because if you have to remove a bishop or some action is taken, why not? I think that the people should know. Because then it avoids confusion.”

Q: One of the proposals would not require bishops to participate in the review process if the bishop is the target of a complaint. Should bishops have to participate?

A: “I think it should be required, that it’s not a question of whether they want to do it or not. They do it. Maybe I don’t have this theological depth to understand it, but if priests have to do it, why can’t bishops?”

What he tells Catholics

Persico said he spends about 75 percent of his time dealing with the abuse crisis, including meeting with victims and answering letters.

Q: This has been a rocky year. What is your message to the faithful?

A: “It’s been a hard year. It’s been a year with great scandal, great harm to the people of God. But I also say that we can’t lose hope. It’s unfortunate that the church is run by human beings, but you’re dealing with just the sinful nature of people. So we just can’t lose our focus on what we are about as a church. We have some sinners, we have people who have betrayed their calling and betrayed their faithful.”

Q: What about rebuilding trust?

A: “It’s going take time. I think it will be determined by our actions and by what we say. It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take years before people are going to trust the church; in particular, bishops.”




.


Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.