Clergy child sex abuse compensation fund opens in Harrisburg Diocese

By Steve Esack
Morning Call
February 12, 2019

https://bit.ly/2SKNeIZ

The Harrisburg Diocese opened its child sex abuse compensation fund Tuesday, giving victims 90 days to lodge clergy assault claims.

The Harrisburg Diocese opened its child sex abuse compensation fund Tuesday, giving victims 90 days to make claims about assaults by clergy.

And victims had better be prepared to bare their souls.

The diocese’s Survivor Compensation Program, administered by a national mediation firm, includes an eight-page online questionnaire asking victims a host of biographical questions about schooling, employment, marital and offspring status, and about criminal history before asking them to detail the alleged abuse.

The form also carries a warning that anyone making an abuse claim that had not been previously disclosed to the diocese as of Monday will have their allegations forwarded to law enforcement and to the Department of Human Services for investigations.

Victims will have until May 13 to apply for the first round of payouts. Those who receive a payment can still receive counseling services, but must give up their right to sue the diocese at a later date.

Lawsuit payouts typically are bigger than victims compensation funds.

New victims who come forward after the program starts will be considered for future participation in the program.

“The establishment of the Survivor Compensation Program is another step forward in our diocese’s efforts to show our support to survivors of clergy child sexual abuse,” said Bishop Ronald W. Gainer, a former Allentown Diocese official. “While we understand that financial compensation will not repair or erase the heartache and damage done by the abuse these survivors have suffered, we hope and pray this support can help to improve their lives.”

The Allentown Diocese will open its victim compensation fund in March or April, spokesman Matt Kerr said.

All eight Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania announced plans last year to start their own victim compensation funds after Attorney General Josh Shapiro released a scathing statewide grand jury report detailing decades of child abuse and cover-ups in six dioceses. The two dioceses excluded from that report — Philadelphia and Johnstown — were the subject of prior grand jury reports that found similar abuses and cover-ups.

Religious leaders sexually abusing children is not a problem only in the Catholic Church. Abuse claims and cover-ups have been documented in court records and media accounts among Jehovah's Witness congregations. Earlier this week, the Houston Chronicle reported on decades of child sex abuse in Southern Baptist churches.

The dioceses announced the funds amid lawmakers’ attempts to pass legislation allowing victims to sue clergy and their employers in civil court. Since 2016, the Republican-controlled House twice has passed bills to allow those retroactive lawsuits; the GOP-controlled Senate has blocked them each time.

The New York Legislature has passed a bill allowing those retroactive lawsuits, while dioceses in New Jersey and elsewhere are starting their own compensation funds.

The Allentown and Harrisburg dioceses, like all other dioceses, have vowed not to use parish or school money accounts to pay victims.

“It is anticipated that funding this program will place the operations of the diocese under severe financial stress, " the Allentown Diocese said in a statement issued in December.

On Tuesday, Gainer said the Harrisburg Diocese will tap its priest retirement fund, other existing diocesan assets and “hopefully’ insurance proceeds.

The Harrisburg Diocese’s fund is being managed by Paul Finn of Commonwealth Mediation & Conciliation Inc. Finn’s firm has run similar programs in other dioceses across the nation.

To participate in the Harrisburg diocese Survivor Compensation Program, call Finn’s firm at 800-540-2624 or email Harrisburg@commonwealthmediation.com. Forms are available at www.commonwealthmediation.com or www.youthprotectionhbg.com.

The Allentown Diocese’s fund will be overseen by an independent oversight committee chaired by Edward N. Cahn, a retired U.S. District Court chief judge with the Blank Rome law firm.