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Another Try: Church Settlement Talks Begin Wednesday in Nearly 280 Clergy Sex Abuse Claims

By Haidee V. Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
October 29, 2019

https://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2019/10/29/archdioceses-settlement-talks-begin-wednesday-clergy-abuse-claims/2483194001/

Members and supporters of the Laity Forward Movement and Concerned Catholics of Guam partake in their last picket against Archbishop Anthony Apuron, in order to give the Vatican space for a decision on his removal from the archdiocese at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna on July 9, 2017. (Photo: Frank San Nicolas/PDN)

More than three years since clergy sex abuse victims started filing civil lawsuits, the Archdiocese of Agana is once again trying to see if it can settle nearly 280 claims.

This time around, the settlement talks set for Wednesday and Thursday, will be under the federal bankruptcy process.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Hawaii Robert J. Faris will serve as mediator in the settlement conference in the U.S. District Court of Guam, at no cost to parties involved.

Attorney Kevin Fowler, representing 20 clergy sex abuse claimants, said it's a wait-and-see on whether this conference will get everyone to a point where they can reach an agreement, but he's hoping to see progress. Fowler confirmed participation in the conference.

Most of the abuse claimants are represented by attorney David Lujan and his law firm. Attorney Michael Berman represents 63 victims of clergy sex abuses or about 23% of the filed claims, while about a dozen are represented by attorney Anthony Perez.

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes will be at the mediation with attorneys, according to Tony Diaz, the archdiocese's director of communication.

Byrnes' predecessor, Anthony Apuron, is one of those accused of raping and molesting children on Guam. A Vatican tribunal found Apuron guilty of abusing multiple minors, stripping him of his title and banning him from returning to Guam.

Ahead of the settlement conference, Faris ordered counsels for abuse survivors to submit a "written, good faith global settlement demand" and a confidential settlement conference statement.

First try didn't result in settlement

The conference in September 2018 didn't result in settlement for the archdiocese, which is facing more than $1 billion in claims.

Four months later, the archdiocese sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection so it could work on settling the claims while keeping parishes, Catholic schools, the soup kitchen and other ministry programs open.

At the time of the bankruptcy filing, the archdiocese listed $22.96 million in assets and $45.66 million in liabilities.

Focus on healing, prevention

Lawsuits and settlements are not only about monetary compensation for those who survived rape, molestation and other abuses by priests and other clergy, according to the Missouri-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the world's largest and oldest survivors group for abuse victims.

SNAP believes that the most important thing for lawyers who represent survivors to focus on is the healing of their client and the prevention of future abuse.

This means avoiding things like non-disclosure agreements so that information about abusers and those who enabled them can become public, helping warn others about the dangers these men present, according to Zach Hiner, SNAP executive director.

"Similarly, it can mean securing not only financial compensation for their client, but non-monetary concessions like public apologies from the church as well as agreements by church officials to publicly list abusers or to create abuse prevention programs," Hiner said.

Byrnes had said that the archdiocese is working on a list of clergy with credible allegations of abuse.

But the process is taking much longer than hoped for because of a host of questions such as whether or not to include those who already died, Byrnes said.

Hiner said these non-monetary concessions have often been demanded by survivors in the U.S. who are interested in not only having their own abuse validated, but ensuring that no child has to experience what they did.

"These lawsuits represent a possibility to determine not only what went wrong in the past, but what is still going wrong and what needs to be done to stop it so that abuse is prevented in the future," Hiner said.

Other defendants in clergy sex abuse claims such as the Boy Scouts of America and the Capuchins have started settling with survivors but none of the amounts and other terms of those settlements have been made public by any of the parties.

Reporter Haidee Eugenio Gilbert covers Guam's Catholic church issues, government, business and more. Follow her on Twitter @haidee_eugenio.

 

 

 

 

 




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