UNITED STATES
Hamilton and Griffin on Rights
“What’s the latest in the Catholic abuse crisis?”
If you ask people who follow the news closely they’d likely cite two high visibility happenings: The meeting between Pope Francis and six clergy sex abuse victims and the latest stunning revelations of cover ups in a Minnesota archdiocese.
But a month ago, another development – virtually unprecedented – took place with little public fanfare. Most people, we suspect, took a glance at the headlines about it and quickly moved on, assuming it was yet another settlement in a civil abuse lawsuit involving multiple victims.
That, however, is not the case.
In fact, it wasn’t a child sex abuse case at all. It was a “breach of contract” suit. We believe it’s one of just two in the US and the only successful one so far. We predict – and hope – there will be more like it.
An arbitrator has ordered Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn to pay $1.1 million to 42 victims of clergy sex crimes because he broke his pledges to improve how he deals with abuse cases.
As best we can tell, there’s never been a case like this in which victims have successfully held a bishop responsible in court for breaking the promises he made during a settlement. And the amount of this award is significant because it may well deter more Catholic officials from breaking the promises they make to victims.
Here, in a nutshell, is what transpired:
1. In 2008, 47 victims settled child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits against Finn and his diocese. As part of that deal, they insisted that Finn commit to 19 non-economic child safety measures.
2 . In 2011, 44 of those victims formally charged that Finn broke many of those child safety measures, in part by keeping two credibly accused predator priests in ministry (Fr. James Tierney and Fr. Shawn Ratigan) and by hiding suspicions and knowledge of child sex crimes from law enforcement.
3. In March 2014, an arbitrator – harshly criticizing Finn and his KC church colleagues – awarded $1.1 million to the victims. (Finn is trying to have the award nullified.)
The attorney for these brave and persistent victims, Rebecca Randles, has described the award as “ground-breaking.” She’s right.
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