NEW YORK
Verdict
7 OCT 2016
MARCI A. HAMILTON
Admitting that the clergy sex abuse crisis still dogs the New York City Archdiocese, Timothy Cardinal Dolan has announced an Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Commission. This move is right out of Penn State’s playbook for dealing with the Jerry Sandusky victims, and it is a good one for some. But it cannot be the final word on justice for the sex abuse victims in New York state.
Cardinal Dolan’s Record on Justice for Sex Abuse Victims Is Mixed
Cardinal Dolan has a mixed record on justice for sex abuse victims, to put it mildly. He is the only bishop I know of who personally testified against statute of limitation (SOL) reform, which he did while he was Archbishop of Milwaukee. I know because I was there. With a straight face he told lawmakers that the diocese would become “bankrupt” if the SOLs were revived for victims from the past. In the thrall of his presence and his earnest manner, the legislative panel abandoned its previous plans and shelved reform. Unlike Dolan, most bishops have handed over the responsibility of lobbying against access to justice for the victims to their paid lobbyists.
Dolan was not kidding about the Milwaukee diocese going into bankruptcy, though he didn’t mean that the diocese would have no assets; in fact the diocese did not wait for SOL reform. He just meant it would take advantage of federal bankruptcy law to avoid paying victims. With fewer than a dozen lawsuits filed, the diocese filed a federal bankruptcy action.
He was the mastermind in Milwaukee of the attempt to move over $50 million from general funds to a so-called “cemetery trust” that the diocese hoped could not be touched by the victims. The victims, who were transformed under federal bankruptcy jargon into “creditors,” objected to the cemetery trust on the ground it was a fraudulent trust. Therefore, the funds should have been available to compensate them. Dolan’s cynical cemetery trust move resulted ultimately in lengthy judicial proceedings in which the Seventh Circuit ultimately held that there was no right to religious liberty in such a trust and, even more, that fraud should not be eligible for a religious liberty theory. This was a great ruling, but did little for the victims.
The victims paid the price for Dolan’s maneuver against them and the ensuing lengthy litigation.
They were dragged through years of litigation during the diocese’s voluntary federal bankruptcy, only to receive little in compensation at the end. Many to this day have every right to condemn the legal system that made this scenario possible.
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