FBUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News
January 27, 2019
By Jay Tokasz
When the Buffalo Diocese offered childhood victims of clergy sex abuse a chance to be compensated for their pain and suffering, Jeffrey M. Shaw filed a claim.
He alleged the Rev. Joseph Rappl abused him in 1981, when he was 11 years old and Rappl was an associate pastor in Lewiston.
The diocese acknowledged that Rappl had been credibly accused of sexually abusing children.
But in December, Shaw received a letter stating that he wasn’t eligible for compensation.
The diocese has offered several dozen victims awards ranging from $10,000 to $600,000, but Shaw is among several other victims who were determined to be ineligible. Diocese officials stipulated last March when they announced the program that only victims already known to the diocese at the time would be eligible for compensation.
“I feel like I’ve been dismissed by the church,” said Shaw, who lives in Maryland. “It seems that an institution that talks about morals and ethics and doing the right thing would want to do the right thing.”
Shaw said he first reported his abuse to the diocese in April or May, but he had told other people years earlier, including a friend, his ex-wife and a therapist. He made a claim with the Buffalo Diocese with the help of Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney who represents more than 100 clients in similar compensation programs in other dioceses in New York.
Another client who accused Rappl of abuse prior to last March did receive an offer from the diocese, said Garabedian. So the diocese was using an arbitrary date to refuse to make Shaw an offer, despite knowing that the priest was credibly accused, he said.
“The Diocese of Buffalo has acted in a calculated fashion to exclude many claims,” he said. “It underscores how little the Diocese of Buffalo cares about childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse.”
Lawlor F. Quinlan, a lawyer for the diocese, would not comment on how many applicants to the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program were deemed ineligible due to the diocese’s time restriction. He also declined to answer questions from The News about how many awards have been offered so far and for how much.
“The diocese intends to provide a report on the IRCP after the program is concluded. At this point, the program is ongoing,” Quinlan said.
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