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  Gerald F. Kicanas: Tucson Diocese Resolves to Right Wrongs and Atone for Abuse

By Gerald F. Kicanas bishop@diocesetucson.org
Arizona Daily Star [Tucson AZ]
July 14, 2005

The confirmation of the Diocese of Tucson's Chapter 11 reorganization plan marks the end of one of the saddest of times in the diocese's history.

Who would have believed any priest would abuse a child? Who would have believed leaders in the church could have failed to protect children?

Yet, the reality is that, in the past 50 years, children have experienced a terrible betrayal of trust. This betrayal is inexcusable and indefensible and calls again for a public apology and a firm resolve to do whatever humanly is possible to see to it that this does not happen again.

As bishop of Tucson, I again make this public apology. I express the firm resolve that this diocese will do whatever is humanly possible to reduce the risk that a child could be abused at a parish or school, at home and even in the larger community.

Under the oversight of the Federal Bankruptcy Court and the competent guidance of Judge James Marlar, those who were abused or who suffered injury from abuse by clergy or other persons working for the diocese, parishes or schools have had an opportunity to file a claim and have that claim considered.

As part of the Chapter 11 process, a Tort Claimant's Committee was appointed to represent the interests of those who claim they were abused or who suffered injury from abuse. The committee and the lawyers who represent them have worked very closely and cooperatively with the diocese and its professionals to present a plan of reorganization that had their support.

It is this cooperation that has resulted in the ability of the diocese to confirm a plan in less than a year after it filed. It is also this cooperation that will result in a significant number of claimants receiving compensation before the end of 2005.

With the confirmation of the diocese's Chapter 11 reorganization plan, compensation will be provided to victims equitably and fairly through a structure that victims themselves had direct participation in fashioning.

That structure provides levels of compensation for those whose claims of abuse were both valid and legally recognizable, as well as an offer of compensation for those whose claims were valid but not legally recognizable.

For those with whom the diocese did not enter into settlements before the Chapter 11 reorganization plan was confirmed and who may feel their claims were not properly responded to, the decision for compensation now rests with a very experienced and very well-respected retired judge.

To those who were abused or harmed but did not file a claim for whatever reason, I want them to know they are not forgotten. They, too, have been wronged, and my prayer is that they also will experience healing. The confirmation of the diocese's Chapter 11 plan does not mean the church will forget what happened. What happened cannot be forgotten or simply be put behind us.

It is a reality that will affect all the diocese does in the future. Just as the death of a child affects a family for the rest of its life, this tragedy will affect our life as a diocese into the future. We grieve, we remember, and we change.

It is our policy that any allegation or reasonable suspicion of child abuse be reported immediately to law enforcement. In addition, it is our policy that any allegation of sexual misconduct with a child by a worker for the church in the diocese will be reviewed by the diocesan Sexual Misconduct Review Board.

Education programs are taking place in every parish and school to alert people to the signs of abuse and what to do if abuse is suspected. All who work in the diocese with children or vulnerable adults - clergy, religious, lay employees and volunteers - are being thoroughly screened.

Our commitment is to do everything we can to reduce the risk that a child could be abused at a parish or school, at home and even in the larger community.

The history of the diocese of Tucson, now more than a century old, is filled with joy and tragedy, success and failure, reasons to be proud and reasons to be ashamed.

Our community often invokes the name of Padre Eusebio Kino, remembering the earliest days of Tucson and the courage and ingenuity of the Jesuit missionary and explorer who first evangelized Pimeria Alta.

San Xavier Mission, the White Dove of the Desert, helps identify the Southwest. It represents the role the Catholic Church and other faiths have played in the history of this area. The towers of the mission stand as symbols of how deeply the church is connected to the history of this desert and to its people.

Restoring trust in an institution in which terrible betrayal of trust took place may seem insurmountable, but as bishop of Tucson, I know the resilience of this diocese and its people. I know how deeply they care about the mission of their church.

I am grateful to members of other denominations and faiths and others in the community who have continued to encourage our diocese throughout this troubling time.

Remembering the past - both the reasons to be proud and the reasons to be ashamed - it is our responsibility now to move forward. Trusting in God and in his amazing grace, we will.