Educating To End Abuse

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2/07 KSN Interview HB2206.

  Overland Park man sentenced on child porn charge 

Not long enough!!!!  He should be in prison the rest of his life! Evil to the core!

Monday August 25, 2008 

A federal judge on Monday sentenced Brian D. Harris, 42, of Overland Park to 12 years and seven months in federal prison for distributing child pornography.

Harris pleaded guilty in June to one count of distributing child pornography. In his plea, he admitted that he installed file-sharing programs on his computer and used the programs to download files containing child pornography from other users. He also allowed other uses to download images of child pornography from his computer.

Among the items found on his computer were more than 60 movie files, including images of children younger than 3 years old being raped.

For immediate release: Sunday, Aug. 17

SNAP posts Archbishop’s “Ten most reckless & callous actions”

Group blasts Burke for “letting accused sex offenders work and live here”

As Archbishop Raymond Burke celebrates his last mass in St. Louis , leaders of a support group for clergy sex abuse victims are releasing a list of his ten “most reckless and callous actions in clergy sex cases here.”

The new list is posted at SNAPmidwest.org and is included below.

SNAP criticizes Burke for paying $500,000 to free a convicted predator priest, for moving a priest who’s been accused of molesting at least three boys, and for bringing a number of proven, admitted and credibly accused priests from elsewhere to live and/or work here.

For more information, contact

David Clohessy of St. Louis , SNAP National Director 314 566 9790 cell

Barbara Dorris of St. Louis , SNAP Outreach Director 314 862 7688 home, 503 0003 cell

—————-Burke’s most reckless and callous actions in clergy sex cases here (posted 8/17/08)

(Each fact cited below, in each case, has appeared in media accounts in at least one credible mainstream news source, and usually, in several such sources.)

1. On Friday, a Wisconsin judge sentenced a serial predator priest to six months in jail. Sometime between 2003 and 2006, Burke let that cleric, Fr. Bruce MacArthur, move to a church center for pedophile priests in Franklin County , even though MacArthur had been accused of molesting at least seven girls and was indicted in the attempted rape of a disabled, mute 54-year-old patient at a nursing home.

http://www.fdlreporter.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080816/FON0101/80816012/1985

2. Right now, he’s quietly letting an admitted pedophile priest work at/near and live on/near St. Louis University .

He’s Fr. Vincent Bryce, who was suspended from two Michigan parishes in 2002 when he admitted molesting a child. (His direct supervisors have acknowledged the admission in writing). Bryce works at the Aquinas Institute, directly across the street from SLU and lives in Jesuit Hall, at the northwest corner of Grand and Lindell.

In December, a Chicago area newspaper disclosed that Bryce is here, but no St. Louis media have yet mentioned his name.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2002_04_22_GrandRapidPress_PriestResigns_Vincent_Bryce_1.htm

http://www.wednesdayjournalonline.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=9404&TM=24148.37

3. Right now, he’s quietly letting Fr. Robert Osborne work at a Kirkwood parish. Osborne left Vianney high school after being accused of molesting a boy. He later admitted giving liquor to kids and a second alleged sex abuse victim came forward.

Osborne was sued and his victim received a substantial settlement. Osborne’s direct supervisors, a religious order called the Marianists, refuse to reassign him to any of their dozens of schools they run across the US . But Burke lets him work in a parish here.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/05_06/2007_06_29_Corrigan_MarianistsSettle.htm

4. In 2006, he quietly let a Yakima priest work at St. Joseph’s in Clayton & St. Ambrose on the HiIl. Back in Washington state, that cleric, Fr. Darell Mitchell, had naked photos of boys on his computer and admitted that he had gone to other websites that showed naked boys. He’d also been accused of giving beer and numerous gifts to one minor, holding ‘boys-only’ dinners and game nights at his home, letting young men spend the night at the rectory, taking a minor on a European trip, and letting one boy live at the rectory with the priest for weeks one summer, introducing that minor to others as his “godson.” (When reports of his admissions & the allegations against him surfaced in St. Louis , he abruptly resigned.)

5. In 2005, he quietly let a Kansas priest live and work at St. Ambrose on the Hill. That cleric, Fr. Nicholas Voelker, had been accused recently of twice sexually assaulted a parishioner who got a protective order and a substantial settlement from church authorities because of the assaults.

6. He quietly let eight or nine proven, admitted or credibly accused archdiocesan predator priests live at Regina Cleri (a retirement home with virtually no security) in Shrewsbury . In 2005, when SNAP publicly disclosed this, Burke told the Post Dispatch the nun overseeing the sex offenders “is very strict - their comings and goings, everything is monitored. She is right on top of things.”

However, that same nun told the Post Dispatch that the priests in question serve as the facility’s “volunteer employees” doing everything from driving older priests to the hospital or drugstore to fixing computers. She admitted “she does not monitor the men if they go to a movie or for a walk. ‘I don’t police them like that. I would trust them all. I would.’”

Among the pedophile priests at Regina Cleri: Michael Campbell, Hugh Creason, Alfred Fitzgerald, and Robert Johnston.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2005_01_06/2005_03_22_Townsend_HomeHouses.htm

7. In 2004, he let a fugitive Canadian cleric, move to a church center for pedophile priests in Franklin County . Br. Gerald Chumik after California parishioners demanded he be moved for the safety of their kids. Media accounts describe him as a fugitive. He’s wanted for felony child molestation in Canada .

8. In June 2008, he named Fr. Alex Anderson a pastor in DeSoto. Anderson is accused of molesting three boys, none of whom know each other. The archdiocese paid one of his victims $22,500. Anderson sued one of his accusers for slander, and vowed to take his victim to court unless a number of concessions were met (a written retraction of the allegation, the removing Anderson ’s name from the SNAP website, etc.) None of those conditions were met.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2004_07_12/2004_08_26_Townsend_DioceseSettles.htm

9. In 2005, he “put up a half-million dollars to keep out of jail a priest convicted of sodomizing a teenage boy,” according to the Post Dispatch. More than a year later, that cleric, Fr. Thomas Graham, won a reversal of his conviction on a legal technicality - the statute of limitations. But he would have likely spent a year behind bars (and kids would have been safer) had Burke not spent $500,000 to free him, despite being convicted by an impartial jury that heard all the evidence.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2005_07_12/2005_09_06_Patrick_ChurchPosts.htm

10. He repeatedly ignored SNAP’s call for a moratorium on importing proven, admitted, and credibly accused serial predator priests at two church-run facilities:

        - RECON, also known as the Wounded Brothers Project, near Robertsville in Franklin County &                  

        - St. John Vianney Renewal Center near Dittmer in Jefferson County.

SNAP estimates that Burke has let literally dozens of sex offender clergy come to these centers, almost always without warning to neighbors, parishioners or the public. (In some instances, they are convicted, so are put on the state child molester’s registry.) Some of them are among the most prolific and notorious pedophile priests in the US (including Fr. James McGreal of Seattle who faced 35 accusers, and Thomas S. Schaefer and Alphonsus Smith, both priests from Washington who were among four priests who were indicted in 1995 on charges of sexually abusing nine boys.)

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2003_07_12/2003_09_06_Ho_ChurchKnew.htm

For more information:

David Clohessy of St. Louis SNAP National Director 314 566 9790 cell (SNAPclohessy@aol.com)

Barbara Dorris of St. Louis , SNAP Outreach Director 314 862 7688 home (SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

SNAPnetwork

Woman fights for bill to prevent clergy abuse

Feb.15, 2008

http://www.kansas.com/711/story/311898.html

A blind eye, indeed

I am writing in regard to Bishop Michael Jackels' commentary "Rule of compassion" (Feb. 10 Opinion) and his statement: "The Catholic Church... does not turn a blind eye to illegal behavior and would certainly not reward it."

Who does he think he is fooling? Has he forgotten the countless stories of child abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic priests since the Boston scandal broke in 2002? Time and time again, the church did not call authorities when it realized its priests were molesting children, but instead moved the priests to other towns or states.

And if that isn't bad enough, those church leaders who cover up the abuse or protect the abuser get rewarded for their behavior. Consider a case in Chicago where the Rev. Daniel McCormack was accused in August 2005 of molesting an 8-year-old boy, but Cardinal Francis George left McCormack in his job to continue to molest other children. The cardinal has since been elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Time and time again, I am contacted by clergy abuse victims who feel violated all over again when their victimizer or the church leader who mishandled their case is promoted to a higher position.

I hope and pray that someday Jackels' statements can ring true. But today I can't even hear a faint ding.

PEGGY WARREN

Posted on Wed, Feb. 13, 2008

Employee suspected of taking $270,000 from parish

BY STAN FINGER

The Wichita Eagle

Holy Savior, the Catholic parish and school serving the highest proportion of low-income students of any school in the Wichita diocese, has lost nearly $270,000 through apparent "misuse" by a former employee.

The Rev. Pat Malone, Holy Savior's priest, notified school and parish staff Friday, and sent a letter of explanation to the 275 families that attend the church at 1425 N. Chautauqua.

An independent review of financial records indicates $269,914 is missing, and a longtime office manager and bookkeeper is suspected of taking the money, Malone said.

Wichita police were notified of the loss Thursday, and a detective was assigned to the case Friday, said Gordon Bassham, police spokesman.

"I am truly sorry that this has happened," Malone's letter states. "I pray to God that we can come together to build a stronger parish and school for the future. The loss is a devastating blow to our parish family, but such events can also unify us and make us stronger."

The reaction among Holy Savior staff members was "shock and disbelief," Malone said.

The office manager, who has not been named, worked for Holy Savior for about eight years when the loss was discovered in October, Malone said.

The employee left the church when the loss was discovered. The church conducted an internal investigation before contacting police.

The money appears to have been taken in smaller amounts over a three-year period.

Others have told Malone that the person responsible used the money "to help other people," he said. "This person didn't take it to help themselves."

The loss "won't affect our operations, but it certainly affects our reserve and any savings we might have," he said.

The parish has insurance, but it could be a while before it finds out how much of the loss can be reimbursed.

"I'm sure it will not cover all of that (amount)," Malone said.

Holy Savior's parochial school has 175 students, 68 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, said Fred Solis diocesan spokesman. The school "serves one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city," Solis said.

By comparison, 16 schools in the Wichita school district have at least 90 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches, spokeswoman Susan Arensman said.

To prevent similar losses in the future, the parish has implemented a series of changes:

• Employees will be subject to full background checks.

• Two signatures will be required for all checks.

• The parish finance committee will meet monthly to review that month's activity.

• An independent accountant will review the parish's books annually.

The impact of the loss could be more prominent as the parish ponders its future.

Holy Savior leases the property for its school and that lease is up, Malone said.

Officials are looking to move the students to the former Carter Elementary public school building about a mile away, at least until a new school can be built.

"Ideally, we want to have it here adjacent to the church," Malone said. "It's important to have the church and school together.

"We're still determining the best course of action."

In the meantime, Malone is preaching forgiveness in the letter sent to parishioners, and to those who ask about what happened.

"We have to acknowledge, if you will, our own capacity for sin and inflicting pain and suffering on others -- and we have to work toward forgiveness," Malone said.

"Bitterness and anger in this situation does no good for anybody."

Reach Stan Finger at 316-268-6437 or sfinger@wichitaeagle.com.

Lawsuits alleging abuse are nearer to trial

The boys called them the party priests.

They held pool and lake galas where drinks were freely flowing, even for their teenage guests. They let the young boys drive and smoke in their cars, left dirty magazines around the rectory for them to read, and talked openly in graphic terms about sex.

For boys just entering the awkward stages of adolescence, nothing seemed cooler than hanging out with Monsignor Thomas O’Brien and Father Thomas Reardon of Kansas City.

Except for the price that many of the boys — now men — say they paid. They allege that the priests used their positions of power to prey on the youngsters, plying them with alcohol, groping them and offering them money for sex.

Though the alleged incidents occurred years ago, they are haunting both priests and the diocese today. A dozen lawsuits against either O’Brien or Reardon are winding their way through the courts, painting a graphic picture of lewd behavior involving scores of young men spanning several decades.

It included accusations of rape, sodomy, oral sex and masturbatory acts, according to the lawsuits.

Since January 2004, 12 men have sued O’Brien and 14 have sued Reardon. The lawsuits, one now settled and others moving toward trial, allege that the priests abused dozens of boys in locations ranging from the St. Elizabeth’s rectory at 75th and Main streets to a house on Lake Viking, a community about 60 miles northeast of Kansas City, where O’Brien and Reardon often took the youths for a weekend of swimming and partying.

Those lawsuits and several involving other priests had been placed on hold pending a decision by the Missouri Supreme Court on whether too much time had passed for such cases to be filed. However, a ruling last year allowed many of them to proceed, and some now have tentative trial dates.

The Kansas City Star began documenting the alleged abuse in 2002. Since then, the newspaper has interviewed dozens of men who, along with the lawsuits, allege a pattern of molestation that began in the early 1960s with O’Brien and continued unchecked with Reardon throughout the 1980s.

Through their lawyers, both O’Brien and Reardon have vigorously denied the accusations. Both men are no longer active as priests. O’Brien told The Star last week that he had never molested anyone.

“I deny that I’ve abused anybody,” he said. “Some of the accusers, I don’t even know. As far as teenagers, I may have used bad language around them once in a while, but I absolutely, positively, never physically abused any young men.”

Earlier this year, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph agreed to a $60,000 settlement with a Northland man who accused O’Brien and Reardon of molesting him in 1967.

Then in September the diocese agreed to pay an Independence man $225,000, its biggest settlement ever in a case of alleged abuse. The retired priest in that case, the Rev. Francis E. McGlynn, also was expected to pay $2,000 to the victim.

But as trial dates in the other lawsuits involving O’Brien and Reardon approach, The Star has learned that the diocese may have known about O’Brien’s alleged abuse as long ago as 1979.

Three alleged victims told the newspaper that either they or their parents contacted diocesan officials about O’Brien, yet he remained an active priest for decades afterward.

However, the diocese disputed that church officials knew about the alleged incidents but failed to act.

“There isn’t any evidence that is in our files or that we’ve seen that we had notice of claims and then didn’t do anything about it, or failed to take appropriate steps,” said Jon Haden, the attorney representing the diocese in the lawsuits.

Next page >

To reach Judy L. Thomas, call 816-234-4334 or send e-mail to jthomas@kcstar.com.

School is bullying

Hispanic families

In response to "School says: Speak English" (Oct. 20 Eagle): It is unfortunate that once again the Catholic Church has to flex its muscles and hurt children and families. Instead of suppressing cultural identity, the diocese easily could have hired translators to help ease the problem. The diocese might even have realized that it was in the best interest of everyone at St. Anne Catholic School to keep the translators on staff permanently, considering the growing Hispanic community.

The Catholic Church is the true bully in this situation. It is unfortunate that the Silvas and other families have to go through the pain to realize that the Catholic Church isn't all about executing the teachings of Jesus Christ but in many aspects is just the opposite -- an entity that thrives off of power, control and money. This is another example of the Catholic Church talking out of both sides of its mouth. Welcoming Hispanic minorities into this country and then requiring them to leave their native language at the door just doesn't jibe with the message of "love thy neighbor."

PEGGY WARREN
Wichita

THE ONE TRUE FAITH

Coffeyville Journal Readers Views August 26, 2007

Kansas City diocese settles lawsuit in priest abuse case

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH

Associated Press Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- An Independence man who claims he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest in the 1970s has agreed to end his lawsuit for $227,000 in what his attorneys said Wednesday could be the first in a string of such settlements.

Frank Scheuring, the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and former priest Francis E. McGlynn reached the agreement Tuesday. It follows a Missouri Supreme Court ruling last year that changed the state deadline for victims to file lawsuits.

"That case opened the door for victims in Missouri," said Rebecca Randles, one of Scheuring's attorneys, during a news conference Wednesday.

In its June 2006 ruling, the state Supreme Court said that the state deadline for filing sexual abuse lawsuits is triggered not by when a wrongdoing is committed, but by when victims are capable of realizing the damage they suffered.

Attorneys for Scheuring, who are handling most of the Kansas City-area abuse claims, credited the Supreme Court ruling with helping them reach the settlement less than a week before the case was scheduled to go to trial in Jackson County Circuit Court.

The case is the first of the 26 cases they have filed against the diocese to be settled. Those cases involve nine priests and about 40 plaintiffs.

The diocese, which agreed to pay $225,000, said in a written statement that it hoped the settlement would allow "true healing" to begin. The diocese settled another sexual abuse claim in April for $60,000.

"As people of faith, the Catholic Church deplores sexual abuse as a profound contradiction of the teaching and witness of Jesus Christ," the diocese said. "In many ways, the church is a family. When one member of a family suffers, everyone suffers."

McGlynn, who agreed to pay $2,000 of the settlement, previously denied the abuse charges through his attorney. Steve Mirakian, an attorney for McGlynn, referred questions to the diocese.

As part of the settlement, Scheuring, now 47, and his family also talked to members of the diocese about ways to prevent abuse.

Scheuring was 11 years old when he confided during confessional that a neighbor was sexually abusing him. Instead of intervening, the suit alleged that McGlynn began his own three-year affair with the boy. Meanwhile, the neighbor continued to abuse Scheuring, his attorneys said.

"He was told during that time that the abuse perpetrated upon him by the priest was the priest's way of showing the love of God," said Randles, of Kansas City. "He had been taught that the priest was God's representative here on earth and stood in the shoes of Jesus Christ and when he was abusing him he was told this was Jesus Chris who was engaging in love."

Randles' co-council, Patrick Noaker, of St. Paul, Minn., said Scheuring initially was confused when news of the Boston sexual abuse cases began breaking.

"He actually wondered, 'Why don't those guys understand they are special? They were touched by God just like me,"' Noaker said.

When Scheuring realized in 2002 that he had been abused, he attempted suicide in a bathroom filled with religious icons and was hospitalized, his attorneys said. He filed the lawsuit in 2003.

"Frank never wants any other child to go through what he went through," Randles said. "He never wants any other child to have to question whether or not there is a God, whether or not there is a supernatural being that is a loving being out there, and whether or not that love is a form of abuse."

Two other plaintiffs -- Teresa White and a woman identified only as Jane I.K. Doe -- also allege McGlynn abused them at St. Mary's Church in Independence in the 1970s when they were minors.

Deposition reveals abuse allegations against O.C. Bishop Brown

By Christine Hanley
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 14, 2007

As the Diocese of Orange's written pledge of transparency was burned to ashes by protesters outside an Orange County courthouse, a judge unsealed testimony Thursday revealing that Bishop Tod Brown had been accused of molesting a boy early in his priesthood.

The allegation was privately denied by Brown when it was lodged 10 years ago, dismissed as baseless after an internal investigation by church officials, and a short time later found not credible by police and prosecutors who looked into the complaint.

42 San Diego sex abuse cases ordered to trial

A Cardinal’s Shameless Struggle for Survival

By Jason Berry | July 18, 2007

NEW ORLEANS

THE RECORD $660 million settlement that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay victims of clergy sex abuse marks the denouement of a strange legal drama. The litigation turned into a survival struggle for Cardinal Roger Mahony.

Mahony waged an expensive fight, which he lost at every rung of the ladder, to prevent release of clergy personnel files. The documents have still not been released. In 2002, church lawyers blocked the Los Angeles district attorney’s subpoenas for files of priests targeted for criminal investigation.

As the clock ticked on statutes of limitations, several cases died. Meanwhile, as civil cases mounted, release of the disputed clergy personnel files became a core issue for survivors, who wanted the truth revealed. What is Mahony hiding?

Mahony’s personal judgment has long been suspect. Consider Father Carl Sutphin, who shared living quarters with Mahony in two cathedrals over seven years until a 2002 Los Angeles police investigation of charges that Sutphin molested two sets of brothers. Only then did the cardinal force his retirement. In 1991, Mahony had sidelined Sutphin, a classmate of his in seminary, when a Phoenix man informed the cardinal that the priest had abused him and his twin brother years earlier. Sutphin went to St. Luke Institute in Suitland, Md., for treatment after which he became chaplain in a retirement home. At the time of his suspension, Sutphin was a resident with Mahony at Our Lady of Angels Cathedral.

Consider also Monsignor Richard A. Loomis, who was for several years Mahony’s vicar of clergy, responsible for the investigation of sexual abuse allegations. After Loomis was sued civilly as an abuser himself, Mahony stood by Loomis — until a second victim came forward. One could go on, and on, with accounts of the cardinal’s support of predators and callous disregard for victims. That pattern of governance was central to the litigation.

Mahony has made public apologies, while hiding behind the argument that therapists advised him to reassign repeat offenders. How many children must a priest abuse before a cardinal deems him morally unfit? The cold print in the priests’ files is Mahony’s nightmare.
Mahony’s lawyers used a First Amendment ruse, arguing that constitutional freedom of religion cloaked a bishop’s paper trail with pedophile priests. Stiff-arming judges, plaintiff attorneys, prosecutors, and abuse survivors, Mahony was buying time to protect himself, hoping media coverage would die down.

The news behind the news now centers on Pope Benedict XVI, who used uncommonly strong language as a cardinal about priest perpetrators, saying that “filth” had crept into the clergy.

In contrast, Pope John Paul II lavished praise on the notorious Father Marcial Maciel — founder of the Legionaries of Christ, and one of the worst clergy perpetrators — even after Maciel stood charged in a Vatican court. In May 2006, Pope Benedict banished Maciel from ministry.

As Catholics, we have no power to remove a bishop who violates the trust. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as archbishop of Boston after a sex abuse scandal only after a group of brave priests publicly called for his departure. Even then, the Vatican rewarded Law by appointing him pastor of a basilica in Rome.

The Los Angeles scandal has dragged on several years. Mahony’s misconduct summons memory of Nixon in the bowels of Watergate.

By any logic of decency, Roger Mahony should stop apologizing, and take responsibility for his personal disgrace by resigning. He is unfit to be archbishop of anywhere.

Yesterday, Father Peter Lombardi, a Jesuit spokesman for the Vatican, said that the church had “decided to commit itself in every way to avoid a repetition of such wickedness” and now had a “a policy of prevention and creation of an ever more secure atmosphere for children and young people in all aspects of (its) pastoral programs.”

There can be no such policy until those who tolerate sexual crimes are themselves removed. By any logic of Catholic ethics, Roger Mahony should go.

If Pope Benedict XVI is serious about the church’s so-called policy of prevention, he should remove Mahony immediately — without a cushy post in Rome. Mahony’s ouster is years overdue.

Jason Berry is author of “Lead Us Not Into Temptation” and coauthor of “Vows of Silence,” an investigation of the Maciel case, and the subject of a forthcoming documentary film.

A 'window' for victims of abuse

Historic legislation from Sacramento allowed abuse victims to take legal action against the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

By Marci A. Hamilton, MARCI A. HAMILTON is a law professor at Yeshiva University and author of the forthcoming book "How to Deliver Us From Evil: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children." hamilton02@aol.com
July 19, 2007

WITHOUT question, the bravest souls involved in Los Angeles' $660-million clergy abuse settlement are the victims who came forward to sue the archdiocese. By now they have traversed more levels of Dante's inferno than anyone should have to experience.

But another heroic group has gone largely unrecognized — the Legislature. It is only because that body passed historic childhood sexual abuse legislation in 2002 that these lawsuits and settlement happened. That law created a one-year "window" into the legal system for claims that had been shut down by overly short statutes of limitations — as little as three years for some victims.

Indeed, in 2003, any California childhood sexual abuse victim could go to the courthouse and find that the statute-of-limitations lock had been taken off the courtroom door. And in they went — about 850 Catholic clergy abuse victims and 150 others who sued churches, the Boy Scouts and other institutions for employing known molesters. Even as the U.S. Supreme Court struck down California's window for criminal prosecutions, the window has been held open for civil lawsuits.

In the Boston Archdiocese scandal, victims faced "charitable immunity" laws that limited the amount of financial damages they could recover. Expired statutes of limitations also weakened their cases, and as a result, they received much less compensation per victim. With the statute of limitations set aside, California plaintiffs came to the justice system with much more powerful claims.

The window law is the sole reason California dioceses and members of the church hierarchy, such as L.A.'s Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, were forced to face the prospect of truth-revealing trials and substantial damages. Once other California diocese settlements came in — and showed that plaintiffs had increased legal bargaining power — victims were able to demand release of church personnel files. The church has resisted releasing such files, but lawsuits filed under the window law revealed the identities of many perpetrators and their institutional enablers.

California's window legislation has a beneficial ripple effect across the country as well. Last week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in John Doe vs. Archdiocese of Milwaukee, for the first time permitted a clergy abuse case to go forward, and it is highly likely that facts from a California case involving Father Siegfried Widera made a big difference. Widera had been transferred back and forth between Wisconsin and Southern California, and his California victims had laid out their horrific stories in court. The church hierarchy knew Widera was a convicted serial child molester and hid that fact from parishioners in both states.

California may be starting a trend toward unlocking courthouse doors for childhood sexual abuse victims. Just last week, Delaware became the first state to follow suit with a window law of its own. Its Child Victims Act creates a two-year window to file suits and abolishes the civil statutes of limitations on sexual abuse cases going forward. The New York Assembly has passed similar legislation, hearings have been held by the District of Columbia City Council, and the introduction of window bills is likely in a number of states this fall.

The beneficiaries of such bills extend well beyond clergy abuse victims, and the statistics are sobering. Multiple studies have concluded that at least 20% of boys and 25% of girls have been sexually abused — the majority by family or family acquaintances. There is a crying need to give these victims a shot at justice. One incest victim told me that she didn't come to terms with her abuse until her 40s, and when she did, she told her father she was going to sue him. His response? Don't be silly — I have the benefit of the statute of limitations. This is a woman who deserves the California-type window, and there are millions like her across the country.

It is shameful that most states have had such short statutes of limitations on childhood sexual abuse. Even though states, including California, have been lengthening those limits, that doesn't help past victims whose claims have expired. These victims have been foreclosed from justice while predators enjoy a system that protects their interests first and foremost. California has shown the rest of the country a more heroic and noble path to follow.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Following a weekend of behind-the-scenes negotiations and a public apology, Cardinal Roger Mahony, leader of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, is due in court today to formalize a record $660 million legal settlement.

"It should not have happened, and should not ever happen again," Cardinal Roger Mahony said Sunday.

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Mahony is expected to personally attend a hearing before Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholtz.

He will be joined by attorneys for the archdiocese and lawyers for some of the approximately 500 people who claim they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests.

The settlement ends more than five years of litigation. It is by far the Roman Catholic Church's largest payout since the clergy abuse scandal first arose in Boston in 2002.

Mahony apologized Sunday to the plaintiffs, who claim to have been sexually abused by archdiocese priests. He acknowledged that the settlement will not buy back their childhood.

"There really is no way to go back and give them the innocence that was taken from them ... The one thing I wish I could give the victims, I cannot -- and that is a restoration to where they were originally," Mahony, who leads the largest U.S. archdiocese, told reporters.

"It should not have happened, and should not ever happen again," he said.

Church Scandal

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Jury selection had been scheduled to begin Monday for the first of more than a dozen clergy abuse trials, and Mahony was to have been among the first witnesses called. Mahony had met with many of the plaintiffs in sessions he said had "an enormous impact on me."

Steve Sanchez, one of the plaintiffs, said he was disappointed his case will not be heard in court.

"Whether you give me a check for $10 or $10,000, where can I take that check and cash it at some place to make me 10 years old again?" he told CNN.

Sanchez, a member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the settlement should have come years earlier.

"The cardinal's dragged this on for a good five or six years now," he said. "Where we are at today or tomorrow with this settlement, could we have been here four, five or six years ago? Yes, we could have been if the cardinal had been outright and come forward and settled all these claims."

Esther Miller, another alleged victim, said the payout is "just the beginning of a different fork in the road."

"It doesn't mean I'm fixed ... It just means I will be able to pay for some of the treatments I should have gotten long ago," she said as she fought back tears. Watch what some plaintiffs have to say about the settlement »

Raymond Boucher, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the settlement, which involves 508 alleged victims, is expected to be finalized Monday morning.

About $227 million of the $660 settlement will be covered by insurance, Mahony said. Another $60 million will come from Catholic religious orders named in the complaints.

The archdiocese will have to sell some property and borrow money to pay its share, the cardinal said. But the deal "effectively ends all of the litigation involving the Archdiocese of Los Angeles," he said.

As part of the settlement process, the Los Angeles archdiocese released documents that showed a pattern of denial: Priests accused of sexual misconduct took sick leave, were sent to therapy or transferred to other parishes, and most were allowed to continue in the ministry for years after the first accusations.

Mahony said "almost all" of the priests or brothers involved were eventually convicted of crimes, and most of the cases took place before he became the archbishop of Los Angeles in 1985. Some of the cases date back to the 1940s.

Mahony acknowledged that not everyone would be satisfied, but he said the complaints have led to reforms within the church and efforts to protect young parishioners from sexual abuse.

"Even though I can't restore what was lost, there is good that has come out of this," he said. E-mail to a friend

All About The Roman Catholic Church

June 21, 2007

Court allows release of clergy personnel files
The ruling states that protecting children from abuse outweighs a priest's right to privacy.

By John Spano and Greg Krikorian,
LA Times Staff Writers
June 19, 2007

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-priest19jun19,1,7242689.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california&ctrack=1&cset=true

A judge ruled Monday that confidential personnel files on Roman Catholic clergy accused of molesting children can be made public even if the clerics were never charged with a crime and legal claims against them were not proven.

"The rights of privacy must give way to the state's interest in protecting its children from sexual abuse," Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter D. Lichtman said in his 22-page ruling.

The decision concerns a small number of Franciscan friars, who will have an opportunity to object to disclosure of specific documents before the files are opened.

Nevertheless, the ruling could have dramatic ramifications on more than 500 legal claims pending against the Los Angeles Archdiocese, which is accused of failing to protect parishioners from sexual victimization over the last 60 years.

In Los Angeles, lawyers spent years trying to negotiate a settlement, estimated to be as much as $1 billion, without success. The first trials are set to begin in July.

Now, the church is also facing possible disclosure of how it handled abuse complaints.

"I think it's very significant," John C. Manly, an attorney who represents plaintiffs in Los Angeles and Orange counties, said of Lichtman's ruling.

"This sends a message … that if you engage in the concealment of child sexual abuses, you will not only pay for your misdeeds but the public at large will be able to see what you did," Manly said.

J. Michael Hennigan, lawyer for Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and the L.A. Archdiocese, declined to comment, saying he had not seen the ruling. Donald Steier, who represents many accused priests in Los Angeles, also declined comment.

Robert G. Howie, an attorney for the friars, said the ruling misinterpreted California law on privacy rights, which he said were stronger than in other states.

"You've got officials in Washington who want to do everything they can do to prevent another 9/11. Does that mean they can conduct wiretaps whenever they want to?" Howie asked.

But 1st Amendment lawyers praised the judge's decision.

"The court properly balanced the constitutional right to privacy against the right of the public to protect its children and safeguard itself against future harm, and it found that the public's right to know overwhelmingly won out," said Tom Newton, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Assn.

The ruling came in the cases of 10 current and former Franciscans who were accused of fondling, masturbating, orally copulating and sodomizing boys and girls for 30 years starting in the 1950s.

Most of the allegations arose at St. Anthony's Seminary in Santa Barbara, which closed in 1987.

The church in March 2006 agreed to pay more than $28 million to 25 accusers. The victims asked Lichtman to release the files.

Lawyers for the Franciscan friars objected, contending that because the claims had been settled, Lichtman had no authority to order the files opened. In 2005, Lichtman released more than 10,000 pages from the personnel files of 15 priests and teachers as part of a court-approved $100-million settlement between the Diocese of Orange and 90 alleged molestation victims.

But the judge said at the time that he was "powerless" to pry open files on eight other priests and teachers who objected because the lawsuits had been settled.

On Monday, however, in a 22-page ruling, Lichtman stated flatly that California's "compelling interest in protecting children from harm is present regardless of the stage of the litigation."

"To answer any of the above questions in the affirmative would be to punish the alleged victims for seeking an early resolution of the cases and needlessly prolong matters through trial," Lichtman ruled. "It would provide the alleged perpetrators and enablers with a safe haven for settlement. The defendants' conduct would be forever hidden and safe from scrutiny."

Lichtman noted that all of the priests whose dossiers were in question had admitted abuse or "show[n] dangerous propensities toward youth."

Lichtman cited Franklyn Becker, a friar accused of multiple molestations. "In sworn testimony, Becker testified about his attraction to boys, his interest in the Man-Boy Love Association, his leanings toward being attracted to post pubescent boys, and that he gave names of people to the Archdiocese that might come forward with allegations," Lichtman wrote.

Lichtman also said that, according to sworn testimony provided by the plaintiffs, Santa Barbara had one of the highest per-capita concentrations of clergy pedophiles in the history of clergy abuse cases in the United States, with 41 clergy accused of assaulting 76 children.

The opinion gives victims "a tremendously strong argument, thanks to Judge Lichtman," said Timothy C. Hale, who argued the case for the accusers of the Franciscans.

"Often, it comes down to one simple choice: do we safeguard the reputations of one powerful adult or the well-being of many powerless kids," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "The judge made the right call."

john.spano@latimes.com
greg.krikorian@latimes.com

Copyright © 2007 Los Angeles Times