Boston Church Rejects Deal in Abuse Cases
Catholic archdiocese overturns Law's request to OK deal with victims
Originally published by MSNBC and News Services, May 3, 2002
BOSTON — The Archdiocese of Boston abruptly backed out of its settlement agreement with 86 victims of defrocked priest John Geoghan, saying the deal would strip the archdiocese of resources. The decision by the archdiocese's Finance Council was the first time a direct recommendation from Cardinal Bernard Law had been rejected since he came to Boston 18 years ago.
The archdiocese's decision came as another former Boston priest, the Rev. Paul Shanley, appeared in court in California. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.
The Council effectively scuttled the agreement, estimated to be worth $15 million to $30 million, by voting not to fund it, NBC affiliate WHDH-TV reported.
Both Law and Wilson Rogers, the archdiocese's legal counsel, had asked the council to approve the deal, saying all parties had agreed to it in good faith. But the members of the finance committee believed the settlement "would consume substantially all of the resources of the Archdiocese that can reasonably be made available," according to a statement from the archdiocese.
"Such an action would leave the Archdiocese unable to provide a just and proportional response to other victims," the statement said.
Instead, the council's members said Law should "develop a mechanism which will provide all necessary counseling for the victims and their families," David W. Smith, the archdiocese's chancellor, said in the statement.
They also advised him to come up with "a non-litigious global assistance fund" for all victims. That fund should not be so big that it would cripple the archdiocese and its mission, the council said.
"That's our professed hope, that there will be fairness and equity overall," said Regina Gaines, an administrator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who serves on the council.
"It's just such a never-ending situation," Gaines told The Associated Press. "One wonders about just making sure everyone is treated fairly and equitably."
BOTH SIDES DISAPPOINTED
Law expressed regret about the vote, since the council had previously expressed a desire to see the settlement go forward, Smith said.
"He lives and we all live with the painful truth that in this crisis there is no easy answer," Smith said.
Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney for some of Geoghan's alleged victims, said he had been reassured that the settlement would go forward and that the finance committee had only an advisory role.
"This is a disgrace. Are these people inhuman?" said Garabedian, who called the decision "a revictimization of these poor souls."
Jeffrey Newman, an attorney for more than 100 victims of abusive priests, told The Boston Herald that he also was dismayed.
"I am unsure at this stage as to how I could enter into any serious discussions with the Archdiocese of Boston on behalf of any of my victims given the fact that it agreed to a very important settlement and is now withdrawing that," Newman said, according to a report on the Herald's Web site.
"I'll have to advise my clients to treat their offers accordingly," he said. "The archdiocese is not making adequate efforts to resolve the legitimate claims by obtaining contributions, mortgaging its properties and seeking loans from the Vatican."
The archdiocese and Geoghan's victims reached the settlement March 11 after 11 months of negotiations.
The Boston archdiocese has already paid an estimated $15 million to 40 alleged victims of Geoghan since the mid-1990s, and it faces dozens more claims and hundreds of new allegations against Geoghan and other priests.
The scandal in the Boston archdiocese gained national attention in January when Geoghan was convicted of indecent assault and battery of a child.
Records show that officials in the archdiocese had shuttled both Geoghan and the Rev. Paul Shanley, who faces charges of raping a boy, from parish to parish despite repeated allegations against them.
PERMANENT DAMAGE TO CHURCH
Geoghan and Shanley have been at the center of the Boston church abuse scandal, which spurred other accusations and allegations against priests nationwide, sparked a crisis in confidence in Roman Catholic Church leaders over their handling of sexual abuse allegations, and led to an extraordinary gathering of U.S. cardinals at the Vatican last month. Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift signed a new law Friday that requires clergy to report cases of suspected abuse to state social workers.
The scandal has also tarnished Law, who has faced increasing criticism since documents in Shanley's personnel files were made public.
"Cardinal Law has not had a few good months," said Patrick Scully, chief spokesman for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. "… It's a P.R. nightmare."
Scully said in an interview with MSNBC Cable that Catholic leaders' slow response to the burgeoning scandal could do permanent damage to the church in the United States. "It's time to get on the same page," he said.
"If you wanted to write a book on how not to handle a crisis, you could have been taking notes in Boston," Scully told MSNBC News' Dan Abrams.
FIRST CASE AGAINST PRIEST
Shanley, meanwhile, surrendered Thursday at an apartment in San Diego and agreed Friday to return to Massachusetts to face three counts of raping a child during the 1980s. He could face life in prison if convicted.
The Middlesex County district attorney's office got information on the allegations against Shanley this week from the alleged victim, a man of 24 who was a boy of 6 when the alleged rapes began, District Attorney Martha Coakley said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. The district attorney's office does not release the name of alleged rape victims.
Coakley said Shanley took one or another boy out of his religious instruction classes at St. Jean Parish in Newton almost every week and took him to the bathroom, across the street to the rectory or to the confessional to abuse him. Shanley also has been sued by Gregory Ford, 24, and Ford's parents, who claim Shanley repeatedly raped Ford when he was a child.
MacLeish, who is representing four of Shanley's accusers in civil cases, said, "This man was a monster in the Archdiocese of Boston for many, many years."
Documents released in connection with the civil suits show that archdiocese officials had received reports of Shanley's attendance at a 1979 meeting in Boston at which the North American Man Boy Love Association was apparently created. And, despite receiving dozens of allegations of abuse, officials did not warn a California diocese when Shanley moved there in 1990. The documents show the archdiocese's knowledge of allegations against Shanley extend as far back as 1967.
The abuse alleged in the criminal case began months before Shanley was promoted from administrator of the parish to pastor.
"I am confident that you will have a zealous and fruitful ministry in your new appointment," Law wrote Shanley in announcing the promotion in December 1984.
