Posted on 07/15/2007 4:43:11 AM PDT by Gurn
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will settle its clergy abuse cases for at least $600 million, by far the largest payout in the church's sexual abuse scandal, The Associated Press learned Saturday.
Attorneys for the archdiocese and alleged victims are expected to announce the deal Monday, the day the first of more than 500 clergy abuse cases was scheduled for jury selection, according to two people with knowledge of the agreement. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the settlement had not been made public.
The archdiocese and its insurers will pay between $600 million and $650 million to about 500 plaintiffs—an average of $1.2 to $1.3 million per person. The settlement also calls for the release of confidential priest personnel files after review by a judge assigned to oversee the litigation, the sources said.
It wasn't immediately clear how the payout would be split between the insurers, the archdiocese and several Roman Catholic religious orders. A judge must sign off on the agreement, and final details were being ironed out over the weekend.
Tod Tamberg, an archdiocese spokesman, did not immediately return a call for comment.
The settlement would be the largest ever by a Roman Catholic archdiocese since the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002.
Among the largest total payouts was $100 million in 2004 by the Diocese of Orange, Calif., to settle 90 claims. The Diocese of Covington, Ky., last year agreed to pay $84 million for 552 cases. Facing a flood of abuse claims, five dioceses—Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Davenport, Iowa, and San Diego—sought bankruptcy protection.
Last month, the Archdiocese of Portland agreed to pay about $52 million to 175 victims, while setting aside another $20 million for anyone who comes forward in the future.
The Diocese of Spokane, Wash., also recently emerged from bankruptcy protection after agreeing to pay $48 million to settle about 150 claims.
speechless.
There may be more to this than meets the eye. Another generation and the Southwest diocese(s) will be subsumed under Mexico City again, as they were originally.
Outright theft.
In most of the cases, I agree.
FYI.
“Outright theft.”
Huh?? The only unresolved outrage is that the church hierarchy gets off scot free regarding CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY amongst the bishops. Decades, and perhaps centuries, of shuffling unreformed pedophiles from parish to parish on a global scale.
Just about posted this. Glad I did a search.
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Please post to this thread -- not the duplicate one on the Religion Forum. Perhaps we can then get this transferred to the Religion Forun.
This diocese ponied up because Mahoney does not want his true level of involvement revealed. Los Angeles is barely recognizable as a Catholic Archdiocese due to Mahoney. This reflects on the cardinal, not the Church.
Absolutely more abuses in the public schools!
**This reflects on the cardinal, not the Church.**
This is so true.
I wonder how many homeless could have been fed with that money. Throw in the cost of the taj Mahony and there’s over a BILLION dollars the LA Diocese has incurred in the name of “progressive” attitudes and liberalism.
Huh?
And every Catholic gets slammed for it
At one level you get aberrant sexual behavior and at another the desire to build monuments in stone and glass .The priests of the Israelites were not celibate and barred from marriage;there is no scriptural reason for the priests of the Church to be so. The men who run the Church will have much to beg mercy for from the One who established it.
**It is my thought that men not allowed to have wives and families look for other ways to satify their desires.**
Think about this.
There are more incidencts of sexual abuse and molestation among teachers than among Catholic clergy.
You only hear about the Catholics because the media hates the Catholic Church.
Likewise they love the NEA and teachers and would never bring such a story out into the light of the people’s eyes through their media outlets.
Just think about it.
Well, duh, since there are 1000 teachers for every priest. But teachers aren't hired for being spiritually upstanding. You can make all the excuses you want, but at some point you have to admit the Catholic church has lost it's way. Most Catholics voted for Clinton. I'm happy to see the conservative Catholics on FreeRepublic, but the majority of Catholics are liberals.
I agree regarding the NEA vs the Church. However, there’s one big difference, according to media reports, at least. When teachers do it, it’s sex; with the Church it’s abuse. That tells the tale.
“Well, duh, since there are 1000 teachers for every priest. But teachers aren’t hired for being spiritually upstanding. You can make all the excuses you want, but at some point you have to admit the Catholic church has lost it’s way. Most Catholics voted for Clinton. I’m happy to see the conservative Catholics on FreeRepublic, but the majority of Catholics are liberals.”
Yes. But we’re not talking about sheer numbers. The instances of abuse are far greater *per capita*. In fact, Public Education is much higher than society at large, which is higher per capita than clerical sexual abuse. As far as your comment about teachers not being hired to be spiritually upstanding, that cannot ever be true. We are entrusted with the children of other families just like a priest is. There is no excuse...none...for a teacher to sexually abuse a child. The fact that no one asks us if we are “moral” when we are hired is irrelevent.
What I meant to say (and I’m not sure that I did it well), was that sexual abuse in the church -across all denominations - is lower (per capita) than society at large. And furthermore, society at large has a smaller level of sexual abuse per capita than public education (taken as an institution).
The percentage of pedophiles among priests is no greater that other segments of society such as teachers, law enforcement or Protestant ministers for that matter.
Sinners are everywhere. Sinners will be the ones who "beg for mercy"
Ping for reading this afternoon.
Well, lawyers have to eat too. Assuming pro bono fees of 30%, that will tide them over with a tidy $180,000,000.
What man desiring a wife goes into the Catholic priesthood to begin with ?
It's not as if he "discovers", after ordination, that he won't be allowed to have a wife, lover, etc.
.
Yeah!
That protestant guy, Ted Haggard from Colorado. If only he was married then he wouldn’t have gone after that guy. Jimmy Swaggart, too, if only he was married; and Jim Baker....
OH! they were ALL married????
This really makes me feel good when I put the envelope in the basket at church.
I think I might have been touched improperly once as an altar boy.
A thoughtful reminder as to what to place in the dish during mass.
No matter what you do it's going to cost you to attorneys and government.
Thanks, now I know what hyperbole means!
Strange that money can make the participants feel better.
Obviously nothing ever happened. This is just a nusiance value settlement. If anything had really happened, if priests had REALLY molested children, then I bet the settlement would have been something like $665,000,000 instead of a paltry $660,000,000.
How about the theft of innocence? What is that worth?
I think it is very possible in a majority of these cases nothing “happened.”
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**I think it is very possible in a majority of these cases nothing “happened.”**
Definitely true in many cases. I know of at least two in mine. (Priests I know persoanlly, no less!)
Two falsely accused?
Yes, two falsely accused. One is totally cleared, the other is in the civil process at this time, and that is all I can say right now.
This is the wrong kind of CAPITAL punishment.
This doesn’t hurt the perpetrators, only the loyal congregants.
And the attorneys get a huge cut of this bonanza.
And every Catholic gets slammed for it
That’s the goal of homosexuals and leftists being led to infiltrate the Church.
If you weren’t allowed to marry or otherwise satisfy your urges, would you resort to molesting children or engage in a homosexual relationship?
If your answer is no, then why are you using that line of reasoning with this matter?
Sex abuse by public school teachers is much higher per capita than by any priest/pastor/deacon in any confession.
But there are no ways to track it in public schools. There was a teacher that was having an affair with a student at my old high school, and when he was caught he just jumped the border to another state and the records didn’t follow him.
He has done that at least twice since then, but by law the local school boards can’t reveal his record to the new school.
They sent one of the worst to the small town where I grew up (San Andreas, CA) to “get him out of the way”. Thank God I was Protestant during my youth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_O%27Grady
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Cardinal_Mahony
Ever watch that to catch a predator on dateline? Many different men from all walks of life and career. But with the latest child murder, that little 12 year old girl who was kidnapped and taken away in a gray van by a child molester,when will the American people take a stand to fight for the protection of our children. If only our emotions could go the way of how we fought against illegal immigration reform.
ANd I expect that a lot of ALL abuse cases settled for money are more about the money than the abuse.
Amen.
Don’t you just love tithing to a church that will use it to pay off Sex Offense fines?
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