Posted on 09/07/2007 9:41:43 PM PDT by kellynla
SAN DIEGO -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego said Friday it has agreed to pay $198.1 million to settle 144 claims of sexual abuse by clergy, the second-largest payment by a diocese. The agreement caps more than four years of negotiations in state and federal courts.
Earlier this year, the diocese abruptly filed for bankruptcy protection just hours before trial was scheduled to begin on 42 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse. Bankruptcy could shield the diocese's assets, but a judge recently threatened to throw out the bankruptcy case if church officials didn't reach an agreement with the plaintiffs.
The San Diego diocese initially offered about $95 million to settle the claims. The victims were seeking about $200 million.
"The diocese has always been committed to resolving this litigation in a way that fairly compensates these victims of abuse and would still preserve the ongoing ministries and programs of the church," Bishop Robert Brom said in a press release Friday.
"We pray that this settlement will bring some closure and healing to the years of suffering experienced by these victims."
In the largest payment yet in the scandal, the Los Angeles Archdiocese settled 508 cases for $660 million in July, two days before jury selection was scheduled to begin in the first of 15 trials involving 172 abuse claimants there.
The Diocese of Orange agreed in 2004 to settle 90 claims for $100 million after a judge promised to set trial dates and begin the discovery process if settlement talks collapsed. Bishop Tod D. Brown later said he couldn't risk a trial in a state where a jury once awarded $30 million to two people who claimed they were sexually abused by clergy.
The Diocese of San Diego, with nearly 1 million Catholics and holdings throughout San Diego County, is by far the largest and wealthiest of the five U.S. dioceses to have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under the shadow of civil claims over sexual abuse.
Dioceses in Spokane, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Tucson, Ariz., have already emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Davenport, Iowa, diocese, which faces claims from more than 150 people, is still in proceedings.
Sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests has cost the U.S. church at least $2.3 billion since 1950.
Whatever the vetting process was for the priesthood; it wasn't working.
ping
I would think the warning from Jesus about harming children would work.
So, a church that forces all it’s preachers into a life of poverty has 198 mill to cover its lawsuits … but millions go hungry.
Some giant millstones waiting for the necks of those priests, eh?
With all these multi-hundreds of million dollars settlements, when does the entire church go bankrupt?
What is it about being Catholic, gay, and in a position of power that means you can molest children?
Yea, well all I can say is that if any of these POS had ever touched a kid in my Irish Catholic neighborhood when I was growing up; the only question we would want answered from the Church is “where do you want the body?”
I heard John Walsh from “America’s Most Wanted” on Glenn Beck’s program say tonight
“the Justice Department said there`s 690,000 convicted sex offenders in the United States. Those are the convicted ones; 100,000 of them are in noncompliance.”
Where do we put them all...
These MFers are getting hit where it counts. Thankfully, the GOOD people inside of the Church will stand up and chase the politicians and pederasts out.
Nice try. The “preachers” could be all the members of the church, the Holy representatives ordained to administer the sacraments the are called Priests.
The Catholic church is one of the (if not the largest) agencies for NON DENOMONATIONAL sponsors of adoption in the world. Their food, education, and literacy projects are also some of the largest (by DOLLAR volume) in the world.
Yes the U.S. branch of the Catholic Church has many problems related to their selection and training of priests... and most of that comes from homosexuals getting into the positions of power in the U.S. Catholic Seminaries.
Several years ago there were many great articles posted on that subject on FR. A lot of the problems with homosexuals are being dealt with by forced retirement or removal from positions of public contact.
I think you malign Catholics in your statement. Just because some Catholic priests made some mistakes does not mean that the entire Catholic Church is wrong.
How about teachers who abuse children? Much worse there than among clergy. Just because some teachers abuse children does not mean that all teachers are evil.
You can say the say about any profession. So please don’t generalize.
“when does the entire church go bankrupt?”
I think the Catholic Church has a lot of money and valuables and the money has been earning a lot of interest for centuries.
The Church would probably not go bankrupt, but the individual parish might diocese might suffer some tough times.
"preachers?" they're called priests...and no one is “forced” into a life of poverty and the Catholic Church which has been supported financially by good practicing Catholics like me for more than 2000 years has been the most benevolent religion in the history of the world. BTW, what anti-Catholic group do you belong to?
I suggest you educate yourself about the history of the Catholic Church before you come on one of my threads and “break wind.” In the meantime, keep your bigoted remarks to yourself and let people think you a fool than post them and remove all doubt.
The IQ level drops by the minute ‘round here
Glad you mentioned it.
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Salvation, we still continue to see these incredible settlements for what appears to have been (perhaps “is now”) a huge number of problem priests, primarily homosexual in their inclinations.
I don’t see this type of thing regularly happening elsewhere.
My generalization was specific to the homosexuals who seem to have leadership authority to abuse it on kids to the extent that we see dozens of huge settlements. I don’t understand what brings so many homosexuals to the Catholic faith and I don’t understand how these homosexuals get in such positions of power, when the vetting process seems to be many years.
Can you give a good explanation?
Just bulldoze a big trench and dump their sorry a$$e$ in it
I think you malign Catholics in your statement. Just because some Catholic priests made some mistakes does not mean that the entire Catholic Church is wrong.
The so-called priest maligned themselves. The big dogs of Catholic leadership facilitated the whole mess. Now they are paying the price in credibility and cash. Catholic members are expected to contribute their kids and money to keep the creeps in power. Yes, the entire Catholic church is wrong.
Meanwhile Ehel; Uncle Sam pushes Queerdom where ever it can. Don’t look Ethel.
About the wealth of the American Church, it is probably less than that of the collective wealth of the congregations of the Southern Baptist Convention and has many more social obligations. My guess is that the Mormons are probably the wealthiest faith community in the United States.
That is not happening. You are speaking in generalities. Yes, there were some unethical bishops. But not all of them were doing this.
The entire church is not evil, although a lot of non-Catholics would like to believe that.
As I said above there is much more sexual abuse percentage wise in the public schools. Yet not all the schools are bad.
Likewise, you cannot make a blanket statement that all priests and all bishops and all in the Catholic church (or any other church — becuase sexual abuse goes on there, too.) are evil.
The reason the media has this out there is to discredit the Catholic Church. Do you see the articles about the Protestant sex abusers? No, but they are there. Not all ministers are bad just because a few have made mistakes.
Can you see the picture clearly or might there be a log in your eye?
Congratulations! You are behaving like Democrats.
I am Catholic. I have never known any Priest that has assaulted a child and I am not aware of any child who has been assaulted. Because a few Catholic Priests do awful things, Freepers are now going to trash the entire religion.
I have heard of other religions having Priests/Ministers behaving badly. Yet, only Catholics make the headlines. I am stunned that Freepers are making personal attacks against the Church.
Over and out. This has become a site for bigots instead of open-minded people.
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