Ray, a very thoughtful post. Thanks for sharing it.
Permit a small clarification. The suit was not against the Catholic Church but against the Bishop and Archbishop, much like the Circuit Overseer and District Overseer. They were charged with failing to act on the information they received. Interesting. There was insufficient evidence for authorities to file criminal charges, but that did not stop church officials from doing something positive anyway. The terms you note are either in place or under development in various dioceses around the country.
The Society's settlements always incorporate a gag order. That's why you don't hear about those cases. They pay up to $150,000 for that privilege, and they set their own favorable terms.
I wonder how much the Society would be willing to pay to settle the Berry case? The lawsuits cherry tree is full of fruit, ripe for shaking ....
Here's another article on the incident:
http://www.msnbc.com/local/knbc/nbc5vioinqc.asp
Snippets:
Under the settlement providing for payment, the church also will implement a program of action against priests and other church employees alleged to be molesters, according to the attorneys and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The $5.2 million settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by Ryan DiMaria of Laguna Hills against the Bishop of Orange and the Archbishop of Los Angeles, alleging that as a 17-year-old he was molested in 1991 by Monsignor Michael A. Harris, then principal at Santa Margarita High School in the southern Orange County community of Rancho Santa Margarita.
Kathy Freberg, the attorney for DiMaria, said the church has agreed to pay her client $5.2 million -- "the largest pretrial settlement of any Catholic priest molestation case in the United States."
Under the settlement, Harris agreed to ask the Vatican to remove him from the priesthood, Freberg said.
But despite his reported agreement to leave the church, Harris continued to deny he molested anyone and said in a statement that church leaders agreed to settle the case for "their own business reasons."
One senior cleric, Bishop Tod D. Brown, head of the Diocese of Orange, effectively derided Harris's denial of involvement.
"Although Michael Harris continues to deny any wrongdoing, the Diocese of Orange has grave doubts about his innocence in these matters, taking into consideration the number of complaints made against him, the similarity of those complaints and the apparent sincerity of the persons making these statements," Brown said in a statement.
He expressed "profound sorrow" over the ordeal experienced by Harris's accusers, who he said had been courageous to come forward.
"In a lawsuit brought by Ryan DiMaria against the Roman Catholic Bishop of Orange, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles and Michael Harris, it has been stated that in 1980, a priest of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was informed of but failed to act upon information that Father Harris had sexually abused a student in the late 1970s while he was principal of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana.
"Sexual abuse is a serious sin. It devastates its victims physically, emotionally and spiritually. It also erodes the confidence the faithful place in their pastoral leaders. Such activity simply will not be tolerated in our church."
Freberg said the church has agreed to issue apologies to DiMaria, to three other victims, and to the mother of a victim who is now deceased, and to send letters to all Catholic organizations in Orange and Los Angeles counties informing parishioners of the allegations.
The district attorney's office reviewed DiMaria's accusations last year but found insufficient evidence to file criminal charges.
A settlement between DiMaria and church authorities was reached nonetheless. "The evidence in our case was so strong," Freberg said, adding that lawyers uncovered documents and four other victims who said they were molested between 1977 and 1983.
"They have come forward and acted as witnesses in our case," she said.
Slated to receive apologies are David A. Price, who says Harris molested him at Mater Dei between 1979 and 1983 and who is pursuing his own suit against church authorities; Lenora Colice, whose son, the late Vincent Colice, said he was molested from 1977 to 1979 while a Mater Dei student; former Mater Dei student Mark Curran, who alleged Harris molested him in 1979; and Larry Raheb, who said he was molested by Harris while seeking his spiritual counsel in 1979.
Freberg said DiMaria suffered "emotional trauma and pain and went into a tailspin in 1991" after Harris molested him. He now is finishing law school and plans to specialize in taxes, she said.
Harris no longer says Mass or works as a school principal, but he is still called "father" or "monsignor" and wears a priests' collar, she said.
"We wanted to take away the key he used to gain the trust of his victims and molest them," she said. "The goal is to get his collar removed."
During a settlement meeting, she said, "we demanded that he request to be defrocked."
"At the end of the day, after kicking and screaming, he agreed to the request," Freberg said. "The bishop will file papers with the Vatican so it can issue a decree."
The paperwork should be submitted about Sept. 15 and the process should take about two months, she said, adding that, unless he was formally defrocked, Harris could be a priest in another country.
The statement by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles cited 11 points in the agreement with DiMaria "which are already in place or under development by the Archdiocese." These included:
- Removal of priests who molest children
- The establishment of an 800 number and a Web site to allow for child-abuse complaints to be submitted anonymously
- The distribution of an informational pamphlet on sexual abuse;
- The reporting of child sexual abuse to the archbishop
- A no-fraternization policy
- Assistance to sexual-abuse victims
- A procedure under which clergy will sign an agreement to be bound by the provisions of the "Archdiocesan Policy on Sexual Abuse by Clergy."
- The reporting to civil authorities of child sexual abuse by clergy
- Check-and-balance procedures involving reviews of Catholic school principals
- The introduction of an exit-interview procedure for use with seminarians who leave prior to ordination
- The maintenance of personnel files, each of which will include information on where additional data about an employee may be obtained.
Harris, known as "Father Hollywood" in Orange County because of his charisma and good looks, stepped down as principal of Santa Margarita High School in October 1994, citing stress.
Weeks later, he spent four days at St. Luke's Institute in Maryland, the Catholic Church's medical treatment center for troubled priests. Church doctors recommended that he be admitted for in-patient treatment and have no unsupervised contact with minors, according to court records cited by the Los Angeles Times.
Doctors offered a psychiatric diagnosis, records show, finding that Harris was sexually attracted to adolescent boys.
"Our clinical team believes that there is substance to the allegations," the institute report said, according to The Times.
"It has been our experience that in many cases like these, the allegations that have surfaced are only a few of the actual incidents of abuse that have occurred."
Maximus
