San Diego diocese to pay $198 million to settle 144 abuse claims

[DSM4Life]

The Roman Catholic diocese of San Diego agreed Friday to pay $198 million to settle 144 claims of sexual abuse by clergy, the second-largest payment since the U.S. abuse scandal erupted in 2002.

The agreement capped more than four years of negotiations in state and federal courts. It came six months after the diocese filed for bankruptcy protection just hours before the first of 42 lawsuits was scheduled for trial.

Victims expressed relief that a settlement was reached, but they were angry it took so long.

''They knew all along that I'd been molested, so to put me through this is unconscionable,'' said Michael Bang of Atlanta.

The diocese had sought to protect its assets in bankruptcy court, but quickly found it a rough venue before a judge who criticized the church for its bookkeeping practices, undervaluing its real estate holdings, and failing to disclose facts.

U.S. bankruptcy judge Louise DeCarl Adler recently threatened to dismiss the case if an agreement with sex-abuse plaintiffs was not struck by Tuesday.

The settlement was more than twice the $95 million the church offered to pay to settle the claims as part of its bankruptcy reorganization plan and close to the $200 million sought by victims.

Bishop Robert Brom said in a press release that the church had wanted to settle the lawsuits fairly while also maintaining church programs and services.

''We pray that this settlement will bring some closure and healing to the years of suffering experienced by these victims,'' Brom said.

The bishop apologized to victims at a news conference.

''I'm very, very sorry for the suffering we have caused them and I pray they will walk with God for a renewed life,'' he said.

The San Diego diocese will pay $153 million to settle 111 cases involving its own clergy and $30 million for 22 cases involving members of Catholic orders, church officials said.

The Diocese of San Bernardino, a defendant in some of the cases, will pay $15 million to settle the other 11 claims, all for abuse that occurred after 1978, when San Bernardino split from the San Diego diocese.

''We hope the resolution of these cases will bring a measure of peace and, we hope, a degree of healing and closure for the victims,'' said the Reverend Howard Lincoln, a spokesman for the San Bernardino diocese.

The settlement averages about $1.4 million per claimant, which is slightly higher than what plaintiffs received in other California settlements.

''We shouldn't have had to go through all this,'' said Betty Schneider, 62, of Temecula, who claimed she was molested when she was a 10-year-old and a member of her church choir. ''I have grandkids the same age I was and I hope all this helps kids to be protected better than we were protected.''

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.

The Diocese of Orange agreed to settle 90 claims for $100 million in 2004 after a judge promised to set trial dates and begin the discovery process if settlement talks collapsed. Bishop Tod D. Brown later said he could not risk a trial in a state where a jury once awarded $30 million to two people who claimed they were sexually abused by clergy.

With nearly 1 million Catholics and holdings throughout San Diego County, the diocese is by far the biggest and wealthiest of the five U.S. dioceses that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under the shadow of civil claims over sexual abuse.

Dioceses in Spokane, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; and Tucson have already emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Davenport, Iowa, diocese, which faces claims from more than 150 people, is still in proceedings. (AP)

[Teabagger]

Hopefully this sad chapter in the Church history will pass and the Church will reinstate the former policy it knew was right....no homosexual priests.

[bpm1]

sad sad sad, the things that have been done in the name/guise of religion.

[BgMc31]

Hopefully this sad chapter in the Church history will pass and the Church will reinstate the former policy it knew was right....no homosexual priests.

Thats a ridiculous statement considering many women have been molested by the Church as well. There is a difference between a pedophile and a homosexual.

[Tock]

Hopefully this sad chapter in the Church history will pass and the Church will reinstate the former policy it knew was right....no homosexual priests.

IMHO, there's nothing wrong with gay priests. They're the ones who stick with sex with adults.

What's not cool are the priests who take advantage of children. And there's a BIG difference between the two groups. One group is gays, the other group is pederasts.

And I will thank you to remember the difference.

[Tock]

The diocese had sought to protect its assets in bankruptcy court, but quickly found it a rough venue before a judge who criticized the church for its bookkeeping practices, undervaluing its real estate holdings, and failing to disclose facts.

Oddly enough, the Ten Commandments do not explicitly prohibit lying, or telling untruths. However, one would suppose that since the Catholic Church holds itself to be a beacon of moral goodness, and an exemplar of all that is Good about God, that it would know that it should not lie, especially in a court of law.

Evidently, it does not. Its leaders are quite willing to lie.

Tsk tsk tsk.

---------------------------
http://www.tencommandments.org/

Then God spoke all these words, saying,

2 "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the

land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3"You shall have no other gods besides Me.

4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any like-

ness of what is in heaven above or on earth beneath or

in the water under the earth.

5 "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the

Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity

of the fathers on the children, on the third and the four

fourth generations of those who hate Me,

6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those

who love Me and keep My commandments.

7 "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in

vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who

takes His name in vain.

8 "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 "Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God;

in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or

your daughter, your male servant or your female

servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.

11 "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the

earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the

seventh day; therefore the lord blessed the sabbath day

and made it holy.

12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days

may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your

God gives you.

13 "You shall not murder.

14 "You shall not commit adultery.

15 "You shall not steal.

16 "You shall not bear false witness against your

neighbor. (It is ok, however, to lie in court about your assets so the people you screwed over can't recover $$$ for what you did to them)

17 "You shall not covet you neighbor's house; you

shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male

servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that

belongs to your neighbor."

[Tock]

Hopefully this sad chapter in the Church history will pass and the Church will reinstate the former policy it knew was right....no homosexual priests.

Um, if they got rid of all their gay priests, well, they'd lose about half of 'em. I don't think they want to do that.

What they should do, though, is get rid of their pedophiles.

I know that you know the difference (you should know by now, as many times as we've made the distinction). Pedophiles (also known as pederasts) prey on boys, gays associate with adults.
Get it? Got it? Good . . .

[Teabagger]

Actually I don't "Got it". Here is what you need to get. An adult male that molests a young underage male is a HOMOSEXUAL PEDOPHILE. There are hetrosexual pedophiles, and they prey on the young of the OPPOSITE SEX.

What do you call members of NAMBLA? They are HOMOSEXUAL PEDOPHILES. You seem to think that homosexuals are some form of higher evolved life form incapable of being anything other than an excellent person victimized by the Church, and conservatives.....but homosexuals are not. In fact until a few years ago homosexuality had been diagnosed as a mental disease and only through political activism, not empirical scientific study,was it deemed not a mental illness. You may not like labels..........but they help the rest of us protect ourselves and our children. Got it!! Good!!

[BgMc31]

Actually I don't "Got it". Here is what you need to get. An adult male that molests a young underage male is a HOMOSEXUAL PEDOPHILE. There are hetrosexual pedophiles, and they prey on the young of the OPPOSITE SEX.

What do you call members of NAMBLA? They are HOMOSEXUAL PEDOPHILES. You seem to think that homosexuals are some form of higher evolved life form incapable of being anything other than an excellent person victimized by the Church, and conservatives.....but homosexuals are not. In fact until a few years ago homosexuality had been diagnosed as a mental disease and only through political activism, not empirical scientific study,was it deemed not a mental illness. You may not like labels..........but they help the rest of us protect ourselves and our children. Got it!! Good!!

UMMMM... the diagnosis of homosexuality being a mental illness wasn't based on scientific study either.

[RA]

They should allow priests to marry. That would solve the problem.

[Tock]

What do you call members of NAMBLA?

As far as I know, NAMBLA doesn't exist anymore, other than one guy who's got a website. Maybe you know more about their doings than I, and if so, why don't you share your knowledge about their membership numbers and latest activities?

If you don't know anything about that defunct group, then why do you keep bringing it up?

[Tock]

They should allow priests to marry. That would solve the problem.

They used to, centuries ago. The problem was that some of the priests were quite charasmatic and developed congregations that went to church more for the priest than for the church's message. The priest's popularity grew to the point where he had more say in things than his bosses, and then when he died, he passed the job of running the church on to his son, which was against the church's wishes.
The church figured that the easy way to keep these dynasties from starting in the first place was to keep their priests from marrying.

Some protestant churches are set up that way, where a preacher will grow a multi-million $$$ ministry and then bequeath it to his son when he dies. Rev. Billy Graham is gonna hand his organization to his son Franklin, and Rev. Pat Robertson is gonna give his to his son. And Oral Roberts' son is gonna his family ministry pretty soon.

Anyway, it's all about power, and who gets to run big congregations.

-------------------------
from:
http://www.arthurstreet.com/celibacy1993.html

THE HISTORY OF CELIBACY IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

According to A.W. Richard Sipe, the concept that the offerers of a sacrifice should remain untainted by sexual encounters goes back to ancient civilizations. He provides such examples as the yellow-capped Lamas of Tibet, the ascetic hermits of Egypt, the virgin priestesses of Thebes, the Astorte cult of Syria, the primitive worshipers of Dodona, the Vestal Virgins of ancient Rome, and the temple priests of the Aztecs. (page 35)

David Rice presents a comprehensive historical look at celibacy in his book about resigned priests entitled, Shattered Vows. Rice credits Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx in The Church with a Human Face with asserting that clerical celibacy originated in "a partly pagan notion of ritual purity," as Sipe indicates with the aforementioned examples. At the Council of Nicaea in 325, a proposal to require celibacy for all priests was defeated and at the Council of Trullo in 692, marriage rights for priests were reasserted. (Rice page 161.)

Schillebeeckx says that, first in the fourth century came a law that forbade a married priest from having sexual intercourse the night before celebrating the Eucharist. However, when the Western Church began celebrating a daily mass, abstinence became a permanent factor for married priests.

"At the origin of the law of abstinence, and later the law of celibacy," said Schillebeeckx, "we find an antiquated anthropology and ancient view of sexuality." (ibid) Rice follows with a quotation from St. Jerome which expressed the views of both pagans and Christians at the time that, "All sexual intercourse is impure." (ibid)

Because the resulting implication of a priest living with his wife like a brother led many priests into "deplorable situations," in 1139, the Second Lateran Council forbade the marriage of priests altogether and declared all existing marriages involving priests null and void. (ibid)

"One does not approach the alter and consecrated vessels with soiled hands," had been the pagan view and then became the cornerstone for compulsory Christian celibacy. (ibid) Other not-necessarily concurrent or chronological developments also contributed to the establishment of the celibacy requirement for catholic priests. More bishops began to be chosen from the ranks of monks who had already taken monastic vows of chastity. Another factor was an economic development as the Church began acquiring his own property. According to Rice, there was a real danger that legitimate children of priests could inherit and deprive the Church of its land. At the time, common law prevented illegitimate children from inheriting property.
In reality, the 1139 law did not enact celibacy but merely changed marriage into concubinage. Rice quotes from a document on celibacy prepared by church historian Hubert Jedin for the Second Vatican Council:

"It would be a mistake to imagine that these permanent concubines, especially in the countryside, would have aroused a lot of scandal," said Jedin. "We know of many cases where these `keepers of concubines' possessed the sympathies of their parishioners and were looked upon as good and virtuous pastors." (ibid page 162)

No finer mind than Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologia II-IIa, 88, 11)had provided stubborn opposition to those who saw celibacy rulings as part of divine law. Thomas contended that the celibacy requirement for Catholic priests was merely Church law that could be reversed by any time by papal or conciliar authority. (MacGregor pages 108-109)

[RA]

Interesting. I never heard that. Talk about unforseen consequences.

They used to, centuries ago. The problem was that some of the priests were quite charasmatic and developed congregations that went to church more for the priest than for the church's message. The priest's popularity grew to the point where he had more say in things than his bosses, and then when he died, he passed the job of running the church on to his son, which was against the church's wishes.
The church figured that the easy way to keep these dynasties from starting in the first place was to keep their priests from marrying.

Some protestant churches are set up that way, where a preacher will grow a multi-million $$$ ministry and then bequeath it to his son when he dies. Rev. Billy Graham is gonna hand his organization to his son Franklin, and Rev. Pat Robertson is gonna give his to his son. And Oral Roberts' son is gonna his family ministry pretty soon.

Anyway, it's all about power, and who gets to run big congregations.