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	Church Victims Angry at Delay By Kimball Perry Cincinnati Post [Cincinnati OH] December 16, 2004 A group representing victims of priest sex abuse called Wednesday for the dispersal of a $3 million victim compensation fund paid for by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and urged that any new victims be paid from other money. "We think it's outrageous that the archdiocese is further delaying justice," said Dan Frondorf, a Cincinnati spokesman for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). The archdiocese actually is not involved in determining who qualifies for the fund and how much they are awarded. The process involves a fund administrator and a tribunal to decide how the money is disbursed. That doesn't matter, Frondorf said. "This entire settlement fund is their creation," he said of the archdiocese. The archdiocese established the fund as part of a settlement of a criminal case that concluded last year when Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk pleaded no contest to -- and the archdiocese was convicted of -- not reporting to police allegations of child sex abuse by priests. "They set its rules, the questions that would be asked, the fact that you had to give up all your rights and couldn't appeal (to participate in the fund) -- all decisions made without the input of the victims," Frondorf said. The fund administrator, attorney Matt Garretson, has said several times that his goal was to have claims to the fund paid by the end of the year. But this week he said it would take two months longer than expected. That's because the number of victims was higher than anticipated and some accusations that hadn't been litigated were made, causing the tribunal to notify the newly accused before awarding money damages. "The majority of all of these cases involve priests who are dead or go back 50 or 60 years," archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco said Wednesday. "The number of priests who have been accused is very small." SNAP held a press conference Wednesday to ask the archdiocese to identify the newly accused priest sex abusers, to divide the $3 million victims compensation fund among the 132 individuals who applied by the September deadline and compensate any new victims with money from other sources. "They've been sitting on this since September, so certainly they have had ample time," said Christy Miller, a SNAP spokeswoman from West Chester. But Andriacco said the archdiocese plans to spend no more than the $3 million already pledged. "We will allocate the $3 million among all of the victims who came forward by the September deadline," Andriacco said. Andriacco had said Tuesday that the archdiocese paid the $3 million last year, but corrected that Wednesday to say the money is in an archdiocesan account set aside for the victim compensation fund. Interest earned on the account will be added to the amount paid out, he said. Andriacco noted that SNAP complained about the fund when it was created and urged victims not to participate in it, but now is complaining that money from the fund isn't being "paid fast enough." "I'm not convinced that money has an immense restorative power in dealing with the trauma of being sexually abused, especially by an adult, be it a parent, a coach or a priest," Andriacco said. "But money is the only tool we have." The process should take as long as is needed "to do it right," he added. Part of the 2003 plea agreement called for the archdiocese to report to Hamilton County prosecutors all new allegations of sex abuse by church employees. "Any information or accusations we have, have been turned over to the prosecutor. We are required to do it in Hamilton County, but we are doing it in all counties," Andriacco said. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati includes parishes in 19 counties from Columbus to Cincinnati and serves more than 500,000 Catholics.
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