BishopAccountability.org
	The High Cost of Ignoring an Ugly Truth By Alfred P. Doblin NorthJersey.com [United States] June 13, 2005 When the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meet this week in Chicago for their annual spring meeting, don't expect a media circus. Unlike the bishops' 2002 meeting in Dallas when a burgeoning sex abuse scandal was spreading over every diocese in the nation, new reports of old abuse have waned. But the quiet comes after a damaging storm. The Associated Press released a review estimating more than $1 billion has been spent by dioceses over the past 50 years to settle sex-abuse cases. It is a staggering sum of money. The Diocese of Covington, Ky., announced it was creating a compensation fund of up to $120 million. The Diocese of Orange, Calif., paid $100 million. And the Archdiocese of Boston - ground zero for the scandal - settled with 552 victims for $85 million. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has yet to settle with alleged abuse victims. It is the largest archdiocese in the nation, and the figure could be jaw-dropping. The Paterson Diocese settled for $5 million with 26 alleged victims in February. All told, the diocese has spent an estimated $7.5 million to settle cases of alleged sexual abuse. Several dioceses have declared bankruptcy. The former archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, was compelled to resign. He landed on his feet quickly and now holds a cushy assignment in Rome. Law even presided over one of the official Masses of mourning for Pope John Paul II. While I still was working in the Catholic press, a colleague said he believed the largest crisis looming for the Church in the United States was the sex-abuse scandal. More than a decade ago, he said that costs to settle abuse cases would devastate dioceses. He was proved correct. I have friends who want this story to just go away. Some of the clergy I know just want to be able to walk down a city street in clerical garb and not feel icy stares from angry Catholics. They would like to resume their ministries as they once were. The majority of priests never abused children. The clergy as a whole was smeared with the same broad brush. On the other side are victims and their families. Their numbers are not insignificant. No child should suffer sexual abuse. It is more egregious if the perpetrator was someone who had taken a religious vow. Even after the last diocese in the United States reaches a financial settlement, there will be no happy ending to report. Victims cannot be restored to where they were prior to the abuse. No dollar amount can return childhood innocence. And a clergy that is in decline and often ignored by society becomes more marginalized. Conservatives and liberals are spending too much time discussing the sexual orientation of candidates to the priesthood and almost no time on the spirituality of these men. I cannot help but imagine what $1 billion could buy - day-care centers, reduced tuition for Catholic schools, senior care, food pantries and soup kitchens, and decent retirements for thousands of aging nuns. Instead all this money has been spent to right a terrible wrong that cannot be righted but could have been averted. Over the years, I have known many bishops and a few cardinals. Few of them were bad men. But fewer still were men of vision. When the sex scandal broke three years ago, no prominent bishop said on the record what many said in private: "Law should resign in Boston." Even then, they still closed ranks. As the scandal grew, they opened checkbooks. So much good could have been accomplished with $1 billion. The schools, hospitals and outreach - it is painful to think of how much good was wiped out by so much indifference to the cries of abused children. What a waste. Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of the Herald News.