St. Petersburg bishop puts price on sex abuse claims
khjarvis
St. Petersburg's diocese has spent more than $1-million to settle sex abuse
claims. Bishop Robert Lynch apologizes and offers details.
The Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg has spent more than $1-million in
recent years to settle sexual abuse claims and cover related expenses,
Bishop Robert N. Lynch announced Thursday.
The totals represent the first thorough public accounting of the money the
diocese has spent in connection with sexual abuse charges.
Since 1990, Lynch said, the breakdown includes $750,000 in legal settlements
with victims, $118,000 for victim counseling and $193,000 in legal fees,
training and to establish a victim assistance minister.
Some Catholics around the country have withheld donations because they do
not want their money spent on what they perceive to be secret payoffs.
Bringing into the open the St. Petersburg diocese numbers, which are far
smaller than those published for many other dioceses, is an effort to answer
similar concerns.
Lynch said all liability claims involving sexual abuse have been covered by
insurance underwriters or the diocese's insurance reserves. He said no money
given to the Bishop's Annual Pastoral Appeal or the Our Journey in Faith
Capital Campaign have been used to address allegations of sexual misconduct.
Lynch said he will not cave to "large and unreasonable demands by attorneys"
and promised a full-fledged legal fight if litigants seek such gains. He
also distanced himself from highly publicized coverups in places such as
Boston and Louisville.
"Much of the sense of betrayal felt by Catholics in this country comes, I
think, from the realization that your generosity and forgiveness have been
taken for granted in some notorious instances," he wrote.
"Rightfully you have asked in disbelief how any bishop or religious superior
could allow a priest who sexually molested a minor to continue in the
ministry, often to reoffend."
The St. Petersburg diocese has had only one publicly exposed reoffender:
Father Rocco D'Angelo, an abuser who was given parish assignments in Safety
Harbor and Tampa in the early 1970s after the Miami Diocese sent him
packing.
The St. Petersburg diocese still faces a half-dozen lawsuits from men who
allege church leaders knew for years that one of their priests, Father
Robert Schaeufele, was molesting children and moved him from parish to
parish to avoid scandal.
Schaeufele, 55, was removed from parish work in April 2002. At least 22 men
have alleged childhood abuse. Last June, Schaeufele pleaded guilty to sex
crimes with children and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Church leaders
always have said they knew nothing of Schaeufele's misdeeds until 2002.
Lynch's accounting of the diocese's expenses related to sexual abuse claims
was published in the Florida Catholic newspaper as part of a lengthy apology
to victims and church members whose faith has been shaken by the scandals in
the Catholic Church. The apology will be included in church bulletins this
weekend.
"The growing awareness of the number of children who have been abused by
priests gave rise in many to feelings of betrayal, anger, loss of faith in
the Church and sometimes even in God," Lynch wrote. "I am profoundly sorry
that you have had to endure this embarrassment and pain."
Besides the apology, Lynch compiled details that previously have been
publicized individually in news accounts and church announcements.
Since the Diocese of St. Petersburg was formed in 1968, the church has
identified 10 abusive priests who worked within its parishes, Lynch said.
Two priests were falsely accused, Lynch said, and one, Father Ignatius Tuoc,
is still in parish ministry because an allegation could not be proved.
"I believe in my heart," Lynch said, "that this diocese has not been guilty
of negligent supervision of any priest who abused a minor since the
mid-80s."
The bishop's apology was timed to coincide with Advent, a pre-Christmas
period of reconciliation, said church spokeswoman Mary Jo Murphy.
"The season of Advent also looks toward the future," she said. "The bishop
wants to put the past behind him and look to the future."
Lynch asked each parish to hold special prayers for abuse victims during
Lent. He also said he will lead a service at the Cathedral of St. Jude in
St. Petersburg, "in which I will ask God's pardon and mercy as well as
forgiveness from those abused." "I can ask for your forgiveness," he wrote
to victims and their families, "but I cannot ask you to forget."
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/12/12/Southpinellas/St_Petersburg_bishop_.shtml