L.A. Archdiocese to Pay $600M to Victims

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Personally, I am saddened about everything regarding the abuse cases…Lives have been terribly affected by the abuse of those who trusted some priests. But also lives of those not directly related to the abuse cases are being affected by the large payouts. I don’t know how this diocese as large as it is going to be able to absorb such a great deal of money. Schools may be closed, services limited to the poorest of the poor…youth, seniors, inner city kids etc. Maybe even church’s will be closed as a result of not being able to subsidize those church’s with weak incomes. More reasons to pray…For the church entirely.

But one ray of hope is the promise that the Holy Spirit will be with us until the end of time as Jesus said 2000 years ago.

Let’s just hope that there will be no more repeats of these horrible crimes against our young.
 
gam197 said:
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I like this idea. Maybe if every teacher, nurse. day care worker etc., man or women that has bothered a child had to pay a sum of money for their counseling, even lose their home to the victim, maybe there would be less tolerance of it. I have never seen in the newspaper where a teachers has had to pay say $250,000.00. I don’t see the outrage. How about the female teacher that went after a 12 year. She was on TV years later with him and her children and it was like a love affair. Why are there two standards?

Maybe then we could also have some discussion about pornography and censorship.
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I see fair the prayings but other victims of other collectives don´t receive money, they say to the judges that are poor, they are “insolvent” and enterprises, state and other institutions don´t pay anything, in my country yesterday 66 people were detained for owning child pornography and there were doctors, architects, caretaker, and there won´t be indemnizations. It´s sad, I like that the church pay and ask forgiveness but I want that all guilty people would receive the same punishment. I demand justice for everybody.
 
If a teacher goes after a 12 year old, then he/she should be fired and subsequently jailed and fined for statutory rape. Many are, admittedly more males than females though
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This kind of stuff goes on all the time as we write here and there is no outrage. I heard the cases on the priests in California go back** 50 years.**

I simply think it should be equal time for every case and there would be thousands of current cases. Let’s not only jail but find them after lots of publicity. A quick search turned up case after case. I could spend all day searching and listing them and then I’d have to start again tomorrow

I saw Mary Kay Letourneau(sex with 12 year old) on TV awhile back with her now adult student and it was portrayed like a love affair.

A quick search on teacher …

Tennessee Pamela Rogers Turner and sex with 13 year old boy…

foxnews.com/story/0,2933,146797,00.html

39 Ex teacher in Vacouver, Wash. has sex with 12 year old girl

topix.net/forum/city/vancouver-wa/T7S01DPVOAF6839KV

topix.net/county/clark-wa/2007/05/ex-teacher-39-admits-having-sex-with-12-year-old-gaiser-student

41 year old California teacher has sex with a 12 year old boy

worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48210

28 year old lebian teacher has sex with 17 year old student…

netscape.com/viewstory/2007/05/08/42-year-old-
female-teacher-caught-writing-love-letters-to-12-year-old/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thebizofknowledge.com%2F2007%2F05%2F42year_old_female_teacher_caug.html&frame=true

24 year old teacher and molestation of juvenile

nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1166687583146230.xml&coll=1

34 year old teacher had sex 28 times with student
crime.about.com/b/a/256865.htm
 
originally posted by DWPC
So two wrongs do make a right? That is terrible rationalization. Equating a day care worker or PS teacher to an an ordained priest devalues our priests’ special vocation. The guilty priests didn’t “bother” children, they raped them. Thats R-A-P-E! And in perversions not to be described here.
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I never said two wrongs make a right. I am discussed but I don’t really see the outrage in the community on raping children in general.

A day care worker is even worse than a priest not because of their station in life but because they rape two or three year olds.

Qucik search cases…

Day care molested 6 children 3 to age 12

wfmz.com/view/?id=120724

Day care worker and rape of 4 year old

northcountrygazette.org/articles/102306DaycareWorker.html

Against I could search all day post case after case and have to start again tomorrow.

I am not justifying this behavior just stating what is going on.
 
davy39 said:
Terrible things were done to SOME of these people, while others, in my opinion, (to which I am entitled) jumped on the bandwagon for the big bucks, their lawyers included. Their lawyers are the big winners overall. How are priests going to defend themselves when they have been dead for 20 or 30 years? I believe that in a lot of these cases, the church and their legal council have given up too easily, and just handed out the money.
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Amen to that! I completely agree with you. How many are actual victims (who should be compensated, helped, counseled, healed, and given every service that the church can give to make up for what they’ve gone through) and how many are liars who are out to fleece the church?

I believe it is more the latter than the former. May God judge them and their lawyers accordingly.
 
I see this whole debacle as first class spiritual combat. And right now satan is in the lead. What better way to attack Christ’s church than through its leadership. Could anyone think of a more horrific crime than to despoil a youth in your confidence? Satan is really showing his wiles in this one.
Even so, I am sick to death of the whole situation too. I wish they would send Cardinal Mahoney to Italy like they did Cardinal Law. Give us a fresh start with new leadership. We need it and the rest of the world needs to know that we’re serious about reform.
Retrovert
 
Benedictine said:
Amen to that! I completely agree with you. How many are actual victims (who should be compensated, helped, counseled, healed, and given every service that the church can give to make up for what they’ve gone through) and how many are liars who are out to fleece the church?

I believe it is more the latter than the former. May God judge them and their lawyers accordingly.
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Within a week after my diocese announced that $12 million was being set aside for abuse claims, 48 new “victims” suddenly appeared to claim a piece of the pie. It does make one wonder.
 
The Catholic Church is probably the biggest institution other than government in the country. Government can’t be sued, even tho the percentage of public school teachers who have molested their charges is much greater than Catholic priests, who have one of the lowest rates. The Church appears as a big, juicy morsel ready for the lawyers and others wanting to get on the bandwagon. I have no sympathy for the ones who committed such awful crimes, but there do seem to be a lot of “victims” who conveniently crawl out of the woodwork at the smell of money.
 
Benedictine said:
Amen to that! I completely agree with you. How many are actual victims (who should be compensated, helped, counseled, healed, and given every service that the church can give to make up for what they’ve gone through) and how many are liars who are out to fleece the church?

I believe it is more the latter than the former. May God judge them and their lawyers accordingly.
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I can’s say if some of these people are just making things up. It is not for me to say. But, I do believe there are some that had come to terms with what happened to them that are now ON THE BAND WAGON (friends, family lawyers etc have advised them they can get lots of money and not hurt anyone) for the money from the deep pockets of the Catholic Church.

But it is the school children that won’t get a good Catholic education that is harmed.
The family that needs emergency help that can’t get it.
The single mother that needs formula and diapers and maybe job training that won’t get it.
The old people that need a ride or food that can’t get it.

The list is endless as to where this ends. And this saddens me greatly.😦
 
Litigation 101 Primer

First: The Church is what lawyers call a “target defendant.” That is a defendant that is rich and will be able to respond in damages. Any consideration whether a trial lawyer will take a plaintiff’s case includes, first and foremost, whether there is a deep pocket available. If there is no deep pocket, there is no point in filing suit no matter how good the liability is because, as the familiar saying goes, “you can’t get blood out of a turnip.” If, on the other hand, there is a deep pocket, an action may be filed even if liability is thin.

Second: These cases have to be settled. Competent lawyers and wise businessmen simply don’t let these cases go to juries. It is too risky. Remember the Pennzoil-Texaco disaster which resulted in the first billion dollar judgment? Think about the catastrophe had these Los Angeles cases gone to trial and the jury returned a verdict of a billion dollars or so. With settlement, you still have some control; with a jury you are gambling.

Of course, the plaintiffs want to settle, too, because that means “money now” rather than years down the road after appeals and more litigation. Few things are as enticing as money now. I’ll bet some of those plaintiffs have already ordered new cars and trucks!
 
katy said:
The Catholic Church is probably the biggest institution other than government in the country. Government can’t be sued, even tho the percentage of public school teachers who have molested their charges is much greater than Catholic priests, who have one of the lowest rates. The Church appears as a big, juicy morsel ready for the lawyers and others wanting to get on the bandwagon. I have no sympathy for the ones who committed such awful crimes, but there do seem to be a lot of “victims” who conveniently crawl out of the woodwork at the smell of money.
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Well, governments can be sued. There is the Federal Tort Claims Act and just about every state has a tort claims act of some kind waiving sovereign immunity.
 
OriginalJS said:
Well, governments can be sued. There is the Federal Tort Claims Act and just about every state has a tort claims act of some kind waiving sovereign immunity.
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Governments can be sued within very very strict guidelines. Time frames are nor fluid or changed for the “memories” of the person that sues a government entity.

When one of our children was injured by an I-beam falling on her causing seizures, memory loss and medical bills our insurance company refused to pay (they claimed the governmental insurance should have paid these bills). Loss of our law suit was due to the fact that our daughter did not fall under the “**permanent **LOSS” rule. Her seizures were controlled by a medication (experimental and uncovered by any insurance) and thus she had no " **permanent **DISABILITY.

Thus my husband and I lost our retirement fund, re-mortgaged our home and I went to work. We don’t regret our decisions and the medical bill. We do resent the fact that the government entity could hide behind a technicality.
 
The rationalization of evil still prevails. What don’t you all understand about evil? Is it that it’s in your Church, in your closet, in your heart?
Analogies to babysitters and the like is a dead giveaway.
Why not stand up for what’s right, admit what was (and may still be) wrong, and move on?
The problem is you can’t. And you won’t. And neither will they.
 
magician said:
I was waiting for the outrage! But what the responses show is very clear - that most of you give the Church a pass or prefer to rationalize the endemic disease away.
Corrupt - yes. Because without the sacrifices of these victims and hard work of the legal teams, none of this would have been forthcoming.
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It may be inaccurate to confuse restraint in responding to your post with giving the Church “a pass” or rationalizing.

And the mention of “legal teams” reminds me ~ 40% of these millions is going to the attorneys. So if the settlement is $660 million, the attorneys get $264 million, so they’re getting paid rather handsomely for their hard work.
 
magician said:
The rationalization of evil still prevails. What don’t you all understand about evil? Is it that it’s in your Church, in your closet, in your heart?
Analogies to babysitters and the like is a dead giveaway.
Why not stand up for what’s right, admit what was (and may still be) wrong, and move on?
The problem is you can’t. And you won’t. And neither will they.
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What are you talking about?
 
Sheeniac said:
What are you talking about?
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Yeah Ditto. Yes. It’s wrong. Yes, any Church member guilty of such things should be subjected to sever punishment including losing their position and possible criminal charges. Heck, most of us wanted Mahoney booted *long *before this hit the fan. You asked if we should move on. Well, most of us have already expressed what I just said and already at the moving on stage. Acceptable? Can I now continue to give to my (non-LA diocese) parish and not be deemed a “sucker”?
 
What I don’t understand is what about all those records??

I heard that there are many years of testing and discernment going into the priesthood.
When are we going to get to see the full discloser of the records of the priests, from their very first application to the priesthood, the spiritual direction, the personal accounts of people who knew them in the seminaries to the psychological testing etc. Is anyone taking all these and studying them?

Does this mean that in all of that, no one is scrutinizing these records and comparing the data to see what these men all had in common and what, if anything, may be a red flag for those sifting out the candidates? There has to be something!

Are we going to be told anything about that?
I know that these new guidelines and everything are getting a work over.

I don’t know.
It may be that they wont release this data so that future monsters can’t use it to get under the radar again.

But still…the church has something other organizations do not have because of the extensive process involved, to study who and what these people are and how they operate. I read the news like everyone else, and maybe it’s my imagination, but while the church has gotten the pedifile monster slain, other organizations ans even schools are getting inundated with them.
Its a real plague. In my neighborhood alone there are 15 sex knownoffenders, 8 of which have violent records, . …not one are or ever were a priest…and none are in jail…which they should be I think.
I think child molestation should be a life sentence…seriously.
Anyway…

I’m just wondering.:hmmm:
Thats all.
dina
 
IMHO it is the offenders that should be punished. Not the people many of whom were not born when these things happened.

The Catholic Church does not have jails, nor the death sentence. Yet it is held (and rightly so) to a higher standard of care for the children. The Church is the only entity that is being held responsible by paying for what cannot be paid for. The innocence of a child.

If they were or are priests they should go to jail just like anyone else. OH I forgot they turn them loose and let the sex offenders live next door :mad: . Then in my mind the government needs to be sued just like the Catholic Church is being sued now for just moving these people from one place to another. No difference. NOT RIGHT but not different.

The public schools transfer teachers (protected by the union) or let them resign and give them good references. So they teach in our schools.

The courts give them probation and the ACLU gives them protections. So they live near our children.

Nothing will change until the laws change.
 
KathleenElsie said:
IMHO it is the offenders that should be punished. Not the people many of whom were not born when these things happened.

The Catholic Church does not have jails, nor the death sentence. Yet it is held (and rightly so) to a higher standard of care for the children. The Church is the only entity that is being held responsible by paying for what cannot be paid for. The innocence of a child.

If they were or are priests they should go to jail just like anyone else. OH I forgot they turn them loose and let the sex offenders live next door :mad: . Then in my mind the government needs to be sued just like the Catholic Church is being sued now for just moving these people from one place to another. No difference. NOT RIGHT but not different.

The public schools transfer teachers (protected by the union) or let them resign and give them good references. So they teach in our schools.

The courts give them probation and the ACLU gives them protections. So they live near our children.

Nothing will change until the laws change.
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I think you have a VERY good point there.
 
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