Prelate Criticized for Ending Deal in Boston Cases

Too many victims were coming forward, Cardinal Bernard Law said Sunday to explain why the Archdiocese of Boston suddenly withdrew from a settlement with 86 alleged sexual abuse victims.

At a nearby parish, however, that account rang hollow. And the lawyer for the 86 victims said the church’s retreat from its agreement was tantamount to revictimization.

“Up until a month ago, we thought there were about 30 more outstanding claims, beyond those 86,” the cardinal said at Mass at Holy Cross Cathedral here. “In recent weeks however, that number of 30 has grown to an excess of 150 additional claims.”

Law told parishioners that the archdiocese’s financial council, which is made up of lay advisors from Boston’s business community, overruled him late Friday by abruptly backing out of the deal that was nearly a year in the making.

“It was their judgment that the dramatic increase in the number of cases has substantially altered the situation,” Law said. “Their concern, and I think it is a laudable concern, is that justice and equity would not be served by agreeing to this settlement for 86 persons, which would thereby negatively affect the response the archdiocese can later make to the other victims.”

A few miles away, at a parish where the families of at least three alleged clerical sexual abuse victims are members, Law’s words were greeted with skepticism.

“To lay the blame on a lay board is just beyond the pale,” said Father Walter Cuenin, pastor at Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church in Newton, Mass., outside Boston.

“We teach our children that if you say yes to something, you’ve got to stay with it. What kind of a message does this send, other than giving an impression of being tremendously insensitive?”

The settlement, estimated at $15 million to $30 million, would have established a mediation system to determine individual awards for alleged victims of former priest John J. Geoghan, who served in the Boston archdiocese for more than 30 years. Geoghan, convicted in January of a single count of child molestation, is serving a nine- to-10 year prison sentence.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said in an interview Saturday that church officials here repeatedly assured him during 11 1/2 months of negotiations that the archdiocese was financially capable of honoring the proposed settlement.

“They told me they had the money,” Garabedian said. His original group of 86 Geoghan claimants has grown to more than 140 alleged victims and family members, he said.

Accusing the church of using the agreement as a stalling tactic so the church could avoid paying victims, Garabedian targeted his ire at the man who has headed the nation’s fourth largest archdiocese since 1984.

“The cardinal is a despicable person,” Garabedian said. “He has allowed children to be raped.”

The lawyer said he will be in court this morning to schedule a deposition of Law.

After Mass at Our Lady Help of Christians, parishioner Margaret Hannah said she was “sickened” by the reversal of the settlement.

Hannah, a 50-year-old mother of three, said her parish council hand-delivered a letter to Law last week, inviting him to visit the church to discuss clerical sexual abuse. Law did not respond, Hannah said.

With 2,700 families in the congregation, the church was at standing-room capacity Sunday. Many parishioners came to support three families whose children allegedly were abused by Father Paul Shanley, arrested Thursday in San Diego on suspicion of child rape. Shanley waived extradition to Massachusetts and will be arraigned here this week.

Hannah said many in the congregation also welcomed the leadership of Cuenin, a priest who Sunday made a point of not mentioning the cardinal’s annual fund-raiser. Cuenin used the morning Mass to describe how “we in the priesthood feel broken, saddened, shamed and angered” by the sexual abuse scandal.

Cuenin estimated that about 75% of his congregation wants Law to step down.