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American Morning

Man Discusses Abuse by Priest

Aired March 13, 2002 - 08:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The big question at this hour: How is the Catholic Church in the United States been changed forever? The leaders of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Boston are dealing with a massive scandal involving sexual abuse by clergy.

Yesterday, a settlement was reached with 86 victims, who claim a now defrocked pedophile priest, John Goeghan, sexual molested them. This morning, "The New York Times" is reporting the Church's insurance policy will not cover the settlement, and the Church will have to sell property, take out loans and ask for large donations to pay the estimated $100 million.

In a moment, one of John Goeghan's alleged victims will joins us, but first, Jason Carroll reports on the multi-million dollar deal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How does one put a price on the cost of loss of faith and childhood innocence? These men wanted answers from the Catholic Church and now they have one. The Archdiocese of Boston agreed to pay the victims, who say they were sexually abused by a priest as children. The total sum: between $15 and $30 million.

RALPH DELVECCHIO, VICTIM: It brought up a lot of the past. Now, I want to be over with it, finished and just move on.

CARROLL: Ralph Delvecchio was one of the victims who says no amount of money can take away the pain John Geoghan has caused him and others. The defrocked priest now sits in prison. Last month, Geoghan was sentenced to 10 years for fondling a young boy. Though he hasn't answered the specific charges in the lawsuit just settled, the Boston Archdiocese issued an apology.

The Church has already paid millions to dozens of Geoghan's alleged victims over the years. Court records show the Church knew about the abuse allegations all along, but still moved him from parish to parish.

DONNA MORRISSEY, SPOKESWOMAN, ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON: If nothing else, right now we stand in a better place and a greater understanding of the abuse of children. And hopefully, we will be able to prevent it in the future.

CARROLL: The victims' attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, says the settlement is not a victory, but a recognition of the wrong.

MITCHELL GARABEDIAN, VICTIMS' ATTORNEY: You have to understand, this isn't happy money. This is blood money.

DELVECCHIO: I always said I hope things -- you know, I hope the right thing happens with this. Maybe it will restore some of the faith that I lost since I was a kid.

CARROLL (on camera): This settlement could just be the beginning of legal problems for the Catholic Church. The Archdiocese of Boston has handed over the names of more than 90 clerics accused of sexual abuse. And Garabedian says he has been contacted by more than 100 alleged victims, who say they were abused by several clerics, including Geoghan.

Jason Carroll, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Patrick McSorley says John Geoghan also molested him when he was just 12 years old. He joins us now from Boston, along with Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney for the plaintiffs in this case -- good morning, welcome to both of you.

MITCHELL GARABEDIAN, PLAINTIFF'S ATTORNEY: Good morning.

ZAHN: So, Patrick, I know as a child in the Catholic Church you were taught to respect priests, you were taught to look up to them as moral authorities. And that trust was abused in your case, you say, by Father Geoghan. How has this affected your life?

PATRICK MCSORLEY, VICTIM: Throughout the years, I've had different types of problems, emotional problems, problems with depression. And not knowing where these problems were stemming from. It's very complicated. Throughout my whole life I had all these different types of negative feelings and I never knew where they were coming from until it was talked about on the news media. And his name was brought up -- Father Geoghan's name was brought up one night at dinner, and that's how it all came back to me.

ZAHN: Patrick, I don't know if you could just hear, but another victim in the piece that was a run-up to our interview suggested that no amount of money could ever erase the scars of sexual abuse. And he plans to use his settlement money to pay for therapy. What do you plan to do with your settlement?

MCSORLEY: Well, I'm going to try to -- I'll use it for the right purposes. Try to make my life a little more easier, where I have -- I have children to support and take care of. I'm just trying to make my life as less complicated as I can, seeing that I haven't had the best upbringing.

ZAHN: Father Geoghan is in jail now, and the Church has replaced his code of silence now with what it calls a zero tolerance policy and now these settlements. Do you think justice has been served, Patrick? MCSORLEY: To a degree, yeah. Maybe if there were a little more time laid on top of what he already has, I'd feel a little more satisfied. Yeah...

ZAHN: All right.

MCSORLEY: ... as it goes -- as it rolls on, it seems to help the softening of the process.

ZAHN: Mitchell, you were involved with these negotiations for almost a year. You have certainly been in contentious situations before, but these negotiations nearly broke down several times, and the last round went well beyond midnight. Describe to us what was going on behind closed doors.

GARABEDIAN: It was just very intense. There were a lot of issues to discuss. These were emotional issues, these weren't about contracts involving money or anything like that. These involve people whose spirituality had been broken, whose emotions were torn and whose pain was -- was obvious. And the church had an obligation to help these individuals do the right thing. And we were just going at it in terms of confidentiality agreements, in terms of dollar amounts and issues like that.

For instance, the church wanted my client to sign confidentiality agreements and me too. They wanted me to sign confidentiality agreements saying we wouldn't talk about these cases any longer. And I absolutely refused. Secrecy is what got the church -- which is what allowed these problems to grow in the church, and there can't be any more secrecy.

ZAHN: Now what did you have to agree to, though, in return? You can't handle any more of these cases now, is that true?

GARABEDIAN: No, not at all. They asked me to agree to that, and I absolutely refused. They've had agreements, apparently -- or some archdioceses have had agreements where the lawyer has agreed not to handle any more cases involving the priest that is involved in the settlement discussions. I refused to do that. That conversation didn't last more than two minutes. That was ridiculous.

ZAHN: Mitchell, what else did they ask you to do that you were uncomfortable with?

GARABEDIAN: Well, there were issues of counseling and issues involving clients being taken care of in counseling, but my clients really weren't interested in that. They really don't want to have a whole lot to do with the church, and I had to get that across to the church's attorneys. That my clients just wanted to try to move on with their lives and they didn't want to be involved with the church anymore.

They didn't really care about apologies from the cardinal or any individual. They just don't have any faith. Their faith has been shattered.

ZAHN: Mitchell, do you know how much each one of your clients will get at this point?

GARABEDIAN: Well, it's a sliding scale. For instance, there are 50 clients who have major injuries because of major molestations and very serious molestations. And they'll be dividing up a bulk of the money. I'll be going to a two-hour arbitration with each client of each of those 50 clients, for instance, and the sole issue in the arbitration will be the amount of damages, not whether the church supervisors or Father Geoghan were negligent, but only the -- the only issue will be the amount of damages.

ZAHN: Patrick, in closing, you talk so much about wanting to get things right with your own children. You talked about the pain of your own upbringing. Are you comfortable with young people being in the company of priests today in Boston?

MCSORLEY: Could you explain that a little better?

ZAHN: Do you think kids are safe today? I know that you felt that because the church never came clean and they moved some of these priests from parish to parish, knowing full well what they had apparently done to children, that it never became public and children were abused as a result of that. Or do you believe that as a result of this action, children are safer in the church today?

MCSORLEY: Well I'm not going to believe that to be true until I see it happening, until I see these changes within the Catholic Church and the archdiocese. I mean, they have deceived people who have devoted their spirituality and their whole soul. They devoted themselves to the Catholic Church for all of these years, and then for the church to sweep all their dirt under the carpet like this is really, really not fair to those parishioners.

ZAHN: All right.

MCSORLEY: And now to say all of a sudden, "Oh, OK, it's OK for your kids to come back to church now," that's really not fair. And I think we have to see some major changes, and it's not going to happen instantly.

ZAHN: All right. We are going to leave it this morning. Patrick, we really appreciate your joining us. We know it's not easy for you to relive a lot of this. And Mitchell Garabedian, thank you for your time as well. Good luck to both of you.

GARABEDIAN: Thank you.

MCSORLEY: Thank you.

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