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American Morning

Interview with Gary Bergeron, Bob Sherman

Aired August 01, 2002 - 07:31   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: A big story out of Boston this morning. Of course, as you can imagine, it has to do with the Catholic Church. The Catholic sex abuse scandals are back in the news again this morning. Today's "USA Today" reports Catholics are using their wallets to protest the church's handling of the sex scandals. Donations are down significantly this year. And today in Boston, where donations are reported to be down by a third, a hearing, a critical hearing is set to begin this morning.

At issue, will the Boston archdiocese be allowed to back out of a $30 million settlement with 86 alleged victims of defrocked priest John Geoghan? At the center of the controversy, Cardinal Bernard Law, who had a meeting last week with our guest.

Gary Bergeron is involved in a separate case against the archdiocese. He joins us this morning from Boston, along with his attorney, Bob Sherman.

Welcome, gentlemen.

Good to have you with us this morning.

GARY BERGERON, ALLEGED ABUSE VICTIM: Good morning.

BOB SHERMAN, PLAINTIFFS' ATTORNEY: Good morning.

ZAHN: Mr. Sherman, I'm going to start with you.

I know you're not directly involved with this case between Father Geoghan and the Boston archdiocese. What will be decided?

SHERMAN: Well, the issue in this case is whether the settlement agreement, which was to the victims an ironclad agreement, and now what the archdiocese is claiming was only a tentative agreement, was, in fact, binding on the archdiocese.

You have 86 victims here. There was an agreement to settle the cases in total between $15 and $30 million. It was announced to the public that there was a settlement reached. I think people relied on that announcement and then later on the archdiocese said well, it was subject to finance counsel approval and therefore we're not going to go along with it.

So the question is can the archdiocese make agreements with their fingers crossed behind their back.

ZAHN: Well, this is going to affect you because you, in fact, represent dozens of men who allege they were abused by a deceased priest, Joseph Birmingham.

SHERMAN: Yes.

ZAHN: Do you have any faith the archdiocese has been telling you the truth?

SHERMAN: Well, I think that there's an old saying, you know, fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you. We've been talking to the lawyers for the archdiocese. I think those talks have been handled in a professional and a good faith way. Certainly we're cognizant of what happened in the Geoghan case and we want to make sure that should any agreement be reached -- and I want to make it clear we're not there yet and we're not even close to being there. These are just preliminary discussions.

But should any agreement be reached, it's going to be with the people that have the authority to bind the archdiocese.

I think that certainly the mistakes of the past were the past and I think that there is an atmosphere where both sides want to see if they can reach resolution of this matter.

ZAHN: So, Gary, when you essentially have got the Catholic Church saying it can't afford to go through this deal, how does that affect your desire to move ahead with any proceedings against the priest who you say abused you?

BERGERON: Well, first of all, I don't believe that the Catholic Church cannot afford to fund the settlement that we're talking about this morning, the Geoghan settlement. There's been word, their defense has been that this settlement could possibly bankrupt the church. I don't believe that. I find it hard to believe that they're saying an amount such as this is going to bankrupt the church.

If they truly believe that the church is not the buildings, not the structures, not the pews, but it's the people, I don't know how they can use that as a defense in this.

ZAHN: Tell us, is, in a brief way, what happened to you. You allege that Father Joseph Birmingham abused you many years ago. BERGERON: Correct. Father Joseph Birmingham molested myself and my brother starting in 1974. This is a priest that they knew about in 1962 when I was two years old. This priest started these molestations in -- I'm sorry.

SHERMAN: Sudbury.

BERGERON: Sudbury. He went from Sudbury, they knew about it. They documented it from Sudbury. He went to Salem. They knew about it. They documented it. From Salem he went to Lowell. They knew about it. They documented it. From Lowell they moved him to Gloucester and from Gloucester to Brighton. This is a predator. This priest molested hundreds of children and they knew about it and they did nothing about it.

ZAHN: Gary, you met with Cardinal Law last week and you posed some really tough questions.

BERGERON: Correct.

ZAHN: What did you ask him?

BERGERON: Well, you know, I've been out there publicly criticizing his policy from day one and from day one I've asked for a meeting with the cardinal because I wanted to meet the man who was in charge. I wanted to see him, eyeball him eye to eye, face to face.

I asked him some very difficult questions about what he knew, what he didn't know, why I believe nothing was done. He had some good answers. I was not always happy with the answers, but I felt as though he was honest and he gave them to me.

He made me some promises that I expect him to keep and I let him know that I'm going to hold his feet to the fire on this issue.

ZAHN: Can you share any of those promises he made with you this morning?

BERGERON: Well, I had a huge issue as far as accessibility for some of the other victims to counseling, accessibility to the cardinal himself. He assured me that he was going to make that much easier for victims to get counseling, for victims to meet with him.

He claims that he has a zero tolerance policy that's been in effect since January 1. I fully expect him to uphold that. Zero tolerance means zero tolerance, whether it happened two days ago or 20 years ago. There is no room in the Catholic Church for priests that abuse children. I expect him to uphold that.

ZAHN: Bob, a final word from you this morning. If it turns out the Catholic Church will not come forward with this money they agreed to in this settlement, what does that say to other potential victims out there like Gary?

SHERMAN: Well, I think what it says is that they're going to have to pursue their rights through the court system. And that's, you know, where we are in this case.

Obviously there's nothing that can be done to give these victims back the innocence of youth, which is really what they lost through the sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy.

You know, our system is set up that you pursue your rights through the court system and we're perfectly prepared to take these cases. Our office is currently handling 250 cases involving dozens of priests and we're perfectly ready to take these cases to trial and present the evidence as to what the archdiocese knew and when they knew it. Our hope, however, is that we can get the closure that these victims need through resolution and we're still optimistic that that will take place.

ZAHN: OK, we're going to have to leave it there this morning.

Bob Sherman, Gary Bergeron, thank you for your time this morning. We really appreciate your joining us on AMERICAN MORNING.

SHERMAN: Thank you.

BERGERON: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Take care.

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