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CNN Sunday Morning

Boston Archdiocese Facing Lawsuits From About 500 Alleged Victims

Aired May 19, 2002 - 11:19   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In the crisis in the priesthood, the Boston Archdiocese is facing lawsuits from about 500 of alleged victims of priest abuse. Now that a monetary settlement is off the table, the church is fighting aggressively in the courts. Our Gary Tuchman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Gregory Ford was six years old in 1983, when he says he started getting molested by a priest in Newton, Massachusetts. His parents have filed a civil suit and the church is fighting back.

In legal papers, lawyers for Cardinal Bernard Law, the spiritual leader of Boston's Catholics say: "The negligence of the plaintiffs contributed to cause the injury or damage complained of." In other words, the church says the child and his parents should share the blame because they trusted the priest. Paula and Rodney Ford are the parents of Gregory.

RODNEY FORD, FATHER: Maybe I should have sent for my son when I was tying his shoe before he went to CCD class. Today, you know, you're about to play cards and it's going to be strip poker, so make sure you lose today.

TUCHMAN: His alleged molester, Paul Shanley, is now under arrest on charges of repeatedly raping another child. Hundreds of pages of documents indicate Boston's Catholic leaders were aware for decades of accusations of sexual deviancy by Shanley.

But despite the damning evidence, church leaders are aggressively using the courts to fight this suit and it's increasingly happening in other parts of the country too.

PATRICK SCHILTZ, UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS: Rule One of defending churches and clergy sexual misconduct litigation, never blame the victim.

TUCHMAN: Patrick Shiltz is a law school dean in Minnesota, who has represented hundreds of religious leaders accused of molestation. While he says never to blame the victim, he doesn't blame church attorneys for increasingly using the courts. SHILTZ: You can't sort of shake hands when both sides are reaching out their hands and one of the things that's happening is the victims are reaching out their hands less now and that puts everybody from the first moment in a more aggressive adversarial stance.

TUCHMAN: Attorneys for alleged victims of defrocked Boston priest John Geoghan, say the archdiocese was unscrupulous when it backed out of an up to $30 million financial settlement deal because it say it couldn't afford it.

And the attorney representing some of the alleged victims of Paul Shanley says the Boston Church is purposely trying to make the situation more painful for his clients.

RODERICK MACLEISH, PLAINTIFF ATTORNEY: Lawyers take an oath when they're admitted to the bar in most states, that they shall not do anything to impede the efficient and timely administration of justice, and I think that what's been happening here are stall tactics, delay, ignoring court orders, putting people through, victims through horrendous depositions.

TUCHMAN: Attorney MacLeish made a similar allegation during a court hearing on Tuesday. The Cardinal's attorney did not turn the other cheek.

WILSON ROGERS, CARDINAL LAW'S ATTORNEY: I am getting very fed up with these disingenuous misrepresentations by Mr. MacLeish to this court.

TUCHMAN: But when asked to elaborate about those disingenuous misrepresentations.

ROGERS: No comment.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Their media strategy right now is to stay quiet. It's their legal strategy that's making some noise. Gary Tuchman, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Victims who have survived the abuse from priests are coming together with the Oakland Diocese to help other victims. Terrie Light is a survivor, who is now working with this ministry, and Sister Barbara Flannery actually created the ministry and is also chancellor of that diocese in Oakland and they both join us now from San Francisco. Thanks for joining us. Can you hear me OK?

BARBARA FLANNERY, CHANCELLOR, OAKLAND DIOCESE: Yes.

TERRIE LIGHT, SURVIVOR: Yes, fine.

WHITFIELD: OK, very good. OK, no problem. All right, well Terrie let me begin with you, in '89 at the Oakland Diocese put together policies and procedures in which to respond or deal with alleged sexual abuse cases, but it wasn't until the early '90s when they hired or they had a nun who became that chancellor to help direct this policy.

For you it came too late, since you were a victim back in the '50s of an abusive pastor. How might this new ministry or this approach that the Oakland Diocese has in place help other victims that are going through what you went through back in the '50s?

LIGHT: I think probably the thing that's the most important is making the church safe. So it's not only just reaching out to people like me, but also making sure that when cases come forward that the calls are made to the police department or the District Attorney, and that there's also a pastoral response to survivors instead of shutting them down, making them go away, telling them that they're not believed, so believe --

WHITFIELD: Do you believe the Oakland Diocese is being a real model for how a church can acknowledge this problem and can together help victims and perhaps even help these pastors or priests who are accused of such abuses?

LIGHT: I would say they're at least beginning on working on the model, and I think the most important thing is they've invited us into the conversation because without a voice, how can they have a policy or process of working with survivors, without our side of the issue.

WHITFIELD: Well Sister Barbara Flannery, whose idea was this?

FLANNERY: Well, I think it was an outgrowth of meeting many victims of clergy sexual abuse. Terry introduced me to many survivors out there and realizing that as a church we needed to do something extremely pastoral.

I'd like to comment on your question to Terry about being a model. I think that what we have in Oakland is an example of what good can come when the church actually sits down and talks to survivors. And so when people call and say to me, you know, what is it that you're doing and tell us about your package, I say it's sitting down and talking to the survivors of clergy sexual abuse in your diocese and listening to what they need and trying to respond to those needs.

Not every survivor needs the church to be a part of their healing, but for those who do, the church has got to be open and receptive and willing to respond to what survivors are asking for.

WHITFIELD: But isn't that what makes it unique, particularly in your area because public -- the public wisdom right now is, the conventional wisdom is that so many of the churches are turning a blind eye to this problem? They don't want to be as involved as your diocese has proven to be.

FLANNERY: Well our policy clearly states in the very first line that our focus as a diocese is first for survivors, and so for those words to be real, that we had to move forward and be open to hearing survivors and listening to them.

And you know, I think that it just seems like the right thing to do and so we've been engaged in this dialog for over five years, three years specifically working on the ministry which has brought us to this point.

WHITFIELD: Opening this dialog had to have been quite a struggle because were you for the first time dealing with hearing the lurid details and about the struggles from Terrie and others who have been through something very similar.

FLANNERY: I think that it was -- I was very naive and it was very, difficult for me to hear these stories, but the more I heard them, the more I understood that not only had the sexual abuse happened in their lives, but the church had continued to abuse them by ignoring them and by refusing to respond to them.

And Terrie never gave up on me. I mean the wonderful thing about working with Terrie and the other survivors is that every time I didn't get it, they helped to call me back to the reality of the situation.

WHITFIELD: So Terrie and so many others have to be commended for stepping forward...

FLANNERY: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: ... and opening themselves up by revealing these very personal and embarrassing and humiliating experiences. So Terrie as Catholic priests begin to converge next month at the U.S. Bishops Conference in Dallas, what kind of advice do you suppose you and perhaps Sister Flannery would be giving to those bishops as they begin to converge to help them get a better understanding of why it is important for the diocese, or at least individual parishes, to you know, initiate some sort of ministry, such as the one you have in place?

LIGHT: Well and I'm going to just use a quick analogy. If you were a group that wanted to do some help for the people who are in wheelchairs, you'd be pretty foolish to start that effort without talking to people in wheelchairs.

So as the Catholic Church starts beginning the issue of how to work with survivors of clergy sexual abuse, it makes no sense if they don't invite them to the table as equals to work through whatever challenges there are that lie ahead.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you very much, very well put. Terrie Light and Sister Barbara Flannery from San Francisco, thanks for joining us.

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