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CNN Saturday Morning News

Boston Archdiocese Backs Out of Settlement With Alleged Abuse Victims

Aired May 04, 2002 - 08:08   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Turning now to the church sex abuse scandal, the Reverend Paul Shanley will be extradited from California to Massachusetts next week to face rape charges in Boston. At the same time, the Archdiocese of Boston is backing out of a $30 million settlement with alleged victims of another priest.

Our Jason Carroll live from Boston with the latest on all of this -- Jason, good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Miles.

I have to tell you, a lot of people here in Boston are scratching their heads on this one. As you say, yesterday the Archdiocese of Boston announced that they were backing out of a settlement that they had reached with some 86 plaintiffs who say they were sexually abused by defrocked priest John Geoghan. Geoghan is now serving a jail sentence for molesting a young boy, but he's accused of molesting some 200 children. The archdiocese said it could not pay the $15 to $30 million settlement because more civil cases involving other priests, namely Paul Shanley, are still out there.

Now, right now joining me I've got Patrick McSorely. He's one of John Geoghan's alleged victims. Also joining me is Mitchell Garabedian. He is an attorney representing McSorely and others in this case.

I'm going to start with you, Mitchell.

MITCHELL GARABEDIAN, ATTORNEY FOR VICTIMS: OK.

CARROLL: Give me your assessment of what happened here.

GARABEDIAN: I think the archdiocese has just shown us another example of how they lie, cheat and steal. They've encouraged rapists for decades. They've stolen the souls of children and now they're lying about the incident in terms of not having money and not having the signatures. They assured me for approximately one year that they had all of the money they needed and they were going to take care of the Geoghan individuals and that they were going to obtain all the signatures.

CARROLL: We're going to turn to you now, Patrick. The financial committee for the archdiocese says they don't have the money to pay people like you. What -- do you feel like you've been victimized not once but twice?

PATRICK MCSORELY, ALLEGED VICTIM: I feel like I just got victimized over and over again. It's a big letdown. You know, I -- me, myself and the other 85 victims I'm sure they are absolutely steamed about this. I couldn't sleep at all last night thinking about this. This is absolutely absurd. They have the money. They can take care of us. We were the first ones to come out with it and there was already a deal and now what do they do? They take it away. Just like they do everything else.

CARROLL: Mitchell, I'm going to turn back to you. What is your next move now? The archdiocese says that they can't pay. What do you do?

GARABEDIAN: Well, I'm going to ask the court Monday morning for a date so that I can get, obtain permission to depose Cardinal Law and have an order issued ordering him not to leave the state unless he posted $10 million cash bond because I believe he will leave the state now. He's not going to stick around after this.

I'm also researching issues about concerning bringing a fraud case against the archdiocese for their deception here.

CARROLL: All right, Mitchell Garabedian and Patrick McSorely, thanks both of you very much for joining us, especially so early this morning.

GARABEDIAN: Thank you.

MCSORELY: Thank you.

CARROLL: I also want to point out, Miles, that Cardinal Bernard Law made the recommendation to actually pay this settlement. But he was overruled by the financial board at the Archdiocese of Boston -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Jason Carroll in Boston, thank you very much.

Let's talk a little bit more about this. For that, we turn to a guest of ours. Joining us from Washington, Father Steve Rossetti. He is a psychologist and president of the St. Luke Institute. Father Rossetti, good to have you with us.

REV. STEVE ROSSETTI, PRIEST/PSYCHOLOGIST: Good morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: It's got to be very troubling for someone who wears your collar to hear somebody stand in front of the cardinal's residence in Boston and accuse the Roman Catholic Church of lying, cheating and stealing.

ROSSETTI: It's very upsetting. You know, as preachers of the gospel and Catholic priests, we dedicate our lives to serving people and to serving the truth. So priests around the country are embarrassed. They're hurting. They're angry. They're upset. We're trying to do the best we can with the situation, like everyone else. And it's very troubling.

O'BRIEN: It's got to be very difficult to respond when somebody says it's a lie that the Catholic Church cannot afford to pay these victims. The Catholic Church is, perhaps, one of the richest entities in the world. I think it is the largest holder of real estate in the world. Check me on that if I'm wrong. It's certainly the largest holder of tax-free real estate. Isn't it a bit disingenuous to say we can't afford to compensate these victims?

ROSSETTI: Miles, it's a sad turn of events when the cardinal recommended the Geoghan settlement and then the finance council rejected it. I personally don't know the reasons. I read about it in the paper last night, saying that they felt they didn't have enough money to compensate adequately all the victims, including the Geoghan victims.

O'BRIEN: But that, don't you, I mean come on. That's, isn't that a bunch of baloney?

ROSSETTI: I don't know. You have to ask the finance council. They're a group of lay folks. They're professionals in the field. They're advising the cardinal and I don't know why they made that decision.

O'BRIEN: All right, but you can tell me a little bit about church hierarchy. If the cardinal, the cardinal rules. If the cardinal says do it, it is done.

ROSSETTI: Yes, you'd have to ask the cardinal on that one. I feel very badly for it. It's obviously a strong disagreement between the cardinal and the finance council.

O'BRIEN: Yes, what, the perception that is left inside the flock and outside the flock is not a good one, is it?

ROSSETTI: No, and that's part of the whole problem with this current crisis. I think the church is being painted as a group of people who are insensitive and non-caring, but it's not true. We've made some serious errors in dealing with child sexual abuse in the past. But I think the errors were made in good faith. People did what they thought was right and sometimes it wasn't.

O'BRIEN: Good faith? You think, is it good faith to transfer a priest around who is a known pedophile? Is that good faith?

ROSSETTI: Yes, there's no excuse for the Shanley case or the Geoghan case. Neither of those are defensible. They were serious errors.

O'BRIEN: Tell me about the, what are your thought about the meeting with the pope in Rome? A lot of criticism came out of that because as is often the case in edicts which come out of the Vatican, it's difficult to sort of read between the lines, read the tea leaves, if you will, and see what really is being commanded from the pontiff. ROSSETTI: Well, I think that the Vatican summit was under valued. I think a lot more took place than people realize. First of all, the pope stood up and said that child sexual abuse was a crime and so that people like Paul Shanley should be arrested and tried. He also said it was an appalling sin. And these kind of statements are made not only for the church in the United States, but for the church worldwide. So, really, the church worldwide is put on notice that child sexual abuse will not be tolerated.

Secondly, some of the watchwords coming out of the summit are accountability and transparency. Cardinal Sedano said that the church needs to be more transparent in dealing with these issues and more accountable. And I think that kind of sea change is, hopefully is slowly occurring in the church.

O'BRIEN: Well, I wouldn't say what Jason Carroll was just reporting about is transparent. That's as obtuse as it can be.

ROSSETTI: You mean the financial settlement issue?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

ROSSETTI: Yes, well, the finance, you'll have to speak to the finance council.

O'BRIEN: Well, you just got through telling me you couldn't understand it. There's nothing transparent about that decision. It makes no sense.

ROSSETTI: Well, you'll have to interview the finance council and ask them why they made it.

O'BRIEN: All right, tell me, quickly, what you expect to see out of this June meeting when the bishops gather, the U.S. bishops gather in Texas. Will there be some sort of catharsis here that will get this scandal under control?

ROSSETTI: Well, I think there's going to be hopefully a strong apology, a strong admission that we made serious errors and then hopefully a detailed mandatory policy the bishops will have to follow and it'll leave no ambiguity in it.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Father Steve Rossetti, who is a priest and psychologist, joining us from Washington. We appreciate your insights this morning on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

You can log onto cnn.com any time for in depth coverage of the crisis that is rocking the Roman Catholic Church. You can get the latest on the Shanley case and a video file of past stories. All that in the usual place, cnn.com.

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