Indiana lawsuits latest in nationwide movement
Indiana lawsuits latest in nationwide movement
http://www.tribstar.com/articles/2005/11/07/news/top_stories_yesterday/top03.txt
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By Stephanie Salter/Tribune-Star
Over
the past few months, four Indiana men have filed civil lawsuits against
the former Rev. Harry E. Monroe for sexual abuse they allegedly
suffered as children. With the suits, the men join a growing population
of disillusioned Catholics who have turned to public courts for
remediation of sins they say their church repeatedly committed and
covered up.
Few dioceses in the nation are unsullied.
In
some instances, former priests have been convicted and jailed for
decades-old sex abuse of children. More frequently, dioceses have paid
multimillion-dollar settlements to plaintiffs who brought their charges
of sex crimes committed by clergy or other church employees to the
civil court arena.
Among the most publicized cases is a $120
million settlement between the Boston Archdiocese and 552 people who
testified they were sexually abused by priests as children and suffered
further through systematic secrecy and negligence by church hierarchy.
Most recently in
Philadelphia, a three-year grand jury investigation culminated in one
of the most blistering reports ever issued on the subject. Detailed
accusations against 63 priests were outlined in a 418-page document
released in September.
Using files that had been kept, according
to canon law, for access only by a few archdiocesan officials, the
jurors said they found ample evidence, not only of graphic sexual and
physical abuse by priests but of cover-ups and misinformation by two
previous cardinals, Anthony Bevilaqua and John Krol, and other diocesan
officials.
The report stated: To protect themselves from
negative publicity or expensive lawsuits - while keeping abusive
priests active - the cardinals and their aides hid the priests' crimes
from parishioners, police and the general public.
The report
said the grand jury regrettably could indict no one because the statute
of limitations for reporting the alleged crimes had long since expired
and because the archdiocese is an unincorporated association, not a
corporation.
After the report was published, District
Attorney Lynne Abraham's office added: The archdiocese and its lawyers
obstructed the grand jury's investigation at every turn, a charge
archdiocesan officials deny.
Philadelphia Archbishop Justin
Rigali issued a public apology following the report, saying, The
archdiocese acknowledges and completely repents mistakes made in the
handling of some cases. The archdiocese, however, also filed a 73-page
rebuttal to the grand jury document and church officials characterized
the report as vile, mean-spirited and demonstrative of a definite
anti-Catholic bias.
The Indianapolis Archdiocese currently
faces a dozen lawsuits accusing various priests or ex-priests of
sexually abusing children who are now adults. Thus far, the archdiocese
has not paid to settle any previous molestation claims.
The most
recent four plaintiffs, who filed separate suits in Marion County
District Court, are represented by Patrick Noaker, a Minnesota
attorney. He says his clients are among at least a dozen males who
allegedly were molested by Monroe.
Ordained in 1974, Monroe
served in five Indiana Catholic parishes until his priestly faculties
were revoked in 1984 because of allegations of sexual misconduct. Only
the Vatican can de-frock a priest and, according to the archdiocese,
that appears not to have occurred in Monroe's case.
Monroe came to St. Patrick's Church in Terre
Haute in 1979 after assignments in three Indianapolis parishes: St.
Monica, St. Andrew and St. Catherine (now closed). He stayed here two
years, serving as the youth minister. After sex abuse allegations by
several parishioners, Monroe was placed on leave for a year in
mid-1981. He spent what would be his final year as a priest in Perry
County, serving three small parishes.
Along with Monroe, now 57,
the Indianapolis Archdiocese is named as a defendant in the suits.
Church officials are accused of negligence and fraud, among other
charges, in failing to inform parishes of the priest's history and of
repeatedly reassigning him.
In a news conference late last
month, Noaker described two of his clients as altar boys at the time of
the alleged abuse and said they had been given alcohol before being
molested in the priest's residence or on camping trips to Turkey Run
State Park.
According to Noaker and the archdiocese, Monroe is
living in the Nashville, Tenn., area. Noaker said his investigators
have found that the former priest is working in a mental health
treatment center that, among other services, provides treatment for
survivors of sexual abuse.
I have clients who went through the program there, he said.
The attorney added that he does not know in what capacity Monroe works at the center.
Efforts
by the Tribune-Star to contact Monroe were unsuccessful. Neither of
Monroe's attorneys of record, Julie Dixon and Brian Ciyou of
Indianapolis, returned a telephone request for comment.
Susan
Borcherts, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said she could not comment
on any specifics of the litigation, but she emphasized that the church
long ago removed Monroe from his functions as a priest and that she
believed chancery officials had not heard from him for many years.
In
a 2002 letter to Melissa Limcaco, the Terre Haute mother of one of
Monroe's alleged victims, archdiocese chancellor Suzanne Magnant (now
Yakimchick) wrote that, since 1984, archdiocese officials have refused
to recommend Harry Monroe for any work in which he would be in contact
with children.
The archdiocese continues today to urge anyone
who has been molested by any member of the Catholic clergy, religious
or laity, to contact diocesan officials, Borcherts said. If present-day
minors are involved, church officials automatically report accusations
or reasonable suspicions to civil authorities as mandated by state law.
After
the first two suits against Monroe were filed in September, Archbishop
Daniel Buechlein ordered letters to be read aloud in each parish in
which Monroe served, informing people about the lawsuits and restating
archdiocesan sex abuse policies.
Noaker, an Indiana native, is
with Jeff Anderson & Associates, P.A., a St. Paul-based national
law firm that has brought dozens of cases against accused child
molesters in Protestant and Catholic churches as well as in schools.
What
makes Catholic cases different is the actual complicity we've found by
the hierarchy in the crimes, Noaker said. Occasionally, you'll see a
school or other denomination that didn't take a perpetrator out after
they knew, but not often. Can you imagine a school board or parents'
group discussing what to do with a teacher who's known to be molesting
kids and someone saying, Well, you think if maybe we get him
counseling, he'll be OK?'
One of the Anderson firm's most recent endeavors was a $9 million settlement with the diocese of Davenport, Iowa.
Yes,
the money is significant, but it's important to know that 90 percent of
the terms in that three-page settlement in Davenport are non-economic,
said Noaker.
Among the terms agreed to are a published list of
priest perpetrators provided by the diocese and the building of a
monument on diocesan property to atone for the victims' suffering.
It's to be a sculpture of a millstone with that quote from the Bible inscribed, said Noaker.
The
quote is Matthew 18:6: But whoever causes one of these little ones who
believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge
millstone should be hung around his neck and that he should be sunk in
the depths of the sea.
Most of Noaker's clients, said the
attorney, fit an all-too-common pattern: They were doing well in school
and participated in church and social functions until they just took
this mysterious - at the time - turn.
Many turned to alcohol or
drugs, dropped out of school or couldn't stay in college or maintain
relationships. Many never confided the abuse to parents or other clergy
and most of them have needed years of therapy, sometimes accruing
hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses.
The justice piece
to these settlements is important: These folks were wronged and there
has to be some process to right that, Noaker said. But people who
come to me and talk about money, I tend not to take their case.
What
most of my clients need is to feel they've done something to keep this
from happening to anyone else again. Prevention is a really big piece
of this litigation. The fact is, the names of these perpetrators are
not being released publicly - until you file a lawsuit.
Stephanie Salter can be reached at (812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter@tribstar.com.
Story created Nov 07, 2005 - 09:24:01 CST.