SPOKANE (WA)
KGW
12/12/2004
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS / Associated Press
The Roman Catholic church in Spokane educates thousands of school children, operates the state's second largest hospital, runs multimillion-dollar charities and provides for the spiritual needs of some 90,000 people.
But much is at risk because nearly 60 victims of child sex abuse and their lawyers are seeking more than $70 million in damages.
This is the central conundrum of the child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the nation's largest church: How do you square the needs of victims who have courageously stepped forward to expose decades of abuse, while preserving all the good things the church does?
Victims insist they are not out to destroy the church, and should be commended for coming forward to expose a decades-long conspiracy of silence.
"We're all sick and tired of this thing," said Michael Ross, a local leader of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, who has sued the Spokane Diocese.
The diocese has known since at least 1944 that some priests were pedophiles, and did not take enough steps to protect children, Ross said. Offender priests would still be shuffled among parishes and free to molest more children if victims had not come forward, Ross said.
Posted by kshaw at December 12, 2004 08:27 AM