MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By MARIE ROHDE
mrohde@journalsentinel.com
Posted: June 26, 2005
Father Thomas Doyle, a priest who was part of the Vatican diplomatic corps 20 years ago when he warned the Catholic hierarchy that they needed to deal promptly with what was to become the sex abuse scandal, said Sunday that the fallout from the scandal is far from over.
"The epicenter is California," Doyle said. "One diocese just paid out $36 million, and the Diocese of Orange paid out $110 million. When Los Angeles bursts, it will make Boston look like an altar boys' picnic."
Doyle, a Dominican priest born in Wisconsin who holds a canon law degree, spoke at a meeting of the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful, a national group that formed in response to the scandal. Nearly 300 attended the meeting in the basement of St. Matthias Catholic Church at 9306 W. Beloit Road.
After the first sex scandal hit in Louisiana in 1984, Doyle was one of the authors of a report that urged America's bishops to minister to abuse victims, form a national crisis intervention team and research the impact of the abuse on the victims. He labeled the report as confidential, sure that the bishops would deal with it promptly.
"It was scuttled," said Doyle, who was an aide to the pope's top diplomat in Washington, D.C., at the time. "I was never contacted by any of the bishops after that."