US Cardinal Paid Sexually Abusive Priests $20,000 to Quit

Press TV
May 31, 2012

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/31/243961/us-cardinal-paid-abusive-priests-to-quit/

US Catholic Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan

An American Catholic cardinal in New York has authorized payments of up to $20,000 as an incentive to priests that were sexually abusive for agreeing to dismissal from priesthood.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, who is president of the national bishops' conference and rapidly rising in stature as the nation's most high-profile Roman Catholic cleric, first rejected the charge at the time, when he was archbishop of the City of Milwaukee, but a new document reveals that he indeed did make the payments, The New York Times reports Thursday.

Questioned at the time about reports that one of the particularly notorious pedophile cleric had been given a "payoff" to leave the priesthood, Dolan, then the archbishop, responded that such an inference was "false, preposterous and unjust," according to the report.

However, a document unearthed in bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and made public by victims' advocates reveals that the archdiocese did indeed make such payments to multiple accused priests in efforts to persuade them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to stop making wage payments to them.

According to the Times report, a spokesman for the archdiocese confirmed on Wednesday that payments of up to $20,000 were made to "a handful" of accused priests "as a motivation" not to contest being defrocked.

The process, says the report, is a formal church juridical procedure that requires Vatican approval, and can take far longer if the priest objects.

"It was a way to provide an incentive to go the voluntary route and make it happen quickly, and ultimately cost less," said Jerry Topczewski, the spokesman for the archdiocese. "Their cooperation made the process a lot more expeditious."

Meanwhile, a victims advocacy group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, sent a protest letter to the current archbishop of Milwaukee on Wednesday asking, "In what other occupation, especially one working with families and operating schools and youth programs, is an employee given a cash bonus for raping and sexually assaulting children?"