Harrisburg Diocese puts millions of dollars into fund to start paying clergy sex abuse victims

By Ivey Dejesus
Penn Live
February 12, 2019

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/02/harrisburg-diocese-rolls-out-compensation-fund-for-victims-of-clergy-sex-abuse-no-monetary-amounts-set.html

The Diocese of Harrisburg on Tuesday rolled out a program that will pay out millions of dollars in private settlements to victims of clergy sex abuse. Photo by Vicki Vellios Briner

Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer PennLive File

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg on Tuesday rolled out a program that will pay out millions of dollars to victims of clergy sex abuse - but disclosed no specific dollar amount for the fund, or details on the size of individual amounts that will go to victims.

The diocese’s so-called Survivor Compensation Program will be administered by Commonwealth Mediation & Conciliation, Inc. and will be effective immediately for three months.

Private settlements to individual victims will be determined by the fund administrator. The diocese said it has set aside a “substantial” amount of money in the millions to fund the compensation program. Within 14 days of the close of the claims period, the fund administrators will notify all claimants as to their eligibility.

Settlement offers to the claimants will be made on or before June 28.

Harrisburg joins five other dioceses across the state and the Philadelphia Archdiocese in establishing a compensation fund for victims. The dioceses rolled out the programs in the wake of a scathing grand jury report released in August 2018 detailing the horrific and widespread sexual abuse of thousands of minors over seven decades by hundreds of priests in six Catholic dioceses, including Harrisburg. Nearly identical patterns of abuse were previously found several years ago in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia by a local grand jury investigation.

While the Diocese of Harrisburg has contracted Commonwealth Mediation & Conciliation, the other dioceses have hired veteran compensation fund coordinator Ken Feinberg to design and operate their programs. Feinberg and associate Camille Biros have handled victims compensation funds across five New York dioceses in recent years.

The Harrisburg compensation program will include settlements for abuse by diocesan priests, deacons and seminarians, as well as clergy from other dioceses and religious order priests who had faculties in the Diocese of Harrisburg at the time of the abuse.

Historically, payouts from compensation funds have generally been far less than court settlements. For example, some jury verdicts in other, similar sexual abuse cases have resulted in awards for victims in the tens of millions of dollars. Cash awards from compensation funds have paid considerably less.

To participate in the program, a “claimant” must have previously identified themselves to the diocese on or before Feb. 11.

The claims period will run for 90 days, from Feb. 12 through May 13. Victims and survivors who come forward after the Feb. 11 deadline will be considered for future participation in the program.

Participation in the Survivor Compensation Program does not disqualify survivors from receiving additional counseling through the Victim Assistance Coordinator and Catholic Charities.

In a press release, the diocese stated that funding for the Survivor Compensation Program will come in the form of a loan from the Priest’s Retirement Fund, other existing diocesan assets and “hopefully from insurance proceeds.”

Money that is collected in the parishes and for the Diocesan Annual Campaign (formerly known as the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal) will not go towards the funding of the program.

In the written statement, Bishop Ronald W. Gainer said the program represented another step forward in the diocese’s efforts to show our support to survivors of clergy child sexual abuse.

“While we understand that financial compensation will not repair or erase the heartache and damage done by the abuse these survivors have suffered, we hope and pray this support can help to improve their lives," Gainer said. "These settlements will serve as further recognition that the Church acknowledges these terrible abuses did occur and we hope that this Program will help advance survivors on their path towards healing.

“As I have spoken with survivors and parishioners during our listening sessions on this subject, one consistent message was delivered and is that many survivors want a chance to sit down and tell their story. The Survivor Compensation Program we have established will allow survivors, if they so choose, to sit down with our Program Administrators and discuss the abuses that took place. We believe these discussions are an important part of this process and we hope they will aid in the healing process by providing the survivors an opportunity to be heard and a chance to know we believe them."

Victims advocate and attorney Marci Hamilton applauded the Harrisburg compensation program, noting that it comes on the heels of a legislative overhaul of child sex crime laws in New York.

“Many survivors are in need and as we learned in New York, these settlements can be a good avenue for the victim who cannot or does not want to face the rigors of a lawsuit,” said Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania law professor and CEO of CHILD USA. “It is also a another positive sign that Pennsylvania bishops are following NY Cardinal Dolan’s example, who in the end supported the Child Victims Act as the right thing for all child sex abuse victims.”

The New York Child Victims Act will be signed into law Thursday.

Hamilton cautioned that compensation funds “cannot be the last word for Pennsylvania’s victims.”

“Window legislation is still necessary,” she said. “The Catholic victims deserve a choice between the fund and a lawsuit, and the vast majority of victims have nothing to do with the Church.”

Shaun Dougherty, who as a child was molested by a priest from the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, echoed Hamilton’s sentiment that the fund should not signal the end of efforts to reform Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations.

“The effort to reform the statute of limitations should definitely continue to move forward,” he said. “I’m not necessarily opposed to a compensation fund as long as it is meant truly to compensate and help the victim maintain a relatively good quality of life and it’s not just a cost-saving measure for the church. Are the administrators of the funds compensating the victims of Pennsylvania more or less than the administrators are being compensated themselves?”

The Survivor Compensation Program will be administered independently from the diocese by Paul Finn of Commonwealth Mediation & Conciliation.

Finn and his firm have led similar programs for the Archdiocese of Boston, the dioceses of Fall River (MA), Providence (RI), Springfield (MA) and Jackson (MS). The firm also oversaw the fund for the Big Dig Tunnel Collapse (Boston, MA).