BALTIMORE (MD)
WBAL NewsRadio [Baltimore MD]
July 8, 2024
By Phil Yacuboski and Katarina Hein
[Includes statement by SNAP’s David Lorenz.]
Both the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the committee representing survivors of sex abuse said they have not gone through mediation just yet.
It’s not clear how much money survivors of the sex abuse scandal will receive. That could take another year.
“We are also here to make sure survivors are paid fairly and that children, most importantly, are protected going forward,” Paul Zdunek, chairman of the Survivors’ Committee, said.
The number of those who have filed claims against the archdiocese is more than 700. Archbishop William Lori said while the process has been painful, they would do their best to provide appropriate compensation.
“We will work constructively, with the committee and the mediation team to arrive at what the final settlement will be and we will do our best to provide appropriate compensation,” Lori said.
The archdiocese originally filed for bankruptcy in September 2023 amid allegations of clergy sexually abusing children over eight decades. The church filed for bankruptcy just days before a law allowing sexual abuse victims to sue the church at any age was set to take effect.
This law also raised the cap on noneconomic damages to $1.5 million per incident and does not cap economic or punitive damages.
More recently, near the end of May 2024, the opportunity to file to join a class-action lawsuit against the church closed. Today’s announcement follows the Catholic Church closing dozens of parishes in and around Baltimore.
In a lengthy statement, David Lorenz, the Maryland director of the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests, holds Lori in contempt, writing:
“The press conference today involving Paul Zdunek and the Archdiocese of Baltimore came as a surprise to many survivors and the survivor organization. We respect the fact that Paul, as lead for the Creditor’s Committee, has every right to hold a private press conference. Indeed, he may find the need for such an event. He has been granted the authority by the bankruptcy to engage with the diocese.
“However, we in the survivor community, and as members of SNAP, have seen firsthand how the diocese has obfuscated facts and misled the public in its pronouncements. While Archbishop Lori may not have been in Baltimore during many of the abuse cases before him, he was bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut, when abuse happened in that diocese. He was in Baltimore when the Catholic Church vehemently resisted passage of the Child Victim’s Act (CVA) and sent misleading information to legislators. When the investigative docuseries ‘The Keepers‘ was about to be released, the diocese dismissed it as ‘fiction’ but then later quietly admitted that there were no inaccuracies in the series.
“Archbishop Lori has been in Baltimore for more than 12 years. During that time, never once did the archbishop attempt to identify the more than 40 abusers that were uncovered by the attorney general’s report that was released just last year. In fact, the archdiocese refused to release the names of the redacted abusers and enablers contained in that report. They falsely claimed that they were prohibited, by law, from releasing those 15 names. The attorney general himself stated that the diocese could release the names and they were not bound by the law that prohibited the AG from releasing them.
“Working closely with the survivor community and having to routinely deal with the inaccuracies, the stonewalling and the misleading statements coming from the diocese has given us a unique perspective on the workings of the diocese. With no disrespect to Paul or the Creditor’s Committee, we believe that the diocese is the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. We hold Archbishop Lori responsible for retraumatizing survivors by resisting the CVA and then declaring bankruptcy even before the law went into effect. Even now, Lori is behind the effort to have the CVA ruled unconstitutional.”