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	Priest Who Warned of Abuse Crisis to Talk By Stephanie Innes Arizona Daily Star [Tucson AZ] March 3, 2006 http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/118379 The Dominican priest who authored a now-famous warning during the 1980s that the U.S. Catholic Church would face a crisis surrounding the sexual abuse of children by priests will be in Tucson for a public talk this weekend. The Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, once a canon lawyer for the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., in 1985 authored a confidential report on the church's sex-abuse problem. The report resurfaced in 2002 amid a national crisis over priests sexually abusing children. Doyle will talk about "What the Clergy Abuse Phenomenon Is Trying to Tell Us" at St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church, 602 N. Wilmot Road, near East Fifth Street, on Saturday. "He was a whistle-blower who was marginalized and he's now the No. 1 advocate for victims and survivors of sexual abuse by clergy," said Frank Douglas of the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful, which is sponsoring the talk. Voice of the Faithful is a national lay Catholic group that formed in the wake of the national sex-abuse crisis that erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002. "I think he's like a prophet from the Old Testament," Douglas said. Doyle gave a deposition in civil cases over the sexual abuse of priests against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson. He has told the Arizona Daily Star that the local scandal, which cost the Tucson diocese $36 million, was an incredible case of coverup on par with what occurred in Boston. The Tucson diocese paid $14 million in 2002 to 10 men who said they were sexually abused by four members of the local clergy during the 1960s, '70s and '80s. Faced with another 22 potentially expensive and embarrassing lawsuits, the diocese in 2004 filed for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The diocese emerged from bankruptcy in September after agreeing to fund a $22.2 million settlement trust for people with valid claims of sexual abuse. According to tallies from The Associated Press and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the national scandal has cost the Catholic Church in the United States at least $1 billion. Some of the larger settlements with people who say they were abused by clergy included $85 million from the Archdiocese of Boston; $100 million from the Diocese of Orange, Calif.; and $120 million from the Diocese of Covington, in Kentucky. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is facing hundreds of lawsuits over sexual abuse but has not said if it will settle. • Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or sinnes@azstarnet.com. Go to www.azstarnet.com/faith for other recent religion coverage.
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