BishopAccountability.org
	Remember, Accused Priests Innocent until Proved Guilty By John Maher Chicago Sun-Times March 4, 2006 http://www.suntimes.com/output/otherviews/cst-edt-ref04b.html At a news conference in Turin on Feb. 9, the day before speedskater Chris Witty was to lead the U.S. Olympic team into the opening ceremony of the Turin Games, she described how a neighbor, a married man, had sexually abused her as a child in a Milwaukee suburb. A week earlier, the Rev. Daniel McCormack, a priest of the Chicago archdiocese, was charged with aggravated sexual abuse of an 11-year-old boy. He had earlier been charged with abusing two other children. Witty, who won a gold medal in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, said the trusted neighbor had begun abusing her when she was 4 years old and had continued until she was 11. In Witty's case, the offender apparently was not sued civilly and made no payment of damages, as is true in most cases of sexual abuse of children. On the day of Witty's news conference, the 11-year-old boy claiming sexual abuse by McCormack and his mother sued Cardinal Francis George and the Chicago Archdiocese for negligence in allowing the priest to remain as pastor of a parish after allegations of sexual abuse had been made. McCormack has not been convicted of any crime. Cases of sexual abuse of children are not rare. Roughly 1.15 million cases were reported between 1990 and 2002. In 1990, there were 119,000; the number was down to 88,000 in 1999 and remained at about that number up to 2002, the latest year of publication of government statistics for such offenses. In April 2002, Time magazine cited studies indicating that half of child sexual abusers are the parents of the victims, and 18 percent are other relatives of the victims. Pedophiles also include teachers, coaches, Scout masters and others who work with youngsters. Priests accused of sexual abuse of children are a fraction of 1 percent of all such abusers. Ideally, there should be no priest who sexually abuses a child, but, ideally, no parent should sexually abuse a child. To turn from the ideal to financial reality, while most sexual abusers of children are not sued for damages, Catholic dioceses have been sued for negligence for not removing accused priests from ministry. Since the 1950s, the Catholic Church in the United States has spent about $1 billion in costs related to child sex abuse cases. In January 2005, the diocese of Orange, Calif., agreed to a $100 million settlement in a suit involving about 90 plaintiffs, who alleged abuse between 1936 and 1996 by 44 persons, including 31 priests and two nuns. Payments to individuals ranged from about $500,000 to $4 million. A report published by the Chicago Archdiocese in January 2003 said that, in the past 40 years, 55 allegations of sexual abuse of children by 36 archdiocesan priests were determined to be founded. Other allegations had been found to be foundless accusations of innocent priests. At the time the report was published, there had been no allegations of sexual misconduct in the previous 12 years. The archdiocese had spent $7.9 million on counseling, settlements, and other forms of assistance to victims. It had spent $4.3 million on legal fees, including $1.3 million to defend a priest and school principal found not guilty by a jury. The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was accused of sexual abuse by a former seminarian who later recanted. Contrary to the traditional legal principle, priests accused of sexual abuse of children are apparently deemed guilty until proved innocent. Moreover, while conviction in a criminal trial requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard for finding liability in a civil suit for damages is less rigorous, and settlements are sometimes made both to avoid the cost of the trial and the possibility of a jury finding that is more costly than a settlement. The pain experienced by sexual abuse victims is real and deserves compensation, but, as the latest episode in the scandal unfolds, it should be remembered that false accusations have been made and that very few priests have been found, in fact, to have sexually abused children. John Maher is a free-lance writer from Jefferson Park.
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