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	Orange County Woman Offers Insight into Priest Abuse Settlements By Chase Squires The Associated Press, carried in Press-Enterprise [Denver CO] May 26, 2006 http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California2/Church_Abuse_238962CA.shtml Two years after mediators put a $1.6 million price on her pain, Joelle Casteix said she wasn't surprised to learn that Denver Catholic officials offered private mediation to people who say they were sexually abused by priests. Casteix was one of 90 plaintiffs who settled with the Orange County, Calif., diocese in 2004 for a total of $100 million. She said she had been sexually assaulted by a teacher when she was a student in a Catholic high school. But Casteix said more important than the money were the church documents she got in the settlement, which she said show the diocese knew about the abuse and did nothing to stop it. "I didn't care about the financial part," Casteix said. With the documents in her possession, "the church can't touch me now. The church can't say that I'm crazy." When the settlement was announced, Bishop Tod D. Brown, leader of the Orange County diocese, sounded contrite. "Nothing is more important than the protection of our children and our youth," he said. "I seek their forgiveness, I hope for reconciliation and I know that they have now begun their healing process." Mediation is the rule, not the exception, for church abuse cases, experts say. The Archdiocese of Denver announced its mediation offer this week, saying a "significant" amount of money had been set aside for settlements. It did not say how much. Attorneys for 30 people who have sued the archdiocese reacted skeptically. One lawyer said he would be reluctant to negotiate with the church unless its internal documents were made available. Casteix said that without the feeling of validation that such documents bring, a cash settlement "turns into blood money. Who wants blood money?" "We want justice and accountability," she said. Denver archdiocese spokeswoman Jeanette DeMelo said critics of mediation are overlooking a big benefit it offers: speed. Archbishop Charles Chaput said mediation could avoid a lengthy court battle. "The healing process for plaintiffs can begin now, not years from now," he said when he announced the offer. Former Boulder District Judge Richard Dana, picked by the archdiocese to lead the proposed mediation panel, said no side leaves mediation entirely happy because the end result is a compromise. But it saves time and money, and if they reject mediation, both sides risk much larger losses at trial. "It's a tool that puts the parties in a process that kind of forces them to consider, 'Are we going to settle this case?'" he said. Barbara Blaine, founder of the advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said Casteix and others in Orange County had a big advantage in their negotiations when California lifted the statute of limitations for one year, allowing lawsuits over long-ago allegations. A Colorado measure that would have allowed civil suits in old cases died in the Legislature this year. Blaine came to the state to lobby for passage. Blaine accepted an $80,000 settlement from the church in 1994 over her allegations of sexual abuse by a priest, but she said the money didn't bring her happiness. Her alleged abuser did not apologize, and after attorney fees, she estimates the settlement didn't cover the cost of her therapy. She said some church officials try to negotiate settlements to keep allegations quiet. "It's somewhat insulting to victims to hold out this carrot 'Here, come and get some money.' It's never been about the money," she said. "What the victims want is full disclosure. They want the names of those predators and who sheltered those predators," she said. Retired therapist and former priest A.W. Richard Sipe in La Jolla, Calif., said although the majority of priest abuse cases are settled by mediation, it isn't necessarily best for victims. Some victims may never feel fully healed, he said. And the church, without full disclosure, keeps too many secrets and misses an opportunity to make things right inside the organization. "The (church's) first rule is 'settle silently, settle and impose secrecy,'" Sipe said. "They are keeping it secret, they have kept it secret, they are still trying to keep it secret."
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