Boston Archdiocese to Pay Settlements to 7 Who Say Priests Abused Them

By Amanda Hoover
Boston.com
March 28, 2016

http://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2016/03/28/566713

The Archdiocese of Boston has reached settlements with seven people who say priests sexually abused them for years, according to The Boston Globe. The settlements involve cash and counseling services.

“To a survivor, a settlement represents that the archdiocese has admitted that a claim is valid, has substance, and is credible,” the accusers’ attorney, Mitchel Garabedian, told the Globe. “A settlement helps a survivor try to rid himself or herself of the unnecessary guilt and shame felt as a result of being sexually abused.”

Still, the church’s agreements with the alleged victims lacked any admission of liability. For many survivors, the archdiocese’s response is discouraging.

“What upset me the most through this process was going to the ivory towers of the legal defense people in Boston, and no one from the church ever showing up,” Wayne Rogers, 54, who says he was abused at St. Peter’s Parish in Cambridge as a boy, told the Globe. “No apology. No admitting guilt.”

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, Terrance Donilon, told the Globe that the church “is committed to addressing cases of clergy abuse in a compassionate and just manner.”

Read the full Globe story here.