Tuesday, July 17, 2007 Cabaero: Transparency in abuse cases By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
THERE are lessons the Catholic Church in the Philippines can learn from the historic decision of the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the United States to settle abuse cases filed against its priests.
The archdiocese of Los Angeles in the United States may be thousands of miles away but the Catholic Church in the Philippines can pick up a few tips on how to address problems of abuses by some of its wayward members.
The Associated Press reported Sunday from Los Angeles that the Roman Catholic archdiocese there has settled its abuse cases for $660 million, or a little over a million dollars to be paid to each victim, the biggest payout ever from this flood of abuse claims initiated by the victims.
The deal was reached after years of discussion between Church officials and victims who have come out in the open to reveal details of the abuse they had suffered in the hands of wayward priests and bishops.
Some of the affected dioceses have declared bankruptcy to get protection from the claims filed by those seeking compensation for the physical and moral hurt. Other dioceses have resorted to selling their real property to raise funds to pay the settlement.
Crucial to the process of settlement would be the disclosure of personnel files of the priests in order for the judge to review and oversee the litigation.
What the archdiocese in Los Angeles showed was that these complaints against priests have to be followed through, they cannot just be kept under wraps and away from public examination. The presumed innocence of the accused priests can still be recognized, as part of the due process, but being a member of the Church should not equate to special protection.
In the planned settlement in Los Angeles, plaintiffs and their lawyers are hoping that the disclosure of the priests’ personnel files and the case documents would determine if archdiocesan leaders were involved in covering up the crimes and in protecting the priests.
“Transparency is a critical part of this and of all resolutions,” said Ray Boucher, the plaintiff’s lawyer, in the report.
The deal is seen also as a way to avoid messy and embarrassing litigation as court hearings on those cases were about to begin.
It does not necessarily follow that the settlement decision in the US would result in multimillion-peso payouts to victims of abusive clergy members in the Philippines. But the requirement of transparency and the call for the cases to be pursued and hopefully settled are lessons that can be applied to local incidents.
The Philippines is known in Asia as having the biggest Roman Catholic population. The Catholic Church here has a reputation to keep amid the cases that have cropped up through the years over abuse in the hands of some clergy members.
The settlement decision by the Los Angeles archdiocese is an example of how the Church can try to avoid long-drawn messy hearings by offering information that otherwise would have been kept from the complainants and by finding ways to somehow pay for the damages caused.
Such action, as the one made by the Los Angeles archdiocese, would only strengthen the people’s faith in the institution.
