On the heels of a settlement with an insurance company seeking compensation for sex abuse payouts – the culmination of a 10-year legal battle – the Roman Catholic bishop for Southwestern Ontario is issuing a sweeping statement responding to sexual abuse of minors by clergy, to be read at every parish.
Bishop Ronald Fabbro is preparing a written statement that will be delivered as a homily at every mass in the district on the weekend of Sept. 16 – one day before the trial between the diocese and AXA Insurance was set to begin in a London court.
Both sides reached a settlement on June 20, Ontario Superior Court documents obtained by The Free Press show.
The details of the settlement have not been released. AXA Insurance had been seeking repayment of $10 million in settlements given to sex abuse victims – including those of Charles Sylvestre and John Harper – in relation to unproven allegations the diocese had exposed the insurer to higher risk by shuffling problem priests among parishes.
The lawyer for the diocese, John Downing, declined comment Friday.
The settlement ends a decade-long legal battle between the diocese and the insurer. The diocese initiated the legal proceedings against the insurance company in 2008 after it refused to pay out claims in two sexual abuse cases. AXA Insurance filed a counterclaim seeking $10 million.
In a statement, the Diocese of London said it is pleased the legal matter is resolved, but declined to disclose further details.
“There are confidentiality clauses as part of the settlement with AXA Insurance and so I am not able to comment further,” spokesperson Nelson Couto said in an email.
The exact content of Fabbro’s statement to parishioners Sept. 16 in the works, Couto said. The address is meant to coincide with the day of Our Lady of Sorrows, an annual observance Catholics worldwide mark Sept. 15.
Every year, the diocese holds a special mass for survivors of clergy sexual abuse to pray for “the healing of our families and communities, and for reparation for the sins of clergy-abusers,” Couto said in an email.
Hard copies of the Letter to the Faithful will also be available at the more than 130 parishes in the diocese – a district that includes 440,000 church members across Southwestern Ontario, from Windsor to Huron County.
The address will express the bishop’s thoughts on “issues in the USA, their effect on us here in this diocese, and the Diocese of London’s response over the years to what Bishop Fabbro has called ‘the scourge of sexual abuse,’ ” Couto said.
It’s a scourge the regional diocese knows well.
At least 18 priests in the region have been charged, convicted or sued for sexual abuse, over and above the now-finished civil case with AXA Insurance.
Fabbro’s diocese-wide address comes amid the growing scandal in the Catholic church over its handling of sexual abuse allegations against minors, reignited by a scathing Pennsylvania grand jury report released in July.
The two-year investigation, which probed more than 500,000 pages of internal diocesan documents subpoenaed by the state attorney general, uncovered credible allegations against more than 300 priests across Pennsylvania’s six dioceses.
The report identified more than 1,000 children, but the grand jury believes the actual number of children affected is in the thousands.
The bombshell report has pushed other states to take action too.
On Thursday the New York State attorney launched a clergy abuse hotline and online complaint system, part of an ongoing civil investigation by the office into faulty reviews of sexual abuse allegations or potential coverups.
But the sweeping address from the London diocese bishop addressing sexual abuse isn’t nearly enough for London lawyer Rob Talach, who has represented clients in lawsuits against the diocese for many years.
“It’s a defensive move . . . What can they say?” he said. “Some pronouncement of letter from the pulpit is going to do anything for anybody . . . The vast majority of reasonable folks are going to look at this for what it is, which is a PR action.”
from Chatham Daily News https://ift.tt/2wT5gMk
via IFTTT https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
No comments: