PROVIDENCE / Updated 6:17 p.m. -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of
Providence has reached a $13.5 million settlement with most of the
victims who filed lawsuits accusing clergy of sexual abuse, church
officials said today.
The settlement affects all but two of the plaintiffs and comes about a
decade after 38 lawsuits were filed by men and women who accused 11
clergy of molesting them while they were children.
"This is a day long sought that brings to an end the difficult and often
contentious process of litigation that has been painful for most
concerned," the Most Rev. Robert E. Mulvee, bishop of Providence, said
in a statement.
"I hope that this action will be helpful to the victims of abuse and
bring them in some way closer to closure and reconciliation with their
God, their church, their families and themselves."
The diocese will seek both internal and external financing to cover the
cost of the settlement, and the financing will be paid within 10 to 15
years, church officials said.
Carl P. DeLuca, a Cranston lawyer representing 32 of the plaintiffs,
said in a statement:
"In addition to the monetary settlements, our clients received something
that victims of sexual abuse hardly ever receive; they received an
apology and a chance for closure.
"They also received a promise that the diocese would continue to pay for
their uncovered therapy costs, and that the process to receive that
benefit would be overhauled to ensure that the claims are processed
expeditiously."
"As bishop of Providence, I reach out with deep sadness to the victims,"
Mulvee told reporters as several victims sat just a few feet away in a
conference room this afternoon at the diocese's headquarters. "It is
their pain that motivates this" settlement.
"Listening to him today, I felt he was sincere," said Anita Guilbeault,
43, of Lincoln, who was abused as a teenager by her parish priest. "I
feel emancipated."
Timothy J. Conlon, a lead lawyer in the cases, shook Mulvee's hand as
news cameras captured the moment both sides called "historic." Conlon
thanked the bishop for signing off on the settlement and for apologizing
to his clients.
"Your heartfelt condolences and reaching out to my clients means more to
them than anything I could bring," Conlon said. "It's more
than you had to do and it's the right thing. ... I applaud your
courage."
The settlement comes after Superior Court Judge Robert D. Krause ordered
the diocese this summer to release certain documents that the church had
claimed were protected under the "clergy-penitent" privilege.
Lawyers for a host of plaintiffs have sought any information officials
in the diocese had about priests accused of abuse, and when they
obtained that information.
Earlier this year, the lead attorneys on the lawsuits asked the diocese
for $15 million immediately, and another $8 million over four years, to
settle the cases.
The diocese's finance council decided it did not wish to settle with a
lump sum.
The Providence diocese owns valuable real estate that attorneys for
alleged victims of clergy abuse have said are shielded from the public.
The diocese has $97 million in assets, according to its December
financial statement. But the record does not include properties it owns.
Attorneys for alleged abuse victims estimate the value of one diocese
corporation alone, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence, to be $44.6
million.
The unreported assets in that enterprise include the famed Aldrich
Mansion in Warwick, which moviemakers used for the 1998 film "Meet Joe
Black" because it resembles the French residences of the late Duke and
Duchess of Windsor. Another holding is a mansion in the Watch Hill
summer enclave of Westerly. The bishop corporation also owns several
beachfront properties and land in Foster, Exeter, Smithfield,
Middletown, Portsmouth and Cumberland.
The diocese has not confirmed the bishop corporation's valuation, said
spokesman William Halpin.
Rhode Island is the most Catholic state in the nation, with 63 percent
of residents baptized in the Catholic faith. There are about 624,000
Catholics in the state, which has a population of about 1 million
people. There are 421 priests at the state's 157 parishes.
The Diocese of Providence consists of 250 corporations, all of them
headed by Bishop Mulvee. They include: charities, schools, parishes, and
investment funds. Each is listed as a separate company. The diocese has
added nine new corporations since the sexual-abuse lawsuits began in
1993.
U.S. religious organizations are not required by law to report their
tax-exempt holdings to the government. A 1954 amended state law allows
the bishop to hold an unlimited amount of land tax-free in his name,
with virtually no reporting requirements.
Last week, The Providence Journal reported that the diocese had reached
tentative financial settlements in dozens of the lawsuits the church has
been fighting for 10 years.
The settlement is one of a number since the clergy-abuse scandal swept
across the nation.
It represents an abrupt shift in legal strategy, coming after years of
vigorous litigation, in which the diocese has refused to relinquish
files, has demanded as many as 400 documents from each plaintiff, and
has continually sought to have all but four of the lawsuits dismissed on
arguments that they violated statutes of limitations.
-- With Associated Press and Journal staff reports
