Alleged Victims Weigh Church Offer

Alleged victims of priest sex abuse are considering a proposed settlement that would pay them far less than an agreement the Boston Archdiocese backed out of four months ago, but it's far from a done deal, the plaintiffs' lawyer said Wednesday.

Cardinal Bernard Law's attorney said Tuesday that the Roman Catholic archdiocese had reached a tentative settlement with dozens of alleged sex abuse victims of defrocked priest John Geoghan that would pay a total of $10 million.

At a news conference Wednesday, plaintiffs' lawyer Mitchell Garabedian refused to share that characterization of the proposal.

"There is an offer of $10 million. There has been no acceptance," he said. "To call it tentative would be inaccurate."

One day earlier Garabedian had called the deal "only tentative."

The agreement involves some 86 plaintiffs — 70 who were allegedly sexually abused by Geoghan and 16 relatives of victims — who have sued the archdiocese.

Garbedian said his 86 clients were considering the proposal, but he would not say how many had agreed to it.

"Many have signed, many have not signed," he said Wednesday.

Law's attorney, J. Owen Todd, had said Tuesday that Garabedian told him all but one of the plaintiffs had agreed to the $10 million settlement.

Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Morrissey declined to comment Wednesday on specifics of the proposal.

"Discussions continue but a settlement is not yet finalized," she said.

The previous deal, estimated to be worth as much as $30 million, was announced in March, but the archdiocese backed out in May when its finance council rejected it.

Garabedian said Tuesday he was approaching negotiations with "a lot of caution."

"Historically, I've found the church does not live up to its word," Garabedian said.

The new offer, which has been approved by the finance council, was made in late July before the sides went to court to determine if the earlier settlement was binding, said Todd said.

He added that unlike the settlement announced in March, the church's insurance would cover the entire amount of the current deal.

"The funds are allocated," Todd said.

A settlement in the Geoghan matter, one of the highest profile cases in the national scandal over sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, would lift one of the clouds hanging over Law and the Boston archdiocese.

It would also limit costly litigation and bring an end to a battle over enforcing the previous settlement.

But a settlement would not end the legal difficulties for Law and the archdiocese. There are as many as 300 plaintiffs who have filed suits or are considering legal action. Dozens of Boston-area priests may be the subjects of these civil suits.

The settlement would also not directly affect the civil suits against Law and the archdiocese over alleged abuse by Father Paul Shanley, who faces civil and criminal charges over his alleged serial abuse of children around the archdiocese.

In one criminal case, Shanley has been accused of repeatedly raping a child, sometimes in the confessional of a church, in the 1980s.

The bulk of the civil suits allege that Law and other archdiocesan officials were guilty of a pattern of neglect for allowing Shanley to keep working as a priest even though they knew he was abusing children.

While it started with Geoghan's trial, the sex abuse controversy soon mushroomed into a global scandal involving dozens of priests and bishops. U.S. Catholics were outraged when it emerged that senior Church leaders repeatedly shuttled priests from parish to parish even though they knew the clerics were sexual predators.

Since January the scandal, which Catholic scholars have called the worst crisis to afflict the church in modern times, has forced from office priests and bishops in the United States, Ireland, Poland, Germany and several other countries.

Geoghan, just one of several Boston-area priests facing criminal charges in the scandal, has been convicted of molesting a child and is serving a 10-year prison sentence.

He still faces at least one more trial on sexual abuse charges stemming from accusations by about 130 people that he molested them during his three decades as a Boston-area cleric.