Scandal may cost priests' rights

BOSTON -- With the Archdiocese of Boston suspending priests on suspicion of child molestation and turning their names over to prosecutors, some are warning that the church is moving too fast and that priests' rights are being trampled.

"It's almost like a movie -- you're convicted and then they try you," said Michael Higgins, a former priest who is the head of Justice for Priests and Deacons, an organization founded by canon lawyers in 1997 to defend the rights of Roman Catholic clergy.

"The bishops are running scared, and the bottom line is they want to protect the diocesan coffers," Higgins said.

In the past month, church officials have given prosecutors the names of 80 priests accused over the past half-century of molesting children. Names of the accused were included in news releases, and 10 active priests were suspended.

The archdiocese could end up paying $30 million to 86 people who sued just one defrocked priest, John J. Geoghan, who was convicted in January of child sex abuse, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday.

The newspaper, citing sources it did not name, said a tentative agreement was reached Monday after 11 months of negotiations.

Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer for the 86 plaintiffs, declined to comment Tuesday, saying nothing had been signed. "We don't even have a final draft," he said.

There was no immediate response to a call seeking comment from archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Morrissey.

The Archdiocese of Boston issued its zero-tolerance policy toward priests accused of child-molestation after reports earlier this year that the church had shuttled Geoghan from parish to parish despite allegations against him.

However, critics say the new system of giving names to prosecutors assumes the accused are guilty.

They point to the case of the Rev. D. George Spagnolia. After he criticized church officials and priests over the sexual abuse scandal, he was accused recently of molesting a boy 31 years ago.

The archdiocese stripped him of his parish and ordered him to move out of the rectory. His name was turned over to prosecutors, and a news release faxed to reporters identified him as the 10th suspended priest.

Spagnolia has denied the allegations and has vowed to challenge the archdiocese.

He has argued that church officials did not have time to conduct even a cursory investigation between first hearing of the accusation Feb. 16 and contacting him Feb. 19.

"All of us are going to be fed to the wolves," Spagnolia said.

He has asked prosecutors to investigate the allegations quickly and clear his name.

The archdiocese would not comment on specific cases, but said it has followed established church policy in reviewing the allegations and meeting with the accuser and the accused. It also stressed that suspensions should not be viewed as a conviction.

Largely because of the Boston scandal, dioceses around the country are under pressure to clean house and remove priests accused of molesting children. Up to a dozen priests in Southern California have been ordered to retire. But it was unclear whether the Archdiocese of Los Angeles would give the priests' names to law enforcement authorities.

The Rev. Robert J. Silva, president of the National Federation of Priests' Councils, said the church must try to strike a balance between canon law, which protects the privacy of a priest and his good name, and the desire to act swiftly on sexual abuse allegations.

"Every priest today lives with a fear that someone will falsely accuse them. That is a terrible anxiety," Silva said.

Unlike government agencies, which are required to provide constitutional due-process protections, private institutions -- and especially religious institutions -- have great latitude in the way they treat their employees.

Jim Sacco, 42, of Amherst, N.H., one of 130 people who say they were abused by Geoghan as children, said that as long as priests' rights are respected the emphasis should be on protecting children.

"I'd rather be in his shoes than in mine," Sacco said of Spagnolia's case. "If he's innocent, then toot your horn and that's fine."

------

On the Net:

Archdiocese: http://www.rcab.org