Mediating church scandals

As lawsuits on alleged sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy proliferate around the US, both the church and victim-survivors are looking increasingly to mediation to resolve claims more quickly and comprehensively.

Both sides can benefit from mediation. But whether it serves the deeper concerns of protecting children and restoring confidence in the church depends, some say, on how it is pursued and how it is backed by the courts.

Through mediation, dioceses can avoid costly court battles, respond more equitably to large numbers of victims, and shape a pastoral response to the crisis. Victims can avoid intrusive background investigations as well as reliving their trauma in public trial, get support for therapy, and gain the acknowledgment they see as essential for healing.

"There is growing interest in mediation for many reasons, not least of which is the spiritual aspect to this crisis," says mediator Paul Finn of Brockton, Mass. "This is not like a regular personal-injury case. It has affected the core of people, both the abused and the true believers."

Indeed, as mediation comes to the fore in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Boston, Cleveland, and elsewhere, many are looking for more from the process than monetary settlement. But at the same time, some survivors and attorneys say that if the timing is wrong, mediation may simply prevent public disclosure of records they term necessary to expose the problem and start the healing.

"One lesson learned from Boston is that full disclosure is crucial," says David Clohessy, director of SNAP, a survivor self-help group. "While mediation offers benefits, there is also a potential downside - that people never learn the full truth."

At the start of 2003, as California's new law waiving the statute of limitations on abuse cases for one year took effect, two lawyers who had been poised to file more than 100 lawsuits agreed instead to mediate with the Los Angeles and Orange County dioceses.

"This is frankly a disturbing development," says Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minn., lawyer who has handled some 500 Catholic abuse cases. Mr. Anderson is pursuing mediation in several venues. But "it's all a matter of timing. You don't do it on the front end of an issue as burning as this one," he insists. "You do it after the information has surfaced, after the perpetrators have been exposed.... This is a peril to the purposes of this law and smacks of a backroom deal."

Ray Boucher, a lawyer Anderson works with on California cases, last Thursday asked a judge to order the L.A. archdiocese to produce personnel records of priests named in allegations. The archdiocese agreed to provide some, but complained the list requested was too extensive, according to the Los Angeles Times. The judge asked that they start the process.

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