Kiddy fiddling damn expensive for Catholic church

You’d have to wonder whether at some stage in the past, the Catholic church actively recruited pedophiles into the priesthood. Was sexual attraction to children actually a selection criteria? They could hardly have done worse if that had been their recruitment practice, than what has actually transpired.

The news that the Los Angeles Archdiocese of the Catholic Church has settled 508 claims of alleged sexual abuse by its clergy and lay people, totalling $660m, is a terrible inditement on the church, and its selection of priests and its subsequent management of misconduct allegations. This is on top of an earlier settlement last December of $60m to settle another 45 cases. The total cost of sex abuse claims against the church in the US now tops $2 billion.

And thats the US alone. We have a nice little case brewing here in Canberra, involving a teacher at a local Catholic college, Daramalan, between the years 1988 and 2000. Paul Joseph Lyons committed suicide in 2000 after being charged with indecently assaulting a 15-year-old student at the college in 1989. The plaintiffs’ lawyer said that while it has not been alleged that the college authorities were aware of the sexual abuse, they had been aware of complaints from early on by fellow teachers and parents that Lyons behaved in an overly familiar way with students. This involved regularly inviting three or four boys to his flat on Friday nights, sometimes for overnight stays, or for excursions or camping trips.

Something that staggered me is that the church could actually buy insurance policies to cover sex abuse claims. Thats how institutionalised and widespread the problem had become. Imagine how much better it would have been for the victims, and cheaper for the church, if those in positions of responsibility had acted with decency in dealing with abuse allegations against their clergy, rather than seeing their role as being to deny, cover up and protect the church at all costs.

Update (19/07/2007): For an amusing take on the question of insurance, see here. Picture these as taglines for insurance company advertising:

(”Prudential for Auto, home, fire, theft, penetrating a 10-year-old, with deductibles as low as $44 million.” )

(”At Aetna, we offer wrap-around coverage for everything from sodomy to fondling…”)

(”I accidently penetrated a red-haired six-year old girl and my State Farm Agent was on the scene within minutes.” [I’m State Farm agent Adrian Goodlove and this is a true story…])

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