Lawsuit settlement talks stalled in several dioceses

Published: 2004-06-25

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As the U.S. bishops met behind closed doors near Denver in mid-June, clergy sexual abuse settlement talks appeared stalled in several dioceses and the Dallas Morning News made headlines with a series on priests accused of abuse being sent to assignments abroad. The bishops, who met in the Denver suburb of Englewood June 14-19, voted 207-14 to conduct a second round of audits in each diocese this year to evaluate compliance and assess progress in implementing the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" that they adopted in 2002. As the bishops were gathering, Bishop Tod D. Brown of Orange, Calif., stayed home in case he was needed during three days of intense settlement negotiations June 14-16 between diocesan attorneys and lawyers for some 300 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse in his diocese. Although the diocese reportedly offered some $40 million for a global settlement, the talks ended without a resolution. Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., in a letter read in parishes June 19-20, said the current impasse in settlement talks over 19 lawsuits there may force the diocese, already heavily in debt, into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection proceedings under the federal Bankruptcy Code.

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