Settlement not a judgment on accused priests, says archbishop

Published: 2004-09-29

MIAMI (CNS) -- An out-of-court settlement for $1.3 million involving nine civil suits that accused the Miami Archdiocese of negligence does not involve judgment on the guilt or innocence of archdiocesan priests accused of improper conduct with minors, said Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora. The agreement was reached because the settlement sum "is far less than the legal expenses we have already incurred in defending the archdiocese; not to mention what the plaintiffs were originally seeking through their lawsuits," he said in a Sept. 9 letter to archdiocesan priests. The letter was also published in the archdiocesan newspapers, the English-language Florida Catholic and the Spanish-language La Voz Catolica. The $1.3 million settlement was reached through mediation over a period of several weeks. The civil lawsuits involved "never address the question of whether or not the alleged act of sexual misconduct actually occurred," he said. In fact, the accused priests had been dropped as defendants in all of the lawsuits, which centered on the issue of negligence by the archdiocese, not sexual abuse, the archbishop said. "They wanted to sue the archdiocese, not the priests," said Mary Ross Agosta, archdiocesan director of communications. The archdiocese is a target because it has more money than an individual priest, she said. "Given the legal system in this country right now, it's an imperfect resolution to a very difficult situation," said Ross Agosta.

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