Monday, June 27, 2005

Priest warns California scandal hardly over


This morning's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Father Thomas Doyle spoke Sunday at St. Matthias Church to the local chapter of Voice of the Faithful. He indicated the worst of the clergy sex scandal is still to come.
"The epicenter is California," Doyle said. "One diocese just paid out $36 million, and the Diocese of Orange paid out $110 million. When Los Angeles bursts, it will make Boston look like an altar boys' picnic."

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is involved in several pending California cases.
After the first sex scandal hit in Louisiana in 1984, Doyle was one of the authors of a report that urged America's bishops to minister to abuse victims, form a national crisis intervention team and research the impact of the abuse on the victims. He labeled the report as confidential, sure that the bishops would deal with it promptly.


"It was scuttled," said Doyle, who was an aide to the pope's top diplomat in Washington, D.C., at the time. "I was never contacted by any of the bishops after that." ...


Doyle described himself as an accidental whistle-blower. The reaction of the bishops stunned him.


Did he quietly go away, believing there was no point ever bringing another problem to their attention? He gives the impression he concluded that's just what the bishops wanted.

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