Thursday, March 22, 2012

Will no one rid us of this meddlesome SNAP?

Our U.S. bishops may be concerned that they have scandalized us with an excess of compassion and good judgment, and so, it is reported, Church Puts Legal Pressure on Abuse Victims’ Group.
"Mr. Donohue [William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights] said leading bishops he knew had resolved to fight back more aggressively against the group: 'The bishops have come together collectively. I can’t give you the names, but there’s a growing consensus on the part of the bishops that they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough. We don’t need altar boys.'

"He said bishops were also rethinking their approach of paying large settlements to groups of victims. 'The church has been too quick to write a check, and I think they’ve realized it would be a lot less expensive in the long run if we fought them one by one,' Mr. Donohue said."
P.S. As I understand Mr. Donohue, bishops got together and concluded that they if they litigated individual cases, they would pay more in legal fees, but would more than make up for that by paying less to people who were molested as children by priests. First, if that's true, then what worse allegation has been made against our bishops, by SNAP or anyone else? Second, this "tough" approach appears to assume that the bishops will take cases to trial, which means they will testify before a jury. Experience indicates they will, in fact, pay big money or file bankruptcy at that prospect.

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