The Costs Of Penance

The medieval Roman Catholic Church sold indulgences to sinners who thought cash could purchase exoneration in heaven. Today it's the church that is handing out money in hopes of buying forgiveness for itself. The surging scandal over sexual abuse by the priesthood is proving as financially damaging to the church as it is hurtful to the faith, as Catholic dioceses across the country dole out huge sums to victims to compensate them for their pain and keep them silent.

Desperate to put the worst behind it, the Boston archdiocese agreed last week to pay $20 million to $30 million to settle the high-profile lawsuits brought by 86 victims of defrocked priest John Geoghan. But that was hardly all that the scandal has cost Boston's Catholics. In confidential settlements intended to avoid any whiff of publicity, the church, starting in 1994, gave $15 million to a group of victims molested by Geoghan. In one instance, according to the Boston Globe, a single family got $400,000 to hush up the sexually explicit phone calls Geoghan made to the children. And there are at least 120 more claims pending against Geoghan and a dozen other Boston priests that could jack up the total to $100 million.

That may sound, at first, like a lot of hush money. Individual payments in the range of $50,000 to $300,000 will be parceled out to the 86 Geoghan victims on a sliding scale of severity: more for rape, less for a flash of nudity. Yet the cash doesn't go far. In 1992 David Gagnon, 37, quietly settled his suit for three years of sexual molestation by the Rev. Michael Doucette, one of two active Portland, Me., priests suspended March 9. After paying his legal bill, typically one-third of the total award, Gagnon netted $63,000. That kept him going for a year with therapy at $150 an hour. But 22 years after Father Doucette destroyed his trust, Gagnon has yet to regain his emotional footing. "Money can't heal anything," he says. "But it's an important sign that something went wrong. The church needs to acknowledge that."

The pedophile drain on Catholic coffers already is estimated to top $1 billion nationwide. Maine's church spent nearly $1 million to cover up past abuse allegations and is bracing for fresh claims against the two Portland priests. When Florida's Bishop of Palm Beach Anthony O'Connell resigned March 10, after revelations that he had fondled a student 25 years ago, church officials disclosed that they had handed the victim $125,000 to quash a lawsuit in 1996. In the past decade, four dioceses (see chart) have laid out $96.2 million in settlements. And these are only the ones that have become public; the vast majority carry confidentiality agreements that continue to conceal the full extent of priest misconduct and church payouts.