Eight women who were molested by a local priest as children have settled a lawsuit with the Seattle Archdiocese for $9.1 million.
The eight cases happened between 1968 and 1975, but attorneys say there’s the potential of many more cases involving former priest Michael Cody.
“When a priest gives you attention, you think it’s a really good thing — you’re special — and that’s really powerful,” said Mary Lynch, one of the women who settled with the church this week.
Lynch says 45 years ago, when she was just 8-years old, she was left alone several times with Cody, who her devout Catholic parents trusted faithfully and implicitly.
“I was put in a situation that my parents trusted I was safe and I wasn’t,” Lynch said.
She says Cody knew who to target .
“He was very good at manipulating the families that he should have been serving,” Lynch said.
Cody is one of 77 clergy the Seattle Archdiocese acknowledge sexually abused parishioners — abuse that goes back decades. In 1962 a priest wrote the Archbishop that “father Cody’s character is really pathological … he is now mentally and emotionally seriously sick.”
But the Archdiocese hid cody’s issues, moving him from parish to parish, from St. James in Seattle to Bellingham, LaConner, and eventually St. Charles in Burlington, where he met Lynch.
“If they hadn’t continued to move him from place to place, he would have never been at St. Charles in the first place,” Lynch said.
Lynch’s case is one of the eight settled this week for $9.1 million. All of the cases involved Cody.
“Now with this settlement we are hoping that they will find some measure of closure and hoping they will move forward in their lives,” said Greg Magnoni with the Seattle Archdiocese.
Lynch says she still has her faith, but she hasn’t been to church in 15 years. She says she’s speaking out to inspire others to do the same.
“He took away a lot of my self esteem, and you just have to kind of go to that raw core to move forward,” she said.
The settlement payouts come from church assets and liability insurance. Michael Cody was removed from the priesthood in 2005 and died last November in Las Vegas.
After being sued by eight women who alleged they were molested by a priest four decades ago, the Seattle Archdiocese has settled for $9.1 million.
The settlement, reported by the Seattle Times, came Wednesday after a damning psychiatrist’s letter, among other documents, surfaced last year reporting Michael Cody, the priest at the center of the suit, was a pedophile who needed to “be removed from parish work as soon as possible.” The letter, part of correspondence among church officials expressing concerns about Cody, was written in 1962; the women were abused between 1968 and 1975.
“He told me that he was suffering from an abnormal sexual attraction toward young girls,” psychiatrist Albert M. Hurley wrote. “… He has molested at least eight girls twelve years of age or younger. As you know, there have been complaints about his hostility and temper in the various parishes where he has served. He also complains of feelings of severe depression, during which time he prays that God will allow him to die rather than continue this behavior.”
Hurley was explicit about his diagnosis, saying Cody was a pedophile who showed “sadistic tendencies” to boys he knew and talked of killing others and himself.
“It is likely that if external controls on his acting out are made, and this cycle of aggression and depression sufficiently interrupted, then he can once again assume a useful and productive life,” the psychiatrist wrote.
The interruption never came. Cody — who stopped serving as a priest in 1979, was defrocked in 2005 and died last year — served in a number of parishes in Washington state, where he “preyed on children for years,” as the Seattle Times put it. In a deposition in 2013, the priest, then 82, said estimating how many children he abused “would only be a guess.” In a 1988 mental-health evaluation, he said he had molested up to 40 girls and one boy.
“At a time when I didn’t feel special, he befriended me and made me feel special,” Jeri Hubbard, 63 — who Cody had sex with repeatedly when she was a troubled 16-year-old runaway living in his rectory — told the Seattle Times. “Instinctively, I kind of knew it wasn’t right. But I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t want him to get in trouble.” When she questioned the arrangement, Cody said her no one would believe her if she told them. (She settled with the archdiocese in a separate case last year.)
A psychiatrist’s letter about diagnosing Father Michael Cody with “pedophilia.”
In the wake of the settlement, the archdiocese, as so many in the Catholic Church have, sought to put the past behind it — and find out if other victims are out there.
In January, the Archdiocese published a list of 77 priests, brothers, nuns and deacons accused of assaulting children while serving or living in Western Washington, the Seattle Times reported.
“Our first priority is the protection of children and healing for past victims,” Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain said, as the Associated Press reported. “It is my firm commitment to build on the good efforts of the past and continue to take steps that will truly help victims of clergy sexual abuse to heal. This $9 million settlement demonstrates our ongoing commitment to acknowledge and address the devastating impact of clergy sexual abuse, and to encourage victims to come forward.”
An attorney for the women said the settlement prevents the archdiocese from facing the terrible details of the Cody case and from acknowledging that the priest remained on the job despite the fact an archbishop knew of his crimes.
“The evidence regarding Father Cody is overwhelming, and I don’t think the Archdiocese wants more bad publicity,” Michael T. Pfau said. “The direct involvement of former Archbishop Thomas Connelly in placing this pedophile in parishes with full knowledge of his danger to children is truly disturbing.”
The psychiatrist’s letter was part of a so-called “secret file” on Cody kept by the church. Advocates for those abused by priests say such files only contribute to a decades-old problem.
“These records illustrate a pattern of secrecy,” Mary Dispenza, Northwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and herself a victim of clergy abuse, said earlier this month. “Most bishops are still dragging their feet about releasing them because they’ll be embarrassed or ashamed, and past bishops might be implicated.”
“I was pissed,” Hubbard, one of Cody’s victims, said when she learned of the file. “The church knew he was a pedophile years before he ever came … And they let that happen.”
Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced criminal conspiracy charges against several leaders of the Franciscan Order on March 15, 2016, in Johnstown, Pa.
Three Franciscan friars charged with allowing a suspected sexual predator to hold jobs where he molested more than 100 children in Pennsylvania are set to surrender on child endangerment and criminal conspiracy charges.
Robert D’Aversa, 69; Anthony Criscitelli, 61; and Giles Schinelli, 73, have arraignments scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday.
The friars served successively as ministers provincial who headed a Franciscan religious order in western Pennsylvania from 1986 to 2010. In that role, each assigned and supervised the order’s members including the late Brother Stephen Baker, who allegedly molested scores of children, most of them at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown where he was assigned from 1992 to 2000.
Schinelli has been removed as pastoral administrator at the San Pedro Center, a Catholic retreat in Winter Park, Florida, while D’Aversa likewise has been removed as pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Community in Mount Dora, Florida, according to the Orlando Diocese.
The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis said Anthony Criscitelli was removed is pastor of St. Bridget Parish Community in Minneapolis.
Orlando Bishop John Noonan issued a statement Wednesday saying he supported the decision of the Rev. Patrick Quinn, the current minister provincial of the Hollidaysburg-based Franciscan order, to remove D’Aversa and Schinelli from their Florida assignments.
“We pray for all the people involved in this investigation and for those who are suffering,” Noonan’s statement said.
Baker killed himself at the Franciscan monastery by plunging two knives into his heart in January 2013. That occurred nine days after Youngstown, Ohio, church officials announced settlements involving 11 students who accused Baker of molesting them at schools there in the late 1980s.
News coverage of those settlements prompted students from Bishop McCort to file lawsuits alleging they were abused by Baker, who worked as a religion teacher, coach and athletic trainer at the school about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh. Eight-eight of those victims settled their claims against the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese and the Franciscan order for $8 million in October 2014, with several other former students settling individual claims since.
The attorney general charged the friars because Schinelli assigned Baker to work at the school, even after an abuse allegation surfaced in 1988 and counselors told the Franciscans in 1991 that Baker should have no one-on-one contact with students.
D’Aversa and Criscitelli are charged because under their watch Baker continued working at the school or had access to its facilities, events and students. The attorney general alleges D’Aversa also didn’t alert police about a “credible” abuse allegation against Baker in 2000, which prompted his removal from McCort.
All three friars are represented by prominent Pittsburgh defense attorneys.
James Kraus declined comment Thursday on behalf of Criscitelli. Bob Ridge, who represents D’Aversa, and Charles Porter Jr., who represents Schinelli, didn’t immediately return calls.
Thomas Farrell, who represents the Franciscan Friars, Third Order Regular, Province of the Immaculate Conception, also didn’t return a call. Quinn, who heads the order, also didn’t return a message seeking comment Thursday.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane announces criminal conspiracy charges against leaders of the Franciscan Order located in Holidaysburg, Pa., on Tuesday, March 15, 2016, in Johnstown, Pa. Three ex-leaders of the Franciscan religious order were charged Tuesday with allowing a friar who was a known sexual predator to take on jobs, including a position as a high school athletic trainer, that enabled him to molest more than 100 children.
Three ex-leaders of a Franciscan religious order were charged Tuesday with allowing a friar who was a known sexual predator to take on jobs, including a position as a high school athletic trainer, that enabled him to molest more than 100 children.
Giles Schinelli, 73; Robert D’Aversa, 69; and Anthony M. Criscitelli, 61, were successively the provincial ministers of a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church in western Pennsylvania from 1986 to 2010. In that role, each assigned and supervised the order’s members.
Each was charged with conspiracy and child endangerment. Prosecutors said the three have been given until Friday to surrender.
Schinelli is now a pastoral administrator at the San Pedro Center, a Catholic retreat in Winter Park, Florida. D’Aversa is pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Community in Mount Dora, Florida. Anthony Criscitelli is pastor of St. Bridget Parish Community in Minneapolis.
A message left for Schinelli at the retreat was not returned. People answering the phones at the churches where D’Aversa and Criscitelli work said they were either traveling or not available for comment.
Brother Stephen Baker, the friar at the center of the abuse allegations, killed himself in 2013 — with two knives to the heart — after church officials in Youngstown, Ohio, announced they were settling lawsuits by 11 former students who said Baker abused them at schools in Ohio from 1986 to 1990.
More than 100 abuse claims were subsequently filed by former students of Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, where Baker worked from 1992 to 2000. Millions in dollars in damages have been paid out.
The order issued a statement saying it cooperated with the investigation and was “deeply saddened” by the announcement. It also said it “extends its most sincere apologies to the victims and to the communities who have been harmed.”
“There is a need for transparency and criminal prosecution is a great road to get there,” said Boston-based attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented nearly 40 former McCort students who have settled claims that Baker sexually abused them. He also represented the 11 Ohio victims, whose settlements prompted the McCort victims to come forward.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that there are hundreds and hundreds of Brother Stephen Baker victims out there,” he said.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who announced the charges, said the men “were more concerned about protecting the image of the order, more concerned with being in touch with lawyers than in protecting the flock they served.”
Though the grand jury probe focused on Baker, prosecutors said evidence was uncovered that at least eight other Franciscan friars had been transferred to other locations following abuse allegations.
“No reports were ever made to law enforcement,” Kane said. “As the grand jury found, the ultimate priority was to avoid public scrutiny at all costs.”
In the case of Baker, the grand jury said Schinelli, the earliest of the provincial ministers charged, assigned Baker to the high school despite a 1988 sexual abuse allegation and recommendations that he not be permitted to have one-on-one contact with children.
Baker was appointed as a religion teacher and assistant football coach, but worked his way into a position as athletic trainer even though he had no formal training, the grand jury said.
Many victims indicated they were abused by Baker when he treated them for sports injuries or was stretching them.
Baker was removed from the assignment at McCort in 2000 after what D’Aversa believed was a credible accusation of child sex abuse, though the allegation is not detailed in the grand jury report.
Neither D’Aversa nor Criscitelli notified school or law enforcement officials why Baker was removed, the report said.
Baker was given a new position as vocations director for the Franciscan Friars, Third Order Regulars, Province of the Immaculate Conception. Under that assignment, he led youth retreats in several states.
He was able to continue attending high school functions and had access to McCort facilities until 2010, the grand jury said.
Criscitelli further allowed Baker access to children by letting him work at a shopping mall, the report said.
The charges come two weeks after a grand jury report accused two former bishops of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese of covering up or failing to act swiftly enough on abuse claims against more than 50 priests from 1966 until 2011. No charges were brought in that investigation because the statute of limitation had run its course, abusers had died and victims were too traumatized to testify, prosecutors said.
Although many Franciscans worked in the diocese, they were directly supervised by their order.
In the prosecution announced Tuesday, the grand jury found that the diocese did nothing criminal in its handling of abuse allegations against Baker, Kane said.
Officials at the diocese and Bishop McCort, which is no longer a diocesan school, did not know of the allegations against Baker until 2011, the grand jury found.
The child endangerment charge brought against the three Franciscan leaders is the same charge brought against Monsignor William Lynn, the former secretary for clergy in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. He recently had his 2012 trial conviction overturned for a second time when a court said jurors had heard from too many other church victims not directly involved in the case. Lynn remains in prison while prosecutors again appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Fr. Virgilio Elizondo, one of San Antonio’s most accomplished and beloved Catholic priests whose work brought him recognition in Latin America and Europe and an esteemed faculty position at the University of Notre Dame, reportedly died of a self-inflicted gunshot at his home Monday afternoon, according to sources in the Catholic community.
Friends spoke of being devastated and in disbelief as the news made its way through Elizondo’s large circle in the city. Elizondo, 80, a Westside native and the son of Mexican immigrants, became a beacon for Catholics and non-Catholics inspired by his deep appreciation of mestizo history, culture and spirituality. His own roots gave him a grounded understanding as a theologian of what the poor and oppressed throughout Latin America were experiencing under the rule and repression of military dictatorships in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. For Elizondo, liberation theology that swept the continent in those decades was one and the same with his mestizo-rooted theology.
I first met Elizondo in El Salvador while living there during the civil war years. We later became friends when my family moved to San Antonio in 1989. Kenneth Woodward, the longtime religion editor at Newsweek and author of numerous books on Catholicism and faith, told me at the time that Elizondo was one of the most remarkable priests he knew and that I should do whatever it took to get to know him once I arrived in San Antonio.
“Yes, Virgil Elizondo was an important theologian, but he was much more than that: He was a great priest,” Woodward said Monday evening. “Virgil was the face of the Church, and therefore of Christ, to literally thousands, in San Antonio and around the world. Tonight, the whole Catholic world weeps.”
Woodward, a Notre dame graduate, was a friend of Elizondo and Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, who served as president of Notre Dame from 1952-1987. He said it was a world that welcomed Elizondo. Despite his own humble beginnings, Elizondo learned to speak multiple languages and lectured widely on three continents. He authored numerous books, including “The Future is Mestizo” in 1992; “Guadalupe: Mother of the New Creation” in 1997; and “Galilean Journey: The Mexican American Promise” in 2000. His books remain in print, often assigned by theology professors at other major universities.
One of Elizondo’s proudest moments was being named a professor of pastoral and Hispanic theology at Notre Dame, the citadel of Catholic education, and a fellow at the university’s Institute of Latino Studies. In 1997, he received the Laetare Medal, the highest honor conveyed by Notre Dame.
Elizondo downplayed his own many accomplishments, and few outside the archdiocese or his circle of friends knew that after receiving his undergraduate degree in chemistry from St. Mary’s University in 1957, he went on to earn a graduate degree in pastoral studies from Ateneo University in Manila in 1969, and his Ph.D in theological studies from the Institut Catholique in Paris in 1978. He was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees from around the world.
He served as rector of San Fernando Cathedral in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was credited with resurrecting the parish community there. His understanding of the power of media led him to do extensive work with the archdiocese’s television station, and his Spanish-language Mass at San Fernando was broadcast each Sunday to more than one million people throughout Latin America. He was a co-founder with then-Archbishop Patrick Flores of the Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio and a strong advocate for the city and region’s working poor. He was fond of telling stories about his own happy childhood and close-knit family, poor in material goods, rich in spirit and faith.
Elizondo was named secondarily in a May 2015 lawsuit filed by a John Doe in Bexar County that accused Jesus Armando Dominguez, then a student at Assumption Seminary here, of sexually molesting him from 1980-83 while the boy lived at a local orphanage and was mentored by Dominguez. In the lawsuit, the John Doe claims he approached Elizondo to report the molestation, only to be kissed and fondled by him while the two were in a vehicle together. Elizondo vigorously denied the charges in a public statement and in conversations with friends, and said he was prepared to fight the allegation legally.
Dominguez, who was later ordained in San Bernardino Diocese in California, disappeared in 2005 amid criminal charges of sexually molesting a number of boys. He reportedly fled to Mexico and was never arrested. He was defrocked as a priest and the diocese settled numerous lawsuits out of court for substantial cash payments, admitting that Dominguez had molested numerous boys.
Until the 2015 lawsuit, no such charges were ever leveled against Elizondo over his long and distinguished career as a writer, academic and parish priest. No other charges subsequently surfaced, either, but in the aftermath of widespread media reports of the Catholic Church and its failure over many decades to address the issue of priests who were sexual predators, a story first told in-depth by the Boston Globe and later memorialized in the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight,” the allegation against Elizondo took its toll. The affable, gregarious San Antonio native largely withdrew from public life here after the lawsuit was filed.
Shortly after midnight, the archdiocese released this statement from Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller:
“I join the priests of the Archdiocese of San Antonio as we are deeply saddened and stunned by the news of the death of Father Virgilio Elizondo on March 14. This is an occasion for great sorrow, as his death was sudden and unexpected.
“Father Virgil had served as rector of San Fernando Cathedral, and pursued scholarly work in Latino theology, evangelization, faith and spirituality, and culture. He had also been a long-time theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, and was the author of several books.
“At this devastatingly sad time for Father Virgil’s family – especially his sister – as well as his brother clergy, co-workers and friends, we offer our most profound sympathies. Our thoughts and prayers are with them all. I pray for all those who mourn Father Virgil and for the repose of his soul. In this Year of Mercy, we now commend him to the saving mercy of our God, who is compassionate and full of mercy and love. This is most fitting and proper.
“Eternal rest, grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.”
Funeral arrangements will be announced soon, according to the statement.
