The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford has taken its dispute with an insurance company to trial, seeking reimbursement of more than $1 million in payments made to settle sexual misconduct cases involving priests and minors.
Testimony began Friday in a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven.
Bishop Leonard Paul Blair
The case is one of many around the country in which insurance companies have balked at paying claims related to lawsuits against church officials seeking to hold them responsible for sexual assaults of minors by clergy — accusations that in many instances date back decades and involve priests who have since died.
A key issue in the Connecticut case and others is whether insurance companies can deny claims under assault and battery exemptions in liability policies. Many policies don’t cover intentional acts, but church officials have argued that they did not know about the alleged assaults.
The archdiocese sued Interstate Fire & Casualty Co. in 2012, claiming the Chicago-based insurer breached its policy by refusing to reimburse the archdiocese for payments made in four settlements from 2010 to 2012 after previously reimbursing payments made in other abuse settlements.
“The foregoing activities of Interstate constitute unfair trade practices, because they offend public policy and they are immoral, unscrupulous and unethical,” the lawsuit states.
Lawyers for the insurer argue in court documents that the settlements weren’t covered by the policies. A spokeswoman and a lawyer for Interstate Fire & Casualty declined to comment.
The company has faced lawsuits in other states after refusing to reimburse church officials for priest abuse settlements.
And In a 2014 ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a 2014 ruling that Interstate Fire’s liability policy for the Diocese of Phoenix did not cover settlements of priest sexual abuse cases because of the policy’s assault and battery exception.
The four cases at the center of the Hartford archdiocese lawsuit involved claims of sexual misconduct against minors in the 1970s and 1980s. Two cases involved sexual abuse claims against the Rev. Ivan Ferguson, who died in 2002 after serving as a church grammar school principal in Derby and other positions with the archdiocese.
A spokeswoman and a lawyer for the archdiocese declined to comment.
The archdiocese has settled many claims of sexual abuse by priests. It agreed in 2005 to pay $22 million to 43 people who said they were sexually abused by priests, including Ferguson.
Elsewhere in the country, the Diocese of Honolulu sued First Insurance Co. of Hawaii in January for refusing to cover priest abuse settlements. And in 2014, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis sued some 20 insurance companies to try to force them to cover its liabilities for clergy sex abuse claims. The lawsuit was put on hold after the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy last year in the wake of priest abuse claims.
Interstate Fire & Casualty has since been acquired by Munich, Germany-based Allianz Group.
A top Vatican cardinal is defending a glitzy renovation to his private apartments, apparently funded by money meant for a children’s hospital.
It is hard to imagine two men more different than frugal Pope Francis and the Vatican’s former spendthrift secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. The Pope lives in a spartan 750-square-foot apartment inside the Vatican’s modest Santa Marta guesthouse. Cardinal Bertone, meanwhile, is caught up in a spending scandal surrounding lavish renovations for his penthouse apartment nearly 10 times that size.
Bertone—who served in the Vatican’s No. 2 position as secretary of state from 2006 until Francis essentially retired him in 2013—decided to combine two vacant Vatican-owned rooftop apartments for himself and his three service nuns at an estimated cost of around half a million euro, which was discounted by 50 percent, according to official estimates published by the Italian newspaper Il Tempo.
But despite the considerable savings, the renovations were apparently paid for twice, meaning the discount was likely down to creative—or corrupt—accounting, which is being investigated by a Vatican Tribunal that opened a criminal dossier into the matter last week.
According to journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, who first broke the news of Bertone’s lavish penthouse being funded by a children’s hospital in his book Greed last year, the renovation cost was funneled through a London-based holding company run by Bertone’s personal friend. “The money destined for sick children was in actuality used for the renovations and then sent on to London,” Fittipaldi wrote. “Bertone’s name is not cited in the magistrates’ document but the Holy See will find it hard to overlook his direct involvement in the scandal.”
Bertone says he can prove he paid around $340,000 for the work out of his own pocket, but the foundation that raises money for the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu children’s hospital apparently also paid $455,000.
No matter who paid for what, or even where the money came from, it must surely be an embarrassment to Francis that his churchmen are not following his pleas for frugality. By any standard of measure, Bertone’s apartment renovations are over-the-top. According to the estimates that were published in the Italian press, each of the bedrooms has its own private bathroom, and the kitchen facilities are befitting a banquet hall. Bertone spent $22,000 on “eight independent sharable audio programs and audio controls with LCD display for each environment.” That essentially boils down to a sound system where each room in the lavish apartment, including the rooftop chapel, can be programed with its own mood music. This, for a prelate and three nuns who have no official role whatsoever in Francis’s church.
The massive-for-Rome apartment is being floored with 2,400 square feet of expensive herringbone oak parquet which cost the cardinal and the hospital $28,000. A smaller 750-square-foot area is being covered with luxury white Carrara marble at a price tag of $11,000. The double-glaze energy efficient windows cost $80,000 and the front security door is priced at $6,000.
The high-efficiency silent heat pumps cost $32,000 and climate control dehumidifying system comes in at $19,000.
Pope Francis (R) puts ashes on the head of Cardinal Bertone during the Ash Wednesday mass opening Lent, the forty-day period of abstinence and deprivation for Christians, before Holy Week and Easter, on February 10, 2016 in Vatican.
According to deputy director of the Vatican press office Greg Burke, the hospital’s former president Giuseppe Profiti, and its former treasurer Massimo Spina, who were in charge of allocating funds for Bambino Gesu Hospital, are being criminally investigated for misappropriating funds meant for sick children.
Bertone is not under investigation—not yet anyway. But he quickly gave $170,000 to the children’s hospital in December. “It is a donation that reflects my sentimental attachment to the hospital and its little patients,” he said at the time of his generous donation.
The hospital president, Mariella Enoc, apparently didn’t see it quite that way. “Acknowledging that what has happened has been detrimental to the Bambino Gesu, Cardinal Bertone wanted to meet us half way, donating a sum of 150,000 euros,” she said when the donation was made.
Bertone has been on the defensive since the allegations first came to light, pointing out that “scores of other prelates live in even nicer apartments.” In fact, both Nuzzi and Fittipaldi gave examples of countless other cardinals whose lifestyles are in stark contrast to the way Francis has chosen to live. “The apartment is spacious, as is normal for the residences in the ancient palaces of the Vatican, and dutifully restored (at my expense),” he wrote on a blog attached to the diocese of Genoa that he ran before being promoted to secretary of state. “I may temporarily use and after me it will benefit someone else. In the words of the Pope Saint John XXIII, ‘I do not stop to pick up the stones that are thrown at me.'”
Fittipaldi, along with another journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, are currently on trial for publishing leaked documents they were allegedly given by a Spanish Cardinal and pregnant public relations consultant. Their trial, dubbed Vatileaks II, after the first Vatileaks trial saw Pope Benedict XVI’s butler guilty of leaking documents to Nuzzi, picks up again on April 6.
The actor was accused of “ostentation and parody” after showing a bare shoulder…
Ramón Fossati – an actor famed for his portrayal of Jesus Christ in traditional Spanish Easter parades for the past 30 years – has been allegedly banned from playing the part because he’s gay.
The Junta Mayor de Semana Santa Marinera, the ruling powers which organize the Holy Week celebrations, accused Ramón of “ostentation and parody,” after he exposed a naked shoulder and excitable behaviour. They also believed he was giving “false blessings” to the crowd.
Ramón himself says that his actions were not intended to be disrespectful in the slightest. Explaining that his ensemble was in keeping with traditional religious paintings portraying Christ bare shouldered. The Times reports that he also modified his costume so only bare one shoulder could be shown, over fears that exposing both could prove too risqué.
Religious authorities strictly moderate Easter processions in Spain, with women in particular being fined for showing cleavage or for sporting dresses above the knee.
Although Ramón’s sexuality wasn’t brought up at the time of the ban, the Jesus Christ superstar suspects that it was because he’s gay: “It could be jealousy. Or maybe it was punishment for being gay. But everyone where I live knows my sexual orientation and it is not an issue.
“I am deeply religious and this is the worst thing that could happen.”
Having originally been fined €300 [£237] following the parade last year, Ramón’s fine was, thanks to an appeal, reduced to €60 [£47]. His ban is expected to stand until 2019.
Victims of some of the worst sexual abuse perpetrated by the Catholic Church are being denied access to a vast archive of clergy crime, as the church continues to ensure the offending is kept secret, despite the files being handed over to the royal commission.
The nearly 2000 files – which include evidence about at least 63 offenders – have been amassed by the church’s insurers, but the church appears intent on paying millions of dollars in victims compensation settlements to ensure the documents are not made public.
Church keeps sex abuse files secret: Gerald Ridsdale outside court with George Pell.
Angry victims and their lawyers have called on Catholic Church Insurance Ltd to make the archive public to enable investigation of potential criminal cover-ups and to assist victims in dealing with their abuse and to seek compensation.
The information was collected in the 1990s as the insurance company took steps to manage the risk posed by an increasing number of victims coming forward to claim compensation.
The insurer’s inquiries aimed to determine exactly when church authorities were first alerted to a paedophile behaviour by clergy. The dates were vital as the insurer did not have to provide coverage for crimes committed after the date church authorities had official “knowledge” an individual was an abuser.
Convicted paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse in Ballarat.
Such information is also of extraordinary value to victims seeking to find out what the church knew about their alleged abuse and subsequent liability, as well as for criminal investigations into the concealment of crimes.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse last week confirmed it has received the files, but declined to comment further about requests to make the information public.
Convicted paedophile and former Catholic priest Michael Glennon.
A spokeswoman for the Catholic Church referred all queries on the matter to the insurance company, while a spokesman for CCI said the insurer declined to comment.
During its 1990s efforts to obtain this information, Catholic Church Insurance called for specific complaints to be detailed and undertook its own investigations, often interviewing high-level church authorities about potential risks and the offenders who spoke freely as the information was considered highly confidential. Transcripts of the interviews were then filed away.
Dioceses were also asked to provide lists of potential offenders and the date the crimes were first reported to Catholic Church Insurance. Special forms titled “Special Issues Incident Report” were sent to dioceses to record specific instances of abuse.
“We need to have updated information on all matters which may give rise to criminal sexual misconduct. Your cooperation is requested in completing this form in relation to all known incidents which may later become subject to claims or litigation,” says the wording on one of the forms since made public.
Lawyers representing abuse victims say they now know to seek access to the documents using legal procedures, but when they zero in on particularly damning records, the church settles.
“The settlements have happened on dozens and dozens of occasions,” said lawyer Jason Parkinson from Porters Lawyers, which has run more than 800 cases against the church and is dealing with some 200 ongoing matters.
“Whenever we have been seeking documents that will assist their case against the Catholic Church, the insurance documents are never produced and whenever we get close the matters are settled,” he said. “The material we are after from the insurers are the records which show who and when, which priests and brothers were sexually assaulting children.
“The legal exceptions to providing that information should only be in relation to commercial-in-confidence and perhaps trademark protection but this relates to conspiracies to commit the most heinous of crimes short of manslaughter and murder – the sexual abuse of children.”
His call is backed by Anthony Foster whose two daughters Emma and Katie were raped by paedophile priest Kevin O’Donnell. Emma committed suicide, Katie is in a wheelchair after being hit by a car.
Mr Foster described it as “shocking” that the information was being kept secret.
“This should be made public. The whole sordid affair should be opened up. The more transparent it is the more victims will come forward,” he said. “This is all about providing openness, which is the opposite of how these crimes occurred in the first place – behind closed doors.”
Evidence of the archive first surfaced in the 2014 Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations. Then Catholic Church Insurance boss Peter Rush admitted to the inquiry there was a list of clergy for which the insurer would not provide cover.
Mr Rush confirmed two names on the list were serial paedophiles Gerald Ridsdale and Father Michael Glennon. Ridsdale is serving eight years jail for abusing 53 children. Glennon died in prison after being sentenced to at least 10 years for abusing children as young as seven.
Mr Rush promised to provide the list to the inquiry but it has not been made public. The insurance company has refused to provide any details of the handover.
Further evidence of the extent of the archive has emerged in the ongoing Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, with various examples of the transcripts and forms posted publicly as exhibits.
Some provide examples of potential criminal cover-ups by those who were aware of crimes and shifted paedophiles to other areas where they continued their abuse.
One transcript held by Catholic Church Insurance is a 1993 interview with the then Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns about Ridsdale.
Discussing responses to complaints about Ridsdale, the bishop describes the paedophile as “an extraordinarily talented fellow” and “an excellent pastor”. Bishop Mulkearns argues he was not responsible for Ridsdale going on to abuse more children because he had referred Ridsdale to a counsellor who then authorised him to return to duties.
Another example of the value of such information to victims can be found in a CCI document where the insurer’s representative interviews another priest about the activities of paedophile Father Ron Pickering.
That conversation reveals Pickering – who abused Victorian children and then escaped justice by fleeing to the United Kingdom – had substantial assets in Australia including a tenanted shop in Melbourne, a farm and a property in Victoria, and a house with five acres in Tasmania – something victims may have found important when seeking compensation.
An unreported crime is exposed in another insurance document relating to Father Barry Robinson who had admitted to abuse in the United States and Chile before being returned to Victoria and allowed to work as a fill-in priest as recently as 2010. When it emerged he was still working the church defended his work as a fill-in priest arguing Robinson had never been convicted.
A Catholic Church Insurance risk management claim form reveals Robinson had previously also confessed to sexually abusing a child in the United Kingdom – an unreported incident. Robinson died in 2014.
The full scale of the archive only became apparent last year when the royal commission openly made a specific request to access the files in relation to a number of dioceses and paedophiles of which the church “had prior knowledge”.
Catholic Church Insurance failed to meet the two-month deadline to provide the information. At a directions hearing in Sydney in July 2015, the commission heard there were 1960 files that related to 63 offenders.
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.
