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.
Review into priest’s assault against boy in 1976 criticises Justin Welby’s office and expresses disbelief that senior figures cannot recall being told of attack
The review criticises the office of Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury.
The Church of England is to make far-reaching changes to the way it deals with cases of sex abuse following a damning independent report that details how senior church figures failed to act upon repeated disclosures of a sadistic assault.
The first independent review commissioned by the church into its handling of a sex abuse case highlights the “deeply disturbing” failure of those in senior positions to record or take action on the survivor’s disclosures over a period of almost four decades. The church acknowledged the report was “embarrassing and uncomfortable”.
The Guardian understands that among those told of the abuse were three bishops and a senior clergyman later ordained as a bishop. None of them are named in the report.
The review also criticises the office of Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, for failing to respond meaningfully to repeated efforts by the survivor throughout 2015 to bring his case to the church leader’s attention.
The full 21-page report by safeguarding expert Ian Elliott has been seen by the Guardian, although the C of E published only its conclusions and recommendations. Chief among them was the need for training for those who may receive abuse disclosures on keeping records and taking action. This was particularly important for those in senior positions, the report said.
It also recommended that the church prioritises its pastoral responsibilities above financial and reputational considerations, and that “every effort should be made to avoid an adversarial approach” in dealing with survivors of abuse.
Welby has made “a personal commitment to seeing all the recommendations implemented quickly”, said Sarah Mullally, bishop of Crediton, speaking on behalf of the C of E. “He thinks the situation is embarrassing and uncomfortable for the church.”
Elliott examined the case of “Joe” – described in the report as “B”, and whose identity is known to the Guardian – who as a 15-year-old was subjected to a “sadistic” assault in 1976 by Garth Moore, a leading figure in the church, the chancellor of three dioceses and vicar of St Mary’s Abchurch in the City of London. Moore, who died in 1990, is described in the report as “A”.
Over a period of almost 40 years, Joe made disclosures about the abuse to dozens of people in the C of E, including senior members of the hierarchy. While some of those Joe spoke to had clear recollections of his disclosures, none of the senior figures had any memory of such conversations. Elliott describes this as “a deeply disturbing feature of this case”.
The report says: “What is surprising about this is that [Joe] would be speaking about a serious and sadistic sexual assault allegedly perpetrated by a senior member of the hierarchy. The fact that these conversations could be forgotten about is hard to accept.”
Despite the seriousness of the disclosure, no records were kept by those Joe spoke to and no further action was taken. “Practice of this nature is simply not acceptable,” the report says.
Joe with the stones he has inscribed with messages to the archbishop of Canterbury.
Joe also repeatedly sought to bring his case to Welby’s attention. “His persistence in doing this is a product of the deep sense of frustration and anger that he feels about the lack of responsiveness from the church,” says the report. However, the archbishop’s office failed to provide “meaningful replies”.
While acknowledging that Welby could not be expected “to reply personally to each safeguarding concern that is received by his office”, survivors should receive “a response that is meaningful and helps them move on,” the report says.
Joe formally reported the abuse to the church’s safeguarding officers in July 2014, and later lodged a claim for compensation. On receipt of the claim, the church cut off contact with Joe on the advice of its insurers, who wanted to avoid liability.
The report is highly critical of the church’s actions, saying the withdrawal of support “can create risk of self-harm and should be avoided at all costs”. It added: “The pastoral needs of the survivor were set aside to avoid incurring legal liability for financial compensation.”
In conclusion, the report says that in Joe’s case the church did not comply with its policies on safeguarding, and structural changes were needed. “The existence of policies alone is not enough. What matters are the actions taken to implement those policies.”
Responding to the report, Mullally, said: “The church has treated [Joe] appallingly. Not only was he horrifically abused, but despite him trying to get his story heard over decades, the church did not hear him, believe him or respond appropriately. That’s appalling.”
Describing Joe as enormously courageous, she added: “I can only begin to imagine what it has cost him. We owe it to him and other survivors to get this right. This should never have happened.”
The church will require members of the clergy to record disclosures of abuse and take action. It will ensure that pastoral care of survivors takes precedence over protection of reputation or financial considerations.
Mullally is drawing up an action plan to implement the report’s proposals, covering education and training, communication and structural change.
Joe welcomed the report, saying he hoped to see rapid changes. “It would be incredibly embarrassing if in two months there are more survivors in similar situations of insurers and bishops playing legal games,” he said.
He added: “The church has told me no one can do much about the bishops who have walked away with ‘no recollection’ – nobody can make them remember. But I will always find it difficult to believe they have no hint of memory of a significant story.”
The church, he said, “has run out of time, but let’s hope they take ownership of painful questions and really show a willingness to change their culture and make their structure safe for survivors. I hope Welby is now wide awake.”
