Letter from the Bishop - June 13, 2004

13 June 2004

Dear Sisters and Brothers of the Diocese of Orange,

On this feast of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, I have asked our priests to take the exceptional step of reading this letter from me to you in place of the homily so I might inform you about a matter of great gravity: the threat of nearly one hundred civil claims against the Diocese of Orange pertaining to allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy, religious or lay personnel.

Well over a year ago, we began a concerted effort to reach, as I have said on many occasions, a prompt, just and compassionate resolution of all the claims against the diocese.

As I hope all of you know by now, we remain committed to our larger goal of making the church safe for everyone, including our children and young people, a goal which includes:

• Reaching out to victims of sexual abuse, and their families, with spiritual and pastoral care and counseling;
• Complying fully with the Bishops' National Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People as well as our own more-specific diocesan policies;
• Implementing fully the Covenant With the Faithful that I and the other bishops of our local church made with you.

This Monday, in Los Angeles Superior Court, we will enter a new round of negotiations with lawyers representing the plaintiffs in these civil cases. Nothing would please us more than to promptly resolve these cases completely since a resolution would promote healing and provide fair compensation to many of those who have been injured by priests and others. It also allows us to take up the many other things we need to address and move forward on as a diocese.

At this moment, however, the outcome of the mediation is unclear. That is why I am asking for your heartfelt prayers that the Holy Spirit will guide our steps. Here are the hurdles we face:

• We and the plaintiff lawyers are very far apart on what amount should be paid into a global settlement;
• The diocese has some liability insurance for some of these claims, but it is unclear whether or not our insurers will contribute to a settlement at a meaningful level;
• The window of opportunity to settle these cases through mediation is closing. If we do not settle, we will proceed to costly, time-consuming trials where the outcomes are unpredictable. Recent experience has shown that juries in California can often be swayed by erroneous misconceptions about our church's response to this crisis.

We are between a rock and a very hard place. As we move forward, I want to reassure you of the following:

• We remain committed to a prompt, just and compassionate resolution of all claims. We have an obligation to provide reasonable and adequate compensation to victim/survivors. We are convinced that a settlement remains in the best interest of victim/survivors and our local church. But I will not agree to any settlement that is not fair and just to all, that is, one which does not allow us to continue to carry out our mission. The administrative offices of the diocese, despite what others may have said, do not have unlimited resources, and, in keeping with canon law (and California civil law, we believe), all parish and school assets are held by us in trust and will not and cannot be used in any settlement;
• We shall continue to press our insurers insistently to meet the requirements of the policies we have with them;
• Should these settlement efforts fail, we will properly and ethically use every legal recourse available to us to protect ourselves against the threat of unfairly large financial judgments against the diocese.

On this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, we rely more than ever on the sustaining nourishment that only Christ can provide, both for us as a church and to those who have been hurt. Like any family facing difficult times, we, as a diocese, need to pull together, support one another and face honestly our failures and the crimes and sins of some of our members. May the whole Body of Christ be healed and may the Holy Spirit guide the Church of Orange this week.

Your brother and your shepherd,

Most Reverend Tod David Brown
Bishop of Orange

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