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U.S. NEWS Friday 27 december 2019

Pennsylvania dioceses offer $84M to 564 clergy abuse victims

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM vid Zernhelt was unwilling to through the backlog.
Associated Press gamble that state lawmak- The dioceses agreed to
Pennsylvania's Roman ers will follow through and pay victims after the grand
Catholic dioceses have give people like him access jury concluded that more
paid nearly $84 million to to the courts. Compensa- than 300 predator priests
564 victims of sexual abuse, tion fund administrators for had molested more than
a tally that's sure to grow the Diocese of Allentown 1,000 children since the
substantially in the new recently offered $400,000 1940s — and that church
year as compensation fund to Zernhelt, and he ac- leaders systematically cov-
administrators work through cepted it. ered it up.
a backlog of claims, ac- "It doesn't make me rich," Zernhelt applied to the
cording to an Associated said Zernhelt, 45, of Easton. compensation program
Press review. "It creates a positive start- and told the fund admin-
Seven of the state's eight ing point for me. I can try to istrator a horrific story of
dioceses launched victim make my life a little bit bet- abuse.
compensation funds in the ter and put this behind me." He said the Rev. Thomas In this Sept. 27, 2015 file photo, clouds are lit by the rising sun
wake of a landmark grand The AP does not typically Kerestus assaulted him two over St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia.
jury report on sexual abuse name victims of sexual to four times a week for Associated Press
by Catholic clergy. The abuse, but Zernhelt agreed five years beginning when
funds were open to claims to be identified. Zernhelt was 13. Zernhelt but that the diocese swept named in the report.
for a limited time this year. Together, Allentown and said that he and his family it under the rug. He said he "It caused a lot of emo-
They are independently the four other dioceses that reported Kerestus — who was sexually abused by a tional pain, a lot of depres-
administered, though each hired Biros and veteran died in 2014 and is named second man, Gerald Roy- sion, a lot of PTSD," Zernhelt
diocese set its own rules on claims administrator Ken- in the grand jury report — er, a defrocked priest also said.q
eligibility. neth Feinberg to run their
To date, the average pay- funds have received more
out across all seven dioces- than 1,500 claims, of which
es has exceeded $148,000 about 500 have been re-
— a fraction of what some viewed. Of those, 41 claims
adult victims of childhood were rejected for lack of
abuse might have expect- evidence or because they
ed from a jury had they didn't meet eligibility crite-
been permitted to take ria, as some dioceses bar
their claims to court. Under claims against religious or-
state law, victims of past der clergy, Catholic school
abuse only have until age officials and other lay lead-
30 to sue. ers.
"These are all time-barred Another 391 victims ac-
claims, so it's not going to cepted financial settle-
be the kind of numbers one ments.
sees in a courtroom," said "We try to be consistent with
Camille Biros, who helps the claims in terms of the
administer compensation nature of the abuse, how
funds for the Archdiocese long it went on, the age of
of Philadelphia and dioces- the child, the effect of the
es in Pittsburgh, Allentown, abuse. We consider all that
Erie and Scranton. and use our judgement to
Lawmakers recently determine the settlement
agreed to begin the offer," Biros said. "We want
lengthy process of amend- to make sure everybody is
ing the state constitution treated as consistently as
to allow a two-year win- possible."
dow for civil suits otherwise She said a torrent of claims
barred by the statute of arrived in the week leading
limitations, but there's no up to a Sept. 30 deadline.
guarantee that effort will Biros expects it will take at
bear fruit. least through June, and
Childhood abuse victim Da- probably longer, to work