Letter: Cash dwindling for sex abuse victims

The unpredicted extent of sexual abuse by priests has significantly cut into the cash award that members of a class action are receiving from the Diocese of Antigonish.

According to a letter sent to members of the lawsuit and recently obtained by The Chronicle Herald, the victims are receiving only 62 per cent of the amount they had originally anticipated from the settlement reached with the diocese.

That’s because the $15-million settlement, reached in September 2009, was based on a prediction that 80 victims would join the class action. But the extent of sexual abuse by priests has resulted in about 140 participating in the lawsuit.

Enshrined in the settlement agreement signed by the participants was a clause that resulted in the victims’ individual settlements being pro-rated to the number that joined the class action.

“In other words, every survivor’s claim will be reduced by almost 40 per cent so that everyone shares the compensation fund equally and proportionally,” says a letter sent to victims by their lawyer, John McKiggan, in November.

Awards in the suit were based on the suffering and damage to the lives of individuals caused by clerical abuse in the diocese between 1950 and 2009.

From the 62 per cent that claimants will now receive on their settlement, the payment of legal fees and associated taxes means the victims will actually receive cheques for about 43 per cent of their initial expected settlement.

That’s left at least one class action member feeling cold.

“I feel we are being deprived as victims,” said the man, who didn’t want his identity revealed.

The victim, who grew up in a rural Cape Breton parish, said he was abused from the time he was seven until his early teens. The priest warned him not to tell his parents, he said.

“I never told my family because I was too embarrassed and thought my family would not believe me, as the priest would sometimes come to supper and other functions at our home,” said the man. “The pain was that bad that I got into drugs and alcohol to escape it and the shame, and got into trouble with the law.”

The cycle of substance abuse, prison and difficulties maintaining healthy relationships has continued throughout his life. It’s a secret he kept until joining the class action in 2009. He said he kept it secret all that time to avoid the shame it would place on his family and children.

The priest he says abused him has since died.

The money was meant to be an admittance of guilt by the diocese for the damage done to his life, he said.

The diocese, meanwhile, is struggling to come out from under the long shadow cast by the abuse scandal and consequent legal settlements.

The diocese is faced with declining church attendance caused by parishioners’ disgust at the abuse scandal and Bishop Raymond Lahey’s conviction on child pornography charges.

Lahey, the former head of the Antigonish diocese, negotiated the class-action settlement on behalf of the diocese.

While offering spiritual guidance to its remaining parishioners, the church is struggling to raise $18 million to cover abuse-related lawsuits, $15 million for the class action and $3 million for separate court challenges.

To meet these costs, the church is selling properties, many of which were donated over past generations by the same parishioners it struggles to keep and lead.

Of the $5 million the diocese is seeking to raise from property sales, it has only raised about $2 million so far, said diocese spokesman Rev. Paul Abbass.

The last of the three payments to class-action members is due in November.

“It’s a time of change, magnified by all the change and sacrifices made with the legal settlement,” Abbass said. “We’re in the early stages of rebuilding. We’re trying to rebuild a sense of hope within our people, a sense that things can be different and that we will do things different.”

To that end, the diocese is going through a pastoral planning exercise with its parishes to determine how many churches it can support with a declining population. As well, a responsible ministry protocol has been enacted that regulates the interactions of diocese staff with its vulnerable members to avoid a repeat of previous abuses.

(abeswick@herald.ca)