CINCINNATI - No one knows how many people who say they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests will seek money from a $3 million compensation fund.
Three people must figure it out - decades after the abuse might have occurred - without knowing where potential victims live or even all of their names.
The fund, established in November, was part of a settlement that ended Hamilton County Prosecutor Michael Allen's investigation of whether priests abused children and whether the offenses were not reported to authorities. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati pleaded no contest to failing to report crimes and was fined $10,000.
No victims or priests were named; no specific dates were cited; and the church admitted no wrongdoing.
Dozens who say they were victimized are suing the archdiocese, some without identifying themselves. Some have gone public. Some of the lawsuits already have been thrown out because the statute of limitations has expired since the alleged abuse occurred.
Robert Stachler, a Cincinnati lawyer who is chairman of the panel that will distribute the money, is certain there are more who haven't wanted to disrupt their lives by revealing the abuse.
Where there's smoke
there's fire he said. I don't know how many are going to come out of the woodwork. I don't know how many didn't report anything.
Stachler and former judges Ann Marie Tracey and Thomas Nurre plan to advertise the compensation offer in newspapers and on radio and television around the 19-county archdiocese. Stachler hopes to have the notification out within a few weeks.
His experience overseeing distribution of a $15 million fund to victims of a 1990 chemical plant explosion in Cincinnati taught him the importance of getting the word out to anyone who could be eligible. But that job was easier because the victims were within a two-mile radius, he said.
The Cincinnati archdiocese, which serves about 515,000 Catholics, includes cities and small towns across 8,543 square miles. Stachler does not want to limit the distribution to Catholic churches, reasoning that abuse victims might have left the church long ago. He also does not want to rely on having churches put the word out to their parishioners.
I don't think they'd like to publish that in their bulletin he said. Would you?
But the archdiocese does want the broadest possible notification for the fund, spokesman Dan Andriacco said.
The idea originated with us
he said. What we hope to do is to use this money to bring about some measure of healing and reconciliation to victims of child abuse at the hands of priests.
People will have six months to apply. The panel then will decide who is compensated and for how much. The members still are deciding how to handle appeals.
The panel is borrowing standards for uniform review of claims from similar groups in Boston and Louisville, Ky.
Victims and their advocates say the Cincinnati fund is inadequate, paling by comparison with the $85 million fund in Boston and the $25.7 million counterpart in Louisville.
Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk said $3 million was the most he could allocate for a single purpose without getting Vatican approval, and he wanted to put the fund in place quickly.
What they're trying to avoid is trials
where everything comes out in the wash
said the Rev. Thomas Doyle, 59, an advocate for abuse victims since the mid-1980s.
Doyle, now assigned to the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, said he makes it a point to apologize to the victims he counsels.
I've had close relationships with thousands of victims for 18
19 years. The devastation is mind-boggling
he said. It can ruin a person's life.
The Cincinnati panel must be independent of the church, to avoid any suggestion of favoritism or influence, Doyle said.
The church appointed one member and the prosecutor's office the other, before the two members selected Stachler.
We don't work for the archbishop
Stachler said. We work for
