The Record -The issue of clergy sexual abuse that surfaced about five years ago was the “biggest crisis” and the most painful and “saddest moment” in his 25-plus years in the Archdiocese of Louisville, Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly said.
The crisis led to more than 250 civil lawsuits filed against the archdiocese, suits that alleged sexual abuse of children by priests and others associated with the local church in the past four or five decades.
A little more than a year after the first lawsuit was filed in April 2002, a settlement of $25.7 million was reached with 240 plaintiffs in 243 of the suits. The money came from archdiocesan savings and investments.
Reflecting on the abuse crisis, Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly said in a recent interview: “Our church was shocked by this. There was so much none of us knew anything about, and then suddenly to be confronted with the sins of the past as if they were of the present was a big pill to swallow.”
“We can never heal the harm that was done,” he added, “but we must certainly continue to do everything possible to protect our children.”
On the day in June 2003 that the lawsuit settlement was announced, Archbishop Kelly apologized to the victims of abuse.
“No child should ever have had to experience what happened to you,” he said. “I promise that we are doing everything we can to prevent child abuse in the church. I apologize again for what we did or what we failed to do. I hope that (the) settlement is seen as a sign of our willingness to support you in your healing.”
He would make other public apologies, including one at a “Service of Attonement” at the Cathedral of the Assumption in May 2002 and a healing service at Holy Spirit Church in June 2004 organized by some victims and the archdiocese.
“I ask forgiveness from you who are survivors of abuse,” he said at Holy Spirit. “I know you have been hurt by the church, by the failure of moral leadership.”
He also asked forgiveness from family members of survivors.
In addition to the lawsuit settlement, the archdiocese responded to the abuse crisis by offering counseling for survivors. The archdiocese’s sexual abuse policies were revised in 2003 in accord with the U.S. bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” which was adopted in response to the abuse crisis nationally.
In addition, a Safe Environment Program for all church employees and all in the church who have contact with youth was put in place in 2003. To date, more than 12,500 people have taken courses in this program.
The abuse crisis had other effects, too. Priests who had been accused of abuse were removed from the ministry, and several faced criminal charges.
Also, there were archdiocesan budget and staff reductions. A five-year financial plan was adopted to get the church back on its financial feet following the lawsuit settlement.
Archbishop Kelly said on several occasions he had no intention of resigning as Archbishop of Louisville, though some had called for his resignation.
“I believe it’s the wrong time to leave the leadership and service of the archdiocese,” he said in 2003. “It’s not good management to walk out in the middle of a problem.”
Looking back, Archbishop Kelly said people often thanked him for “persevering” in the healing process. “I think it was the strength of our church that I had experienced in the previous 10 to 15 years that gave me the courage to go forward,” he said.
He noted that he still meets some people who say to him, “ ‘I don’t believe all that occurred.’ Well, I do, and I wish that we had known better.”
He said at a Mass last January in Bardstown: “We continue to seek and ask for their (victims’) forgiveness, to pray that such terrible things may not happen again and to take every step conceivable to prevent that from happening.
‘We can never heal the harm that was done, but we must certainly continue to do everything possible to protect our children.’ -Archbishop Kelly
