The professional victims are just unhappy. A member of a “victims advocacy group” complains that the Boston Scandal settlement re-victimizes the victims. First, he says that the “flawed agreement” serves no one’s interests, but he places all the blame squarely on the Church.
Excuse me, but I don’t remember anyone forcing the plaintiffs to sign the settlement agreements. If Joseph Gallagher has a problem why doesn’t he call the plaintiffs’ lawyers to account for negotiating what he sees as a flawed agreement.
Gallagher’s complaints are ridiculous on the face of it anyway. He claims that there isn’t full disclosure, that while we know who the victims are, we don’t know who the abusers were. Why don’t we ask the victims? What Gallagher really wants is unfettered access to the confidential records of the archdiocese in order to undertake fishing expeditions and to drag into the light every unseemly action by any priest, whether it’s related to the Scandal or not, and to characterize every allegation against a priest a proven abuse, whether it is credible or not. That’s not going to happen. In addition to protecting the Church against those aforementioned circumstances, there is much in the files related to sacramental and other private matters in which all parties, even including some victims perhaps, have a reasonable expection of confidentiality.
