Dubuque

Hanus apologizes for priests' sexual abuse
by MARY NEVANS-PEDERSON

Dubuque -- The Archdiocese of Dubuque will pay $5 million to settle claims from 20 men and women who
were molested as children by archdiocesan priests in northeast Iowa during the past 50 years.

The settlement was explained at two Tuesday morning press conferences - one in the Waterloo, Iowa, law
offices of the victims' attorneys and one at the archdiocesan headquarters in Dubuque. Details of the
agreement were finalized on Thursday and Friday in Waterloo.

Besides paying a lump sum of cash to the victims, the archdiocese also agreed to:
* Pay for therapy for the victims and their spouses (up to 12 sessions in 2006).
* List on its official Web site, www.arch.pvt.k12.ia.us, the names and assignments of church personnel who
abused or have been publicly accused of abusing minors.
* Allow victims to speak at their home parish or in the parish where they were abused.
* Public and private apologies from Archbishop Jerome Hanus.

This is the second time in the past 15 months that an Iowa diocese has agreed to a multimillion-dollar
settlement to resolve sex-abuse claims against clergy. In November 2004, the Davenport Diocese paid $9
million to settle 37 separate claims against eastern Iowa priests.

Those settlements did not have a direct impact on the local negotiations, said Chad Swanson, one of two
attorneys representing the victims.

"But it was one of several global settlements around the country that both sides looked at to determine fair
compensation," he said.

The victims and their attorneys will determine how the settlement money will be distributed, based on the
nature and extent of the abuse.

On an "average per person basis," it is the highest global settlement of clergy sexual abuse claims in
Iowa," Swanson said.

Although some of the insurance companies used by the archdiocese 40 and 50 years ago are no longer in
business, Hanus promised that the archdiocese's self-insurance program will cover "the bulk of the
settlement."

The settlement comes two weeks before the second case was set to go to trial in Dubuque County. The first
case, scheduled to begin last week, was delayed pending the outcome of settlement negotiations.

Hanus said the archdiocese offered to pay victims a settlement rather than proceed to a jury trial because,
"the pain and suffering which could be involved in a public trial will be avoided."

"As a practical matter, this particular law firm had cases scheduled through September 2007," added
Brendan Quann, attorney for the archdiocese. "We just think for everyone concerned, this is a good
resolution,"

As a result of the settlement, 15 pending lawsuits against the archdiocese will be dismissed and another
five pending claims will be released. The claimants included 12 men and 8 women. Of the 15 lawsuits,
seven were filed in federal court and eight in various northeast Iowa counties.

Since the first lawsuit was filed by Dallas-based NBC News correspondent Jim Cummins in June 2004, two
of the male victims have died - one of the "John Doe" plaintiffs and James Paddock, who was abused on
the same night in 1962 in the same building as Cummins.
- The Associated Press contributed. Copyright: Copyright 2006 Telegraph Herald

Feb. 22, 2006
'Great silence' finally ends for
abuse victim
by MARY NEVANS-PEDERSON

Dubuque -- Jim Cummins was a 17-year-old altar boy
when he was sexually abused by his parish priest in
1962. More than four decades
after he was molested,
Cummins' feelings toward his
abuser are too painful to talk about.

That same clergyman,
the Rev. William Roach, went on to
molest at least two other teenage boys,
yet continued to work in northeast
Iowa Catholic parishes for another 24 years, until he was
killed while driving drunk.

The sexual abuse caused numerous psychological
problems for Cummins as a young man, including a
major panic attack. Cummins, 60, suppressed his
memories of the abuse and went on to become an
award-winning journalist for NBC News.

But the horror of his own abuse came flooding back one
day in 2002, when he was interviewing the family of a
suicide victim, a young man, who had not survived his
abuse at the hands of a priest.

"There were two crimes (in my case) - the sexual assault
and the cover-up. I call it 'the great silence,'" said
Cummins Tuesday from his Dallas news office.

Cummins contacted a Waterloo law firm and in June
2004 he filed the first of 15 lawsuits that the firm
eventually would bring against the Archdiocese of
Dubuque and priests accused of molesting children.
Cummins' case was set to be the first to go to trial,
scheduled to begin Feb. 13, but it was delayed until
settlement negotiations between the plaintiffs and the
archdiocese were completed.

Late last week, Cummins and his wife, Connie, sat across
a table from Dubuque Archbishop Jerome Hanus as the
former altar boy described how Roach molested him on
two occasions, each time joined by a different priest and
how that abuse damaged his psyche for years.

"(Hanus) listened to everything I said. He was very
compassionate and asked for forgiveness for all the
victims," Cummins said.

Tuesday, Cummins congratulated both sides after terms
of the settlement were announced.

"For an adversarial situation, the archdiocese was
always fair in the process," he said.

Of Chad Swanson and Thomas Staack, attorneys for the
victims, Cummins said, "they performed a real public
service, with the research they did for the victims and for
getting out the information they did."

"I feel very liberated today," said Debbie Gindhart, 57,
who now lives in Indianapolis, but was molested by a
priest when she was growing up in Waterloo.

"I always felt as if the archbishop protected priests and
not the parishioners. I am very adamant that this is a
situation in our country of child abuse ... and silence
about it just protects these people," Gindhart said.

She is one of five women who sued the archdiocese,
claiming they were molested by the Rev. Patrick
McElliot. Gindhart said the priest abused her in the
sacristy of a Waterloo church in 1962 when she was 13.
McElliot died in 1987.
The Associated Press contributed Copyright 2006
Telegraph Herald

Date: 02/22/2006
Public apology by Archdiocese of Dubuque

The text of a public apology offered Tuesday in Dubuque to men and women who were sexually abused as minors by priests of
the Archdiocese of Dubuque:

I write first of all to you who participated in the recent settlement with the Archdiocese. I also write to your
spouses and to the members of your families. In addition, I include all survivors who as minors suffered
sexual abuse perpetrated by any Church personnel.

Personally, and insofar as I can speak in the name of the entire Archdiocese, I express my profound sorrow
for what you have endured. I apologize for what these priests did to you. What they did was heinous, awful,
horrendous and cries to heaven for vengeance.

For you who shared in the settlement, it is my hope that this support may give you some sense of
affirmation, justification and validation. You may not have been believed in the past. You may have felt
alone and abandoned. You may need the help of counseling and therapy.

To your spouses and to other members of your families, I offer an assuarance of my sorrow, my prayers and
my apology. Thank you for standing by the member of your family who was abused.

For all of you, I pray that the trust you had in God, if it has been weakened or destroyed, may be restored. I
hope and pray that trust in a Church which has failed you may not be lost forever. If and when you are
ready, we would be blessed by your return.

I stand ready to meet with you if you desire. I want you to know that I encourage all our parishes to include
victims and survivors of sexual abuse in their prayers. We must all be compassionate and understanding
and supportive.

My appreciation and gratitude extend to you for having the courage to come forward. You help all of us
address the suffereing which sexual abuse brings. You help us recommit ourselves to the task of making the
way safe for all God's children in today's churches, families and the world.

Please pray for me as I do for you."
- The Most Rev. Jerome Hanus, OSB, Archbishop of Dubuque