“First, he let me sit on his lap and drive his car. Then, here he came at me. …”
John Patrick Michael Murphy’s testimony about the Rev. Leonard Abercrombie stunned a Colorado Senate committee. In the recently concluded legislative debate about lifting statutes of limitations on child sexual-abuse lawsuits, Murphy’s statement was easily the most graphic.
It also was the most honest.
Legislation about abuse lawsuits eventually imploded under the pressure of an expensive lobbying campaign by Colorado’s Catholic hierarchy. There were personal attacks on the laws’ sponsors, trial-lawyer bashing and charges of religious bigotry. Through it all, Murphy’s testimony rawly reflected the trust that pedophiles violate.
Trust will now determine the success of a new offer by the Archdiocese of Denver to settle some sex-abuse claims against Colorado priests through independent mediation.
Neither Murphy nor two of his brothers – who also claim abuse by Abercrombie – can take part in the mediation offer. The offer applies only to people with lawsuits currently pending against the Catholic Church in northern Colorado. The Murphys, who allege abuse from roughly 50 years ago, don’t have a suit pending.
But John Murphy, now 60, can explain how deeply religious people come to believe in the courts more than the church.
“The people I trusted most in the world betrayed me,” he said.
Nevertheless, Murphy, a lawyer in Colorado Springs, admitted that the mediator the archdiocese hired – the Judicial Arbiter Group – is excellent. Staffed with former judges, the group seems likely to give victims a square deal financially, he said.
Mediation rules, outlined in a fact sheet distributed by the archdiocese, also seem fair. Those with pending lawsuits have 90 days from May 25 to meet with former Boulder District Judge Richard Dana, the arbiter group’s leader. Dana and his colleagues will make determinations about monetary offers within 150 days of May 25. The process is voluntary. Participants can withdraw or reject the settlement offer and continue to sue.
“I’ve got enough (money) to take a good crack at it,” Dana said of the archdiocese funding for the mediation program.
No victims have yet agreed to participate, Dana said. He expects to talk to victims’ lawyers this week.
The mediation offer seems to provide everything possible. Everything except an admission of guilt or information about why at least two abusive priests – Abercrombie and the Rev. Harold Robert White – apparently remained in the ministry for years while sexually abusing kids.
Dana said he has the right to ask for church personnel records but not the right to reveal them to victims. He didn’t know whether he could get the church’s permission to do so.
“I haven’t asked the question,” he said.
The answer could determine victims’ faith in the process.
Dana said he has mediated settlements that asked for apologies. He said he has mediated settlements where victims asked to confront their assailants.
Technically, that could happen with White, who was removed from the ministry in 1993 but is still alive. It can’t happen with Abercrombie. He died in 1994.
In announcing the mediation program, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput talked about “a good-faith effort to try to resolve these cases.”
Resolution means more than money.
When a priest molests a child, said Murphy, that child’s moral compass spins. When the religious institution responsible can’t or doesn’t take control, the child feels betrayed or at fault. That’s why the answers to who knew what and when become so critical to people assaulted by pedophile priests, even half a century later.
Whatever the church or the courts can give Abercrombie and White’s victims, there is one thing no one can return: childhood innocence.
Jim Spencer’s column normally appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
