This is a rebuttal to the thoughts expressed in the April 15 letter by Scott “Alex” Peyton of Opelousas.
Peyton is correct in saying that the Catholic Church runs on the financial support of its members, but beyond that, his logic is completely off base. Churchgoing Catholics do financially support the church, but we, as well as the present-day clergy, have demanded and received real reform from the unfortunate mistakes of the past clergy who have since died or been purged from our church.
The Catholic Church was forced to legally try to protect itself from the actions of the attorneys who represent the unfortunate individuals who have been abused by former clergy. The church has spent just shy of $50 million of savings and from divested assets on attorney fees fighting the greedy attorneys of the abused who made unreal promises to their clients — like they could each be awarded about $1 million. Although I question if any amount of financial award could ever adequately compensate the abused individuals, the legal cost to the Catholic Church to date would have amounted to about $100,000 per abused individual…